Sabrina Carpenter Takes Us Inside Her Most Confessional Song Yet

By Lauren Rearick


It took only one efficiency of “Exhale” for a fan to show Sabrina Carpenter a tattoo inspired by the song, which speaks openly of the singer’s experience with anxiety. She hadn’t even released the track’s recording; for the time being, it was just a song she sang live, as a comedown at the end of her set. And as she tells MTV News, the tattoo served as a reminder of the impact music can make in all respects — and especially whenever it comes to decreasing continued stigma surrounding mental health conditions.


On May 17, in the midst of Mental Health Month, Sabrina released “Exhale,” ahead of her forthcoming album, Singular: Act II. Although the release of the song touches on her emotions surrounding anxiety, its arrival wasn’t specifically tied to the month of mental health awareness. Fortunately, Sabrina says the timing was brilliant, plus a song that she had been nervous about sharing made its way into the world at the exact right time.


The Girl Meets World actor explained to MTV News that the track was her attempt of describing what anxiety feels like for her. “Anxiety is a very hard topic to put in a bubble,” she mentioned. “I don’t think you know what it is because it is a thousand questions that you can’t answer. Some days it feels like you can’t breathe; you don’t know where to begin, you don’t know where to begin feeling better and to begin healing yourself.”


So at a recent recording session, she started to put down thoughts, that turned into lyrics like, “Who put the baby in charge? / It's already hard to purchase all of the parts and learn to use them. / Who put the world on my back and not in my hands?” For the accompanying video, Sabrina is seated in a field, and she sings of wanting just a minute to group up herself, asking, “Can I exhale for a minute? / Can I get this out in the open? / Can I sit down for a second? / Can I breathe?”


As on the of the 40 million American adults diagnosed with anxiety, Sabrina is still doing her best to understand what process of self-care and treatment work for her. “It’s hard because some days you aspire to talk, other times you don’t hope converse with anybody,” she mentioned. “It’s about doing things that keep yourself close to yourself, because at certain points I feel very far away from myself.” She credited baths and taking a moment to sit and breathe, as she does in the video, as two forms of self-care that have helped her.


Prior to the release of this song, Sabrina had called anxiety her “biggest struggle,” yet she shied away from singing about it. “I never wanted anybody to feel like I was complaining... I have so several things to be grateful for,” she told MTV News. However she credits a switch in thinking with helping her open up while she needs to. “It’s taking that second to remind yourself that just because you have so much to be grateful for doesn’t mean that there aren’t things you’re internally struggling with.”


Perhaps due in part to social media, the singer noted, there has been a change in how others are more prepared to speak and listen about the impact of mental health conditions, and she thinks that’s a good sign for increasing dialogue going forward. “There’s so several things that I never realized folks are going through because we keep certain things personalized, and then we share other things,” she mentioned. “I’m constantly reminded that you don’t know what other folks are going through, without consideration of what their life looks like.”


There’s no telling what the future might hold for Sabrina and her musical endeavors, nevertheless she sees “Exhale” as sharing a little segment of herself with fans. “They’re brave enough to come up to me at meet-and-greets and tell me exactly what they’re feeling without hesitation,” she mentioned. “I wanted to do the same thing for them. It was a hard song to perform, yet getting to give it to them, and them having it as their own...Makes me feel a lot better.”