Nonsense

Album: Emails I Can't Send (2022)
Charted: 32 56
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Songfacts®:

  • "Nonsense" is a goofy song where Sabrina Carpenter loses control of her mouth and blabbers drivel whenever she's around her crush.
  • Carpenter co-penned "Nonsense" with Nashville songwriter Steph Jones. The two also collaborated on the pop star's Singular: Act I singles "Almost Love" and "Sue Me," both of which topped the Billboard dance chart. Jones' other credits include Kelsea Ballerini's "Hole In The Bottle" and Little Big Town's "Over Drinking."

    Former One Direction songwriter Julian Bunetta produced the track. "Steph Jones, Julien Bonetta and I were writing a pretty emotional song and we got a bit stuck," Carpenter recalled in a Vevo Footnotes video. "During a break we said we just needed write nonsense and Julien started playing this slide guitar progression. 'Nonsense' was written within a couple of hours."
  • Carpenter recorded "Nonsense" for her album Emails I Can't Send. Though it was a fun track to write, she thought it was too ridiculous to make the final cut. "It's just the silliest song, and when we were writing it, I was like, 'It's never gonna be put out,'" she told Billboard.

    "At first I was like, 'It doesn't make sense with the album,' and then I kind of realized that there's a lot of dual feelings to heartbreak and grieving and moving on, and it can happy and sad and confident and insecure."
  • The outro comprises comedic lyrics poking fun at the chorus. It ends with studio chatter and the sound of Carpenter and Jones laughing. "Basically, we were, like, we know the song is nonsense, we know the chorus, so we took a few of those lyrics that we love, that we were dying over, and we put them in the outro of the song," Carpenter explained on The Travils Mills Show. "It's cool that that kinda song was able to make it in the record, because I really think that also it shows my stupid sense of humor."
  • Carpenter dropped a spicy, festive remix for the holiday season on December 7, 2022. "A Nonsense Christmas" finds the pop star putting a flirty Yuletide spin on the original song. Both tracks share the same beat and melody, but on the Christmas number, Carpenter takes on the persona of a vixen rather than an anxious blabbermouth. She spouts a stack of festive double-entendres as she tells her love interest that he tops her Christmas wish list.
  • "Nonsense" landed on the Hot 100 dated January 28, 2023, six weeks after Carpenter released it as a single. The success of the song can be attributed to a combination of factors, including a sped-up version and a playful dance routine set to the second verse, both generated on TikTok. A well-executed live performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! also contributed to the song's popularity.
  • Danica Kleinknecht directed the video from an idea Carpenter came up with. "This video concept was the only idea I had," said the singer. "I thought it would be fun to have my best friends and I dress up as guys and play our own love interests. The song doesn't take itself too seriously. I wanted the video to reflect that as well."

    Kleinknecht took inspiration from her love of early 2000s teen movies. "My mind immediately went to a house party scene where the guy and girl versions could meet," she said. "Superbad was a big inspiration for the guys. Can't Hardly Wait for Sabrina's party entrance and Jennifer's Body for the bedroom pregame."

    Kleinknecht and Carpenter wanted "Sebastian," the guy version of Sabrina, to look tall, "so we had all the extras bend down level as they danced to make him look talller - that was funny."
  • Sabrina Carpenter dropped another remix of "Nonsense" on March 23, 2023, with Coi Leray bringing the fresh heat. The rapper spits some fire on the second verse about a clingy dude who can't get enough of her. On the outro, Leray gives props to Carpenter for giving her the opportunity to jump on the track.
  • Carpenter had some fun with "Nonsense" when she was the opening act on some dates of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in 2023 and 2024. She would improvise the outro, often customizing it to whatever city they were in. For instance, in Mexico City she riffed: "Sipping on tequila getting tipsy con mis chicas in Mexico City."

    When Carpenter performs "Nonsense" live, she always writes new lyrics for the outro, usually containing sexual innuendo and double entendres. Some of her cheeky lyrics raise eyebrows, but the "Espresso" singer told The Guardian she wasn't sure "how far to push things" on the family-friendly Eras Tour, so they were "super PG-rated."

    Carpenter has a healthy bank of outros at her disposal. "I've written literally 900 outros," she revealed.

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