Pop’s latest It girl, Sabrina Carpenter, dropped her second full-length album, Short n’ Sweet just a few days ago, and already, fans are diving headfirst into all of the innuendos, hidden meanings, and subtle shade behind the lyrics of each and every song. Singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” from the album quickly skyrocketed to the top of the charts after their respective releases and were lauded as the songs of the summer, setting up plenty of high expectations for the album, and to no one’s surprise, Carpenter delivered all of the catchy melodies, witty lyrics, and striking vocals she’s become synonymous with.
While songs like “Taste” and “Bed Chem” have emerged as ultra-popular tracks from the album— no doubt thanks to the buzzy “Taste” music video featuring Jenna Ortega and the speculations that Carpenter’s current beau, Barry Keoghan, is the subject of the sensual anthem “Bed Chem”—”Coincidence” is the album’s dark horse in terms of pointed lyricism.
In the realm of celebrity relationships, Carpenter is best known for her current romance with Keoghan, who was featured in her “Please Please Please” music video, but a forgotten fling with Shawn Mendes has resurfaced on the Internet as fans new and old are remembering the controversy that arose when the “Espresso” singer was spotted with Mendes in early 2023.
At the time, Mendes had been broken up with long-time girlfriend Camila Cabello. Mendes and Cabello are famous for their on-and-off relationship, but after photos of Carpenter and Mendes together surfaced during the time of their brief romance, Cabello quickly got to work on a track that chronicled her feelings on the fling. Carpenter and Mendes began seeing each other casually in February 2023, but by April 2023, they seemingly went their separate ways, as Mendes and Cabello were spotted back together at Coachella, and looked closer than ever as they embraced in the crowd of a Taylor Swift Concert a month later.
“June Gloom” by Camila Cabello was released in 2024, and fans of both artists quickly figured out that the lyrics likely alluded to Carpenter and Mendes, but it wasn’t until the release of Short n’ Sweet that fans were able to look at the lyrics of “Coincidence” and “Dumb & Poetic” to truly confirm the links to Mendes.
In “Coincidence,” Carpenter sings: “The second I put my head on your chest / She knew, she’s got a real sixth sense / Now her name comes up once, then it comes up twice / And without her even bein’ here, she’s back in your life / Now she’s in the same damn city on the same damn night,” referring to Cabello’s influence in Mendes’ life even while they were broken up.
In classic Sabrina fashion, a witty, sarcastic lyric comes later in the track, where Carpenter sings: “What a surprise, your phone just died / Your car drove itself from L.A. to her thighs / Palm Springs looks nice, but who’s by your side? / Damn it, she looks kinda like the girl you outgrew / Least that’s what you said,” alluding to the fact that her short relationship with Mendes ended due to his on-and-off-again relationship with Cabello and finally giving fans an answer to the situation after months of lowkey shade from all three parties involved in the love triangle.