BBC Radio 1 has crowned Sabrina Carpenter with the song of the year - after her hit single Espresso dominated the charts.
The 25-year-old former Disney child star had been seemingly futilely churning out music since 2014 and spent a decade failing to make a dent in music charts around the world. But that all changed in 2024 as the star became unavoidable when her coffee inspired song romped its way up the charts across the globe.
Her album Short n Sweet - which was the sixth record that Sabrina created - also rocketed to the top of the charts and her subsequent singles Please Please Please and Taste also achieved huge commercial success. Now the American singer can round off her year with more celebrations as BBC Radio 1 declared her single the biggest song of the year.
The top 10 featured Charli XCX in second place with her song 360, Chappell Roan in third place with Good Luck, Babe!, Billie Eilish at four with Birds of a Feather, and Chase & Status featuring Stormzy at number five with their song Backbone. Charli XCX and Billie Eilish were back in sixth place with their duet Guess, while Sonny Fodera, Jazzy, and D.O.D. made number seven with the track Somedays, Fontaines D.C. were at number eight with Starburster, Beyoncé reached number nine with her song Texas hold ‘em, and Hozier rounded out the top 10 with the song Too Sweet.
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GETTY)While it has been a triumphant year for Sabrina as she finally reached music success after a full 10 years of trying, some music fans think she has been forced upon the public and her success has all been down to industry manipulation by record labels. A theory was sparked when countless people took to social media to complain that her upbeat pop was forcibly played to them via streaming services like Spotify which are supposed to play random tracks at the end of album or playlist listening.
A music fan took to X to vent their frustration, asking other social media users: "Like this if Spotify automatically plays her music for you too I’m trying to see something." The question provoked a huge response - with many fans complaining that Sabrina's music was played at them after they had finished listening to completely unrelated tracks.
One fan lashed out to suggest the American's star's record label had paid to manipulate the algorithm, writing: "Guys I’m being fr here but why does Spotify KEEP playing Sabrina Carpenter’s new song every single time an album or playlist im listening to finishes?? Has she paid Spotify to put her song first in everyone’s auto play or something??”
Others were baffled when her sugar-sweet pop tunes were mixed in to hard rap playlists, with one questioning: "something weird is going on with @Spotify's algorithm. why is sabrina carpenter being recommended in my daily rap mix?" And another typed: "In what way does she relates to the Arctic Monkeys and Kendrick Lamar?" And another music fan complained: "i love sab but, i just listened to a song in spanish, and then please x3 came on autoplay. it's supposed to follow any song in spanish, not in english wtf."
Spotify attempted to dispel the theory back in May, insisting editors weren't attempting to boost Sabrina's success - and telling NME: “'Multiple factors' go into a track appearing as your next song. That includes everything from how popular a song is at that moment in time, to its appearance on playlists curated by both Spotify’s editorial team and normal folk, and what people with a similar taste in music to you have been listening to."
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