Sabrina Carpenter Named Variety’s Hitmaker of the Year

Sabrina Carpenter has been named Variety Hitmaker of the Year, with the 26‑year‑old singer‑songwriter receiving the honor at Variety’s ninth annual Hitmakers brunch in Hollywood on December 6, 2025.

The award recognizes her dominant 2024–2025 run of global hits from Espresso and Please Please Please to Manchild and the rollout of her album era Man’s Best Friend.​

Key facts about the award

Variety confirmed in October 2025 that Sabrina Carpenter would receive the Hitmaker of the Year title as part of its 2025 Hitmakers issue and awards brunch, which spotlight the artists and teams behind the year’s most impactful songs. The honor was formally presented on December 6, 2025, at Nya Studios in Hollywood, where Carpenter accepted the award in front of label executives, producers, songwriters and fellow honorees.​

The Hitmaker of the Year distinction is the flagship individual award of Variety’s Hitmakers franchise, which has previously gone to artists such as SZA (2023) and Charli XCX (2024) for reshaping the sound of contemporary pop and R&B. By naming Carpenter the 2025 recipient, Variety’s music team effectively positions her as the defining mainstream pop voice of the streaming era’s latest cycle.​

Key event details

The hit-filled year behind the honor

Variety’s decision is rooted in Carpenter’s extraordinary run of singles and albums over the past two years, beginning with the 2024 breakout of Espresso and Please Please Please. Please Please Please became her first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 2024, while Espresso occupied the top tier of global streaming charts at the same time. In the UK, she became the first woman to hold the top two spots on the singles chart for three consecutive weeks, with Please Please Please at No. 1 and Espresso at No. 2.​

Streaming data underlines why industry press now treats Carpenter as a core hitmaker rather than an emerging act. By early 2025, Espresso alone had crossed the two‑billion mark on Spotify, ranking among the fastest songs in the platform’s history to reach that milestone, and totals tracked later in the year show the song continuing past roughly 2.6 billion streams. Follow‑up single Manchild debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 2025, giving her a second chart‑topping single and first No. 1 debut, while also driving tens of millions of weekly streams and strong radio impressions in the U.S. market.​

Carpenter’s 2025 album Man’s Best Friend – built around Manchild and later singles such as Tears – is cited in industry coverage as the core body of work behind her Hitmaker recognition, extending the success of 2024’s Short n’ Sweet. The project arrives after a decade‑long transition from Disney‑channel actor and teen pop artist to a songwriter able to dominate global charts across multiple eras and formats.​

Timeline of key milestones linked to the award

Inside Variety’s Hitmakers brunch

The 2025 Hitmakers brunch brought together artists, producers, writers and label executives whose work shaped the year’s biggest songs, with Carpenter presented as the central honoree in the room. Alongside her Hitmaker of the Year title, Variety recognized a slate of other awardees, including producers Jack Antonoff, Mustard and Sounwave, as well as rising performers such as Alex Warren and Rosé, highlighting the ecosystem that surrounds modern pop hits.​

On stage, Antonoff introduced Carpenter by emphasizing her combination of vocal performance, songwriting craft and ability to handle the pressure that comes with sudden global attention. In her acceptance remarks, Carpenter thanked her close collaborators, label team and songwriting partners, and urged younger writers to create music they would genuinely want to hear themselves, framing authenticity and risk‑taking as central to her recent success. She also used the moment to credit fans for transforming individual songs into lasting hits by streaming, sharing and singing them back on tour.​

The event doubled as an informal industry summit on how songs break through in the streaming era, from viral clips to sync placements. Carpenter’s own catalog was referenced repeatedly as a case study, from Espresso becoming a dominant short‑video soundtrack to Manchild boosting its profile via a prominent television placement that led a specialist Top TV Songs chart in late 2025.​

What the title means for her career

Being named Variety Hitmaker of the Year places Carpenter in a short list of artists the publication sees as setting the tone for mainstream pop, following previous honorees such as Kendrick Lamar, SZA and Charli XCX. In practical terms, the award arrives as she navigates a large‑scale arena tour and a packed festival schedule, reinforcing her position with radio programmers, international promoters and awards voters in the middle of an already decorated Grammy campaign.​

Industry observers point out that she has now demonstrated hit‑making consistency across multiple releases, labels and cycles, from pre‑Short n’ Sweet projects to the current Man’s Best Friend era. That consistency, matched with record‑setting streaming numbers and chart achievements on both sides of the Atlantic, suggests the Hitmaker title is not just a snapshot of a single season, but a sign that Carpenter has secured a long‑term place among global A‑list pop acts.​

For fans and the wider pop audience, the award also signals that songs like Espresso, Please Please Please and Manchild are likely to remain in heavy rotation – on playlists, radio and future live sets – as shorthand for a particular moment in mid‑2020s pop. As Variety’s Hitmakers list is widely followed by industry insiders and brand partners, Carpenter’s new title may further expand opportunities in touring, endorsements and collaborations in 2026 and beyond.​