Sue Me

Carpenter wrote the song after she was sued by her ex music managers Stan Rogow and Elliot Lurie for allegedly not paying them commissions after she fired them in August 2014. They claimed that they should have some of the revenue from Carpenter's previous two albums Evolution and Eyes Wide Open. Carpenter has confirmed this is the background, but has not commented on the situation.^[4] On May 23, 2018, the ruling was filed in favor of Carpenter and allowed recovery of legal costs from Rogow and Lurie.^[5]

Carpenter also stated this song as representing pure confidence.^[6] Carpenter said that "Sue Me" was the first track that was giving a direction to the album because it was in a different lane than the other songs that she had written before.^[7]

The song was written in September 2017, after Carpenter concluded the De Tour, by Sabrina Carpenter, Warren "Oak" Felder, Steph Jones, Trevor Brown and William Zaire Simmons.^[7][8][9] It was produced by Felder with Brown and Zaire Koalo as co-producers.^[8] Felder, Brown and Koalo did the background vocals while Felder programmed the track and Koalo handled the drum programming.^[8] Felder engineered the track at SuCasa Recording in Los Angeles with Keith "Daquan" Sorrells serving as an assistant engineer.^[8] The song was mixed by Eric J Dubowsky at Hercules St. Studios in Sydney and Tim Watt served as a mix assistant.^[8] The song was mastered at Sterling Sound in New York City by Chris Gehringer.^[8]

Carpenter first premiered a snippet of the music video on November 9, 2018, on TRL. The music video was released through Vevo and YouTube on November 16, 2018. It was directed by Lauren Dunn and Carpenter's friends Joey King and Sergio D'arcy Lane feature in the music video.^[10] The music video was shot in one day at the Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, the same campus that Zoey 101 was shot.^[7][11] According to the video's hair stylist, Scott King's Instagram story, the video was shot on August 17, 2018.^[12] It is said that this video is based on Legally Blonde as it has very similar storylines, characters and features, but Carpenter has not yet confirmed if this is the background.^[13] On December 14, 2024, the music video was deleted and re-uploaded. Within hours, the re-upload was taken down and the original upload of the video was put back up on December 16, 2024.^[14]

Carpenter first performed the song on November 9, 2018, on The Today Show^[15] and Live with Kelly and Ryan.^[16] It was fourteenth to be performed on the Singular Tour. Additionally, she performed the song on Good Morning America's Summer Concert Series.^[17]

Recording and management

• Recorded at SuCasa Recording (Los Angeles, California)
• Mixed at Hercules St. Studios (Sydney, Australia)
• Mastered at Sterling Sound (New York City)
• Seven Summits Music (BMI) obo Itself and Pink Mic Music (BMI), Sony/ATV Songs LLC/Crew's Tree Publishing (BMI), Vistaville Music (ASCAP) obo Itself, Not That Steph Jones (ASCAP) and Big Deal Hits (ASCAP), Reservoir Media Music obo Itself & The Orphanage LLC/Quest Da Stars (ASCAP), Reservoir Media Music obo Itself & The Orphanage LLC/Downtown Trevor Brown (ASCAP)

Personnel

Credits adapted from Singular: Act I liner notes.^[8]

• List of Billboard number-one dance songs of 2019