Sabrina Carpenter's full acceptance speech for the "Hitmaker of the Year" at Variety's Hitmakers

Hello. I'm immortal. I just found out I'm going to live forever, which is exciting. I actually didn't know that about short people. You got me so hyped. I just got off of tour. So the first thing I want to be is like, how y'all doing tonight? And then everyone screams loud. You scream loud. You're tired of screaming. I get it. The first person I want to thank is obviously the awkward man behind me who has just brought so much joy and incredible gifts to my life. Thank you, Jack. I wrote a thing about you in my little journal that my friend gave me. Thank you for the touching intro. I wrote this in advance. So hopefully it was touching. I'm so grateful to you and the music we've created together. And I think that the day that we met was the day that a lot of people should have been scared. You are so one-of-a-kind in this world and you are genuinely, I'm being genuine, you're too humble. He's the most hard-working, hard-working, full, a plethora of amazing ideas. He's just endless, endlessly gifted. I love your wife and you are so talented and you're such a great friend and you eat really healthy, which also encourages me to eat healthy. So that's just a little about Jack. So thank you for being here and doing that. I appreciate you so much. Make some noise for Jack Antonoff, everybody. Okay, less. This award is so funny to me because when I think about it, there was a good 8 to 10 years of my life where I was the literal opposite of a hit maker. I was barely a bubbling under maker. I was kind of just making ----. So I was just a maker. When I started writing songs, I was 10 years old and when you're 10, you don't really think about reception or perception. You're just like this sounds good. I like this. I'm brilliant because I'm 10 and I think when I went down the rabbit hole of forgetting that essence is probably where I went wrong for a few years of my life. I signed with a record label when I was 12, which was not weird at all. And if anyone will try to tell you what a hit is, love you. It's a record label. I was always sort of told you just need a hit song and then you're set for life. It's like a thing they put in your brain, but that's like no way to approach creativity and it was kind of something that I guess caused me some issues for a little bit just in making something that felt authentic to me and it's the easiest way to write a bad song is to try to write a hit. So as time went on, I learned the way to make music I loved is to write the opposite of whatever you think a hit is. You write what speaks to you. You write what only you can write something that if someone else tried to recreate it, it would just it would feel forced or inauthentic and you write the music that you want to listen to yourself. So add the weird chord progression and do the weird key change. Call men stupid in every possible way that you can and don't worry if one person likes it or a million people like it. Just worry about a few like it. There is no one person that can predict a hit song. There's a lot of people that try though and it's a very funny thing when they go. I knew that song was going to be a big hit and you're like, I don't know. I think all the stars and the timing and the songs before it had to align in order for that song to exist in the world at the right time and I try to remind myself that because to me a hit song is pretty lonely and lacks context without the world of music around it and I'm very in love with my little world of songs that I'm so lucky to be able to create. So that's what inevitably add to writing a new album this year man's best friend. Thank you. You can cheer. Yeah. This album was made with the mindset of how I made music when I was 10, which was this sounds good. I like this. Let's add a banjo. Let's call men stupid again. **** it. And you know what? This feels really good and it makes me want to like dance around the room with my friends and my friends felt the same way. So that felt like a really good sign and speaking of my friends. I want to thank my best friends who I'm very lucky are also my collaborators first and foremost. I have to thank the up-and-coming Jack Antonoff everybody give him some joy promising career ahead the amazing and brilliant Amy Allen who just exists and beautiful things happen around her and is one of my best friends, but also just like someone's mind that I try to dissect and probably never will be able to the incredible John Ryan who I don't think is here today, but I love with my entire heart and thank you guys for making this album with me, but not just this one the last few that we made together and for believing in me and my crazy ideas and your individual magic that you bring and helping me grow every time we get the privilege to be in a room with things that make noise. So thank you to my team like thank you to my team because there are some group chats and they go very late hours into the night. So thank you guys for your patience and support and love. Thank you to my current label Island Records for trusting me and for not trying to tell me what a hit is that's rare. That's very rare. They've been very open with me and very trusting with me and then last but not least. Thank you to the fans that make these songs hits because hits are not songs if their songs, but they're just like not hits. I guess if people aren't I don't want to highlight it because I know when that ---- happens to me. I'm like look away. Thank you to the fans that learn the lyrics and sing the songs make them hits whatever that means. I feel so lucky to receive this award. So thank you so much and good night everybody.