During the first of two sold-out shows in Stockholm, Carpenter gave homage to ABBA and revealed Sweden to be one of her favourite countries
After releasing her sixth album Short n’ Sweet last summer, Sabrina Carpenter embarked on her biggest world tour yet in September. Following stops in both Norway and Denmark, it was finally Sweden’s turn. Yesterday’s concert on the 3rd of April at Avicii Arena was the first of two and Vogue Scandinavia was there to give you all the exclusives.
Below are the seven biggest takeaways from the first night of the Short n’ Sweet Tour in Stockholm.
Carpenter’s first arena concert in Stockholm
The tour has been completely sold out, and the capital of Sweden was no exception. Carpenter has previously only played at the festival Lollapalooza in the country, so when it was finally time for her first arena concert here, it was no surprise that she quickly had to add a second date to accommodate all the fans. The concerts being sold out means that about 16, 000 people saw Carpenter perform last night.
Photo: @livenationse
Royal blue for Sweden
During the night’s first outfit reveal, Carpenter unveiled a royal blue tartan bodysuit that matched the Swedish flag. The sequinned outfit is custom Victoria’s Secret and has only been worn once before in Scotland. The body suits, which come in a big variety of colours, are some of the fans’ most replicated outfits and feature 150,000 crystals.
Throughout the night the singer, who clocks in at five feet, also wore custom made retro platform shoes. The most common outfits among the fans were variations of Carpenter’s characteristic heart cut outs, cowboy hats and rhinestone lips on the shoulder to mimic the album’s cover.
During the tour Carpenter is styled by Jared Ellner, who is otherwise most famous for working with YouTube-star-turned-fashion-mogul Emma Chamberlain.
Homage to the originators of Swedish pop music
During the latter half of the show, Carpenter always picks a song at random to cover. The fans had been speculating heavily that the choice would fall on Abba’s mega hit Mamma Mia, which she had covered many times before during the tour. Luckily, and probably not so randomly, the choice fell on the Swedish icons. To say that the Swedish fans were excited would be an understatement.
Switch up in the setlist
The tour’s setlist consists of 13 songs from Short n’ Sweet and seven from the previous album Emails I can’t Send. Since the start of the European leg of the tour, Carpenter has switched out 'Read Your Mind' for her latest single 'Busy Woman'. The song first appeared on the deluxe edition of Short n’ Sweet, which was released after the record won a Grammy for Best Vocal Pop Album. Although the song has only been out for just under two months, it has already become one of Carpenter’s most streamed on Spotify.
Juno position
Carpenter’s decision to include a new sex position for each show has been equally celebrated and controversial. After skipping the pose altogether in Copenhagen as an April fool’s joke, she went with a hip thrust for the first night in Stockholm. For this outfit she changes between different tights with lyrics from her songs. Last night she wore tights that said, What a coincidence, a quote from the song 'Coincidence'.
Photo: @livenationse
Rachel Chinouriri was the one to be arrested
One of the show’s most viral moments is the one person that gets “arrested” each night and gets Carpenter’s pink fluffy handcuffs. Yesterday Carpenter chose her opening act for the European shows, Rachel Chinouriri, who was arrested for being “too beautiful”. The 26-year- old English singer-songwriter rose to popularity in 2018 thanks to her song 'So My Darling' going viral on TikTok. Today she released her new EP titled Little House.
“Save the best for last”
Sweden is the last stop on the European tour before the singer will get a well-deserved break. During the night, Carpenter declared Stockholm to be one of her favourite cities and joked “save the best for last. Don’t tell the others!”
Possibly it’s just Carpenter’s flirtatious ways, but we’re choosing to take her word for it. We hope you come back soon, Sabrina!
Sabrina Carpenter will take the stage at Avicii Arena again tonight, Friday.