This podcast episode is part of the Billboard editorial staff’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 list. Find our accompanying Sabrina Carpenter essay here, and all the rest of our essays and podcasts related to the list here.

Sabrina Carpenter had a year for the ages in 2024, breaking through to the highest levels of pop stardom with a blockbuster album, three smash hit singles, best-selling arena tour and total cultural ubiquity, and ending up our No. 2 Greatest Pop Star of that year. Fans expected that she would likely spend 2025 still cruising off the successes of that era, but instead, she jumped right back in — kicking off another full album cycle while still in the late throes of the previous one — and confirmed herself as again not just one of the year’s great pop stars, but one of the leading lights for the entire decade.

This Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast looks at how Sabrina Carpenter ended up at No. 6 on our list — thanks to a year where she kept extended her winning streak with another chart-topping, Grammy-nominated album with at least one chart-topping, Grammy-nominated single, and more touring and media omnipresence. (You can find Meghan Mahar’s essay on Carpenter’s still-busy year here.) Today, Song vs. Song podcast co-host and Sabrina Carpenter megafan Lina Morgan joins host Andrew Unterberger to recount the giddy rush of one of the era’s great pop stars continuing to push for a second straight year of dominance, with some of her greatest releases and achievements yet, even with a couple mini-controversies clouding her latest All-Star season.

While reliving her 2025, we ask all the most pressing questions about the year in Sabrina Carpenter: Is Man’s Best Friend actually a better album than Short n’ Sweet? Is the rest of the Recording Academy really just jealous of Jack Antonoff? Are we missing out by not getting her performing at the CMA Awards? Why does she keep relegating some of her best songs to her deluxe editions? Is she setting herself up for failure with the reported upcoming Alice in Wonderland musical? (Should she be remaking Moonstruck instead?) And perhaps most importantly: As great as her 2025 was, do we still inevitably view it as being a little in the shadow of her wildly successful 2024?

Check it out above, along with a YouTube playlist of some of the greatest moments of Sabrina Carpenter’s 2025 — all of which are discussed on the pod — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for complete podcast coverage of this year’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 list!

And as we say in every one of these GPS podcast posts — if you have the time and money to spare, please consider donating to any of these causes in the fight for trans rights:

Transgender Law Center

Trans Lifeline

Destination Tomorrow

Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe

Also, please consider giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on 5Calls.org.

For this year’s update of our ongoing Greatest Pop Star by Year project, Billboard will be counting down our editorial staff picks for the 10 Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 all the next two weeks. Last week, we revealed our Honorable Mentions artists for 2025 as well as our Rookie of the Year and Comeback of the Year artists. Now, we reach No. 5 on our list with a defining pop star of the decade who capitalized on her 2024 momentum with a similarly spectacular sophomore superstar season: Sabrina Carpenter.

Listen to our Greatest Pop Stars podcast discussion about Sabrina Carpenter’s year going back-to-back here, and find the rest of our updating top 10 list with all our corresponding essays and pods here.

As she’lll tell you herself, Sabrina Carpenter is a “Busy Woman” — and if there was any doubt remaining as to her superstar-level productivity, she squashed it in 2025. After dominating the headlines and charts with songs from her 2024 LP Short n’ Sweet (she was our No. 2 Greatest Pop Star of that year) it seemed like she had done everything fans could possibly want. But in 2025, she defied all expectations, nearly matching the dominance of her breakout year across the globe. 

The year started off slowly by Sabrina’s (extremely high) standards. After concluding the U.S. leg of the Short n’ Sweet Tour in November of 2024, Carpenter took some much needed “down” time. Or so we thought: In reality, she was gearing up for two massive moments: the Grammy Awards and the announcement of Short n’ Sweet (Deluxe). The former came to fruition on Feb. 2, where Carpenter dazzled the audience with a show-stopping mashup of “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” before taking home two awards for best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album; and the announcement of the latter came “as a thank you for giving [this album] 2 Grammy’s” just two days later.

The sequel was released on Feb. 14, adding another five songs to the SNS universe: four more originals (“15 Minutes,” “Couldn’t Make It Any Harder,” “Busy Woman,” and “Bad Reviews”) plus a new version of Hot 100-topping hit “Please Please Please” featuring the legendary and fellow sassy blonde Dolly Parton. The tracks brimmed with Carpenter’s usual songwriting prowess and sauce, giving her more songs to perform on tour — and all four brand-new cuts debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, led by “Busy Woman” at No. 27. She capped off the month by expanding her tour with an additional U.S. leg and another live broadcast booking: SNL50: The Anniversary Special, where she and Paul Simon performed a duet of “Homeward Bound.”

March was Europe’s chance to get a “Taste” of SnS. The month kicked off with the Brit Awards, where Carpenter received the global success award and left both the British guard and Millie Bobby Brown hot and bothered with a mashup of “Espresso” and “Bed Chem.” Then, from March 3 to April 3, Carpenter toured Europe’s biggest and most iconic venues, including The O2 in London and Accor Arena in Paris, with opener and U.K. native Rachel Chinouriri. As she surprised and delighted fans with performances of her new songs, more “Juno” positions and surprise song covers of legends like ABBA and Madonna.

Sabrina stepped offstage in Stockholm and took to other platforms: consoles and Louis Vuitton heels. The superstar (though not a gamer herself) became the face of Fortnite’s Season 8 Music Pass, giving fans the chance to soundtrack their gameplay experience with her songs and use her likeness in her signature heart-cutout corset as their player skin. Players embraced the comedy of shooting at each other and dancing together while dressed as pop’s princess — but was less glowingly received at the Met Gala, where she (semi-controversially) appeared in a pantless look curated by Louis Vuitton creative director and fellow musician Pharrell Williams. 

Just when fans thought that the SnS era couldn’t get any sweeter, June came along and set the bar even higher: The Grammy winner headlined Primavera Sound on June 6 and — what felt like only “15 Minutes” later — started another rollout with the release of “Manchild” on June 8: just shy of four months after releasing SnS Deluxe. The twangy, eye-rolling anthem became Carpenter’s second Hot 100 No. 1 and first-ever No. 1 debut, supported by an ‘80s inspired music video that playfully depicted Carpenter hitchhiking through the wild west of hetero dating. Are these men “stupid/ Or is it slow?/ Maybe it’s useless,” the pint-sized pop star pondered in the surreal-skewing visual as she barreled down highways on rollerskates, splashed in a pool with a shark and both fired and dodged bullets, all while wearing Daisy Dukes and towering heels.

As if debuting one of the top 10 songs of the summer wasn’t enough, Carpenter followed its release with an official album announcement in June, sharing that Man’s Best Friend would be released in two months’ time. Fans were thrilled by the prospect of new material, skeptics wondered if it was happening too quickly, and everyone on the internet had an opinion… but not about the music. Instead, the conversation evolved into discourse, inspiring thinkpieces from everyone from Facebook moms to the ladies of The View. Can a woman be considered a feminist if she releases an album where she’s posing on all fours and pawing at a man? Was the photo empowering? Degrading? Ultimately, Carpenter compromised a little bit, giving fans a safer alternate cover option, but the original artwork already did its job of igniting controversy ahead of the release.

The conversation turned into pure excitement as MBF arrived in August. Fans were spoiled with 12 tracks of retro-inspired, plushy pop — and as the rollout suggested, the tracks painted a greater picture of Carpenter’s arduous dating experience, brought to life with production and writing support from acclaimed collaborators Jack Antonoff, John Ryan and Amy Allen. The tracklist followed lead single and opener “Manchild” with the second single of the era: “Tears,” a disco-era throwback with a Rocky Horror-inspired video that showcased the star’s acting chops alongside Academy Award-nominated actor Colman Domingo. 

Despite some initially mixed reactions, the court of public opinion ultimately decided that MBF was a big win — and the numbers said the same. Carpenter’s seventh studio album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 366,000 equivalent units earned in its first week. All 12 tracks concurrently landed in the top 40 of the Hot 100 (“Tears” being the highest at No. 3). And even if the songs were not as omnipresent as SNS hits like “Espresso,” Carpenter was still seemingly popping up everywhere in the year’s final third to support the album: charming Nardwuar at Record Safari in Los Angeles; calling for trans rights onstage at the VMAs with a performance of “Tears”; performing double duty as host and performer on SNL; and day drinking with Seth Meyers, to name a few.  

And while Carpenter was starring in a generational media blitz, she was preparing to take the stage again for the aforementioned U.S. tour leg and final stretch of the Short n’ Sweet Tour. She powered through 17 dates across 6 cities, all completely sold out, including five consecutive nights at Madison Square Garden in New York and six shows at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles with support from a slate of rising stars who all benefitted from the tour boost: Ravyn Lenae, Amber Mark and now-Grammy-nominated Olivia Dean. More celebrities were arrested to introduce “Juno” and fans were treated to songs from MBF as official set list additions and surprise songs. The by-then-14-month-and-72-show long tour officially wrapped on November 23 – an experience which, in an Instagram post, Carpenter shared was “everything [she] dreamt of making [since] she was young.”

But if there is one thing we have learned about Sabrina Carpenter, it’s that “Goodbye” doesn’t necessarily mean ‘goodbye.’ Fans already have a plethora of things to look forward to: the superstar has already been announced as a Coachella headliner; a Grammy Awards performer and 6x nominee; star of the Disney+ reboot of “The Muppet Show”; and co-chair of the Met Gala. And, to close out the year, Santa Sabrina signed off with the official release of “Such a Funny Way,” on December 24th, previously only available as a MBF bonus track, scoring one final Hot 100 hit on the year for her troubles. What more could fans ask for? We don’t know — but if 2024 and 2025 are any indication of how Carpenter continues to maneuver, we know that her fans will continue to be fed.

Listen to our Sabrina Carpenter Greatest Pop Stars of 2025 podcast discussion here, check back for our No. 4 artist Tuesday, and stay tuned all next week as we roll out the top five of our list — leading to the announcement of our No. 1 Greatest Pop Star of 2025 on Friday, Jan. 30!

As music festivals big and small have become more enmeshed in the fabric of the concert business, the way they are booked has evolved. Increasingly, agencies have created dedicated roles or teams to liaise between them and talent buyers for mutually beneficial outcomes. These festival specialists can bring consolidated asks to festivals that encompass large swaths of rosters — and they can also act as advocates for said festivals with agency talent.

To kick off 2026, Ground Control Touring, one of music’s pre-eminent indie agencies, has created such a position to help it bolster its presence throughout the festival world. The agency’s new head of festivals, Keith Richards (no, not that one!), hopes to continue cementing its roster of more than 600 — led by esteemed indie-rockers including Waxahatchee, Japanese Breakfast, Bright Eyes, Kurt Vile, and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo — on bills of all sizes.

“The value of a festival agent has increased,” Richards says. “While these festival buyers have deep-seated, long-standing relationships with all of these RAs [responsible agents], it has proved useful to them to have a one-stop shop. The RAs will never not call those festivals to advocate for their artists. But it is nice for a lot of these festivals to have somebody that is coming from a place of, the only bias is for the agency and not for a specific roster [client].”

Richards has held various roles in the live sector since the early ’10s, but he found his calling in festivals about a decade ago, when he joined Paradigm (now Wasserman) and began leading its festival department. After losing his job there early in the pandemic, Richards landed at the livestreaming startup Mandolin (where, among other things, he facilitated a deal with Ground Control), then logged stints as a talent buyer at the Indianapolis-based Forty5 and in a festival-focused role at Reliant Talent Agency.

With Ground Control, Richards joins an agency on the rise, particularly in the festival space. Ground Control periodically leads its indie competition behind the big four agencies — Wasserman, CAA, WME and UTA — in terms of the number of artists it books on major bills; for this year’s Governors Ball, for instance, it ranks fifth in artist representation behind those four agencies, and its 5% isn’t far from the respective 7% figures posted by UTA and WME.

“This is a very festival-centric roster,” says Richards, who arrives at Ground Control alongside Joy Hubbard, its new festivals coordinator. “With a little bit more focused time and attention, you’re only going to see that grow exponentially with the ability of somebody to keep tabs with the festivals.”

Festival agents like Richards serve a dual role. They can bring talent buyers comprehensive lists of who on an agency’s roster is available to be booked for a given festival and may be a good fit. At the same time, they can make the case for festivals — especially smaller ones in secondary or tertiary markets — to agents and their clients who might otherwise dismiss such opportunities out of hand simply due to a lack of familiarity.

“A big part of this role is being a representative for the festival within the agency,” Richards says. “As much as my obvious alliance is with our agents and our artists, it also benefits the festival to feel like they have somebody internally that is advocating for the festival, that knows their festival, that is like, ‘Hey, I know that on paper, this slot doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense — but I’ve been there, and let me explain to you why this seems to be the best fit.’

“A lot of agents with such massive rosters, it can turn transactional a lot of times, just because of how quick the pace of the industry is,” he continues, explaining that a festival specialist can “spend half an hour talking and not just pitching, but learning about the festival” with a buyer, and the serve as an information resource for peers at an agency.

In conversation, Richards has a voluminous knowledge of the festival market, and he sees his work as equally important whether he’s pitching major megafests like Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza or smaller boutiques such as Ohio’s Nelsonville Music Festival, Massachusetts’ Green River Festival or Winnipeg Folk Festival. But regardless of size, he’s found that festival specialists can leverage their relationships to provide suggestions to talent buyers, who sometimes have strong booking preferences and may be reluctant to field unsolicited pitches. Especially given the sizes of the rosters he represents, Richards says he and buyers will periodically have “a shared sense of discovery” with an agency’s emergent clients.

If he does his job right, the promoter will leave a festival “feeling like they got a buy-low, sell-high [booking], which is harder with inflated prices post-pandemic,” while the artist will walk away pleased with their time slot, stage and compensation. “When you do hit it,” he says, “it’s a really cool experience.”

Ultimately, Richards sees festivals as essential to the music business — and the work of festival agents like himself as critical to the longevity of those festivals. “They’re essential to the lifeblood of artists’ careers and livelihoods,” he says, “so finding the way to continue to make sure that those things stick around, no matter how big or small, is an important responsibility.”

There’s nothing like having a partner who supports you every day in every way. Just ask A$AP Rocky, who got the ultimate shout-out from Rihanna when his long-awaited Don’t Be Dumb album debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart this week.

“Just me here to let yall know my baby daddy got the NUMBER 1 ALBUM!!! Aaahhhhhh hah! DONT BE DUMB!!!,” Rihanna wrote on X. The dynamic duo share three children together, sons RZA Athelston and Riot Rose and five-month old daughter Rocki Irish.

Rocky’s Don’t Be Dumb — which debuts atop the list dated Jan. 31 — is the MC’s third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart and his first in more than a decade. Rocky was previously at the chart summit in June 2015 with AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP and in 2013 with LONG.LIVE.A$AP.

And while fans have been waiting a decade for a follow-up to Rihanna’s Anti album with no end in sight, on an episode of The Joe Budden Podcast last week, Rocky said he’s open to having more kids with RihRih in the future. “Listen, man, whatever God give me, it’s a blessing,” he said of their growing family. “I ain’t gon’ hold you, though. We got our hands full right now. We got a football team right now. I’m about to catch up to Nick Cannon, you s–tin’ me? Yeah, I got three joints, man.”

And though the couple have a very long way to go to catch up with Cannon — who has 12 children with six different women — Rihanna also hasn’t been shy about hinting at a further expansion of their young family. Earlier this month under a post shared by influencer Montana Rose Brown captioned, “Deciding whether to get hot and sexy or get pregnant in 2026,” RiRi chimed in with what sounded like a tease aimed at Rocky. “Wait! So i’m not crazy then? Bet,” she wrote.