No, Sabrina Carpenter’s surprise songs during her Short n’ Sweet Tour weren’t totally surprises for her. But she supports the audience’s suspension of disbelief for the bit, and got candid on Monday night about how much of it was real.
The singer stopped by “Late Night with Seth Meyers” to reflect on her most recent tour, and the NBC host was sure to bring up her goodbye messages on TikTok. Among them was a farewell to “the heart pit, where I pretended to be shocked by the surprise song,” which piqued Meyers’ curiosity.
“It’s hard to fake nonchalance. Do you think your audience actually thought you were surprised by the surprise song?” he asked.
After a brief pause, Carpenter laughed, and weighed her options for an answer.
“It’d be so terrible if I was like, ‘Yeah, they’re idiots,’” she joked. “It’s not that. I think it’s like, in the heat of the show, it’s like Christmas. It’s magical, you can’t tell them the truth.”
Meyers readily agreed, noting that it at least seemed fantastic. From there, Carpenter explained the logistics a bit more.
“But I have to rehearse it, you know what I mean?” she detailed. “What is true is that it’s sort of a surprise for me. But I have options of things that I’ve rehearsed, and then I’m surprised by what the option is.”
Meyers was once again understanding, arguing that no one really wants a genuine surprise, only to get a “super janky version of a song.”
“They think they do, but they don’t want that,” Carpenter agreed.
You can watch Sabrina Carpenter’s full appearance on “Late Night” in the video above.
