Please Please Please (Sabrina Carpenter song)

Following the commercial success of "Espresso", Sabrina Carpenter announced her upcoming sixth studio album Short n' Sweet on June 3, 2024.^[4] She simultaneously promised an upcoming surprise for her fans, which would turn out to be the single.^[5] Only two days later, Carpenter took to social media to announce the song release and share a teaser of the accompanying music video featuring cinematic visuals set to showcase her acting skills.^[6][7] The clip shows her wearing a lacy red outfit^[8] in a robbery-like setting,^[9] as well as engaging in a romance with a criminal played by her then-boyfriend Barry Keoghan.^[7] "Please Please Please" has been labeled as a pop,^[10] disco-pop,^[11] synth-pop,^[12] alternative country,^[13] country pop,^[14][15] and yacht rock^[a] song.

In February 2025, Carpenter released a deluxe version of Short n' Sweet featuring a duet version of "Please Please Please" with American singer Dolly Parton, which was promoted to country radio in the US.^[21][3]

The music video for "Please Please Please" was filmed on May 23, 2024, in Staten Island, New York, and serves as a sequel to the "Espresso" music video released earlier in the year.^[22] The video explores a romantic dynamic between Carpenter and a convict,^[22] played by Irish actor Barry Keoghan who was Carpenter's then-boyfriend.^[23] The prison scenes were shot in the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, owned by Broadway Stages.^[24]

The video continues from where "Espresso" ended and focuses on Carpenter's relationship with a chaotic love interest. The video's director, Bardia Zeinali, expanded on this idea, incorporating themes of role reversals and power dynamics, as well as recurring scenes such as Carpenter repeatedly picking up the love interest outside the same prison at different times.^[25] Pamela Anderson, Tommy Lee, Madonna, Dennis Rodman, Quentin Tarantino, Natural Born Killers (1994), Bonnie and Clyde, and Thelma & Louise (1991) were cited as inspirations for the video.^[25] Cinematographer Sean Price Williams shot the video on film.^[26]

A second music video for the song, set to the duet version with Dolly Parton, was filmed on January 25, 2025, in front of a rear projection screen and co-directed by Carpenter alongside Williams. It was released on February 14, 2025, to coincide with the release of the deluxe edition of Short n' Sweet. The black and white vignette shows Carpenter and Parton driving a truck, having stolen a bag of money and kidnapped a man with the intention of burying him somewhere; evading the police while doing so.

On June 17, "Please Please Please" reached number one on the Billboard Global 200.^[27] On June 22, 2024, the song debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Carpenter's highest debut on the chart and highest-charting single then.^[28] The following week, it reached the top spot of the chart, making it her first chart-topper in the United States.^[29]

In the United Kingdom, with "Please Please Please" at number one and her previous song "Espresso" at number two on the UK Singles Chart, Carpenter became the first female artist to hold the top two positions of the chart for five weeks in a row and matched Ed Sheeran as the only artist to hold this feat in general. On July 12, 2024 – for the week ending date July 18, 2024 – "Please Please Please" was dethroned from the top of the UK Singles Chart with "Espresso" returning to the summit. On July 26, 2024 – for the week ending date August 1, 2024 – "Please Please Please" dethroned "Espresso" from the top of the UK Singles Chart to return to the summit for a second time, with the former song being replaced at number two by "Birds of a Feather" by Billie Eilish, and the latter song falling to number nine on the chart.^[30]

Carpenter sang "Please Please Please" for the first time at the Governors Ball Music Festival on June 8, 2024.^[31] Later that month, she performed the song on the Live Lounge.^[32] At the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, she performed the song as part of a medley with "Taste" and "Espresso".^[33][34][35] Entertainment Weekly's Lester Fabian Brathwaite and Vogue's Hannah Jackson thought Carpenter channeled Britney Spears, Marilyn Monroe, and Madonna on her Blond Ambition World Tour (1990).^[36][37] "Please Please Please" was included on the permanent setlist of Carpenter's sixth headlining tour, the Short n' Sweet Tour (2024–2025).^[38][39] Carpenter performed "Please Please Please" with American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift at the second New Orleans show of the Eras Tour (2023–2024), as an acoustic mashup with "Espresso" and "Is It Over Now?" (2023).^[40] On February 2, 2025, Carpenter performed "Please Please Please" at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.

• Digital download and streaming – single^[41]

1. "Please Please Please" – 3:06
2. "Please Please Please" (acoustic) – 3:01
3. "Please Please Please" (clean) – 3:06
4. "Please Please Please" (sped up) – 2:32
5. "Please Please Please" (slowed down) – 3:30
6. "Please Please Please" (a cappella) – 3:06
7. "Please Please Please" (instrumental) – 3:06

• 7-inch single^[42]

1. "Please Please Please" – 3:06
2. "Please Please Please" (acoustic) – 3:01

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Short n' Sweet.^[50]

Recording and management

• Recorded at Electric Lady Studios (New York City)
• Evan Smith's Performance Recorded at Pleasure Hill Recording (Portland, Maine)
• Mixed at MixStar Studios (Virginia Beach)
• Mastered at Nomograph Mastering (Los Angeles)
• Sabalicious Songs (BMI) administered by Songs Of Universal, Inc., Songs Of Universal, Inc./Ducky Donath Music (BMI), Kenny + Betty Tunes (ASCAP) administered by WC Music Corp.

Personnel

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