‘SNL’: Scantily Clad Sabrina Carpenter Performs ‘Manchild,’ ‘Nobody’s Son’

Two-time Saturday Night Live^[1] musical guest Sabrina Carpenter^[2]—also the host of Saturday’s show—performed two tracks from her seventh and latest album, Man’s Best Friend^[3].

Carpenter opened with the lead single “Manchild,” which she co-wrote with Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff and Amy Allen. The pop star, who graced Rolling Stone‘s July-August cover^[4], quipped to us when asked if it’s about anyone in particular: “It’s about your dad.”

Carpenter’s second song was “Nobody’s Son.” The reggae-pop tune—sixth on the track list—was co-written by Carpenter, Allen and John Ryan.

About Man’s Best Friend, which hit the top spot on the US Billboard 200 shortly after its late August release, Rolling Stone‘s Brittany Spanos wrote in a positive review: “Her new songs are united in their grooviness as Carpenter’s heartbreak and disappointment in her male options takes her on a thoroughly modern tour of what dating, embracing, and then flipping the script on the humiliation ritual that is being a woman who dates men.”

Carpenter debuted on SNL^[5] in May 2024. During the season 49 finale, she performed her hit single^[6] “Espresso,” which she would later include on her album Short n’ Sweet^[7], as well as a medley of two songs from 2022’s Emails I Can’t Send^[8]. The singer-actress was last in Studio 8H in February during the 50th anniversary special, joining Paul Simon^[9] for a rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound.”

Carpenter will be back in New York next week as she hits the home stretch of her Short n’ Sweet tour^[10]. After that, she’ll be in Nashville, Toronto, and then Los Angeles.