Why Sabrina Carpenter’s Speech Got Censored At The 2025 Grammys

Alyssa Bailey
·3 min read
Why Sabrina Carpenter’s Speech Got Censored At The 2025 Grammys

Sabrina Carpenter just won her first Grammy awards—yes, plural. The singer, who was up for several awards at last night's ceremony, took home the trophy for Best Pop Album during the ceremony broadcast. This follows her earlier win ahead of the show for Best Pop Solo Performance ('Espresso').

Onstage, Carpenter spoke about how this moment is a dream come true for her. She also couldn’t help herself and cursed a bit. 'I want to thank Island Records and—what the hell? I don’t know if I’m allowed to say hell, but I said it three times now, so thank you. This is so special to me, and Short n’ Sweet means the world.'

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At the end of her speech, she was bleeped out entirely, likely because she had language that wasn’t fit for broadcast. According to E!, she said, 'Thank you, holy shit, bye!'

Here, her speech:

Hello! I’m still out of breath from the performance, so I really was not expecting this, and all those nominees that were just on the screen are some of my favorite artists in the world, and I can’t believe I’m nominated against them or even in this room right now.

This is—whoa—my first Grammy, so I’m gonna cry. But I wrote names, so I wouldn’t forget, on this napkin, but now it’s probably all messed up. But thank you to the Recording Academy for having me and having everyone here tonight in celebration and in honor of everything that’s happened.

I feel so lucky to be able to come together and do something so special and beautiful and celebrate music. I want to thank all the fans that let my music be heard by the Recording Academy. I want to thank my mom for driving me to every voice lesson in Bala Cynwyd, [Pennsylvania], and I wanna thank my dad and my sisters. I want to thank my team, Bill, Janelle, Amy...Sarah, Darcy. I want to thank Island Records, and what the hell? I don’t know if I’m allowed to say hell, but I said it three times now, so thank you. This is so special to me, and Short n’ Sweet means the world. Thank you to all the producers and writers that made this album. Thank you, Jack; thank you, John; thank you, Amy; thank you, Julian, Ian, Julia, Steph, I love you guys. You have no idea how much I love you, and how much this album means to me. Thank you, holy shit, bye!

Carpenter’s last sentence above was censored.


Carpenter has a fantastic first year of Grammy nominations. She was also nominated for Record of the Year ('Espresso'), Album of the Year (Short n’ Sweet), Song of the Year ('Please Please Please'), Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album (Short n’ Sweet), Best Remixed Recording ('Espresso (Mark Ronson x FNZ Working Late Remix)'), and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical (Short n’ Sweet).

Carpenter also performed at last night's ceremony.

In December, Carpenter spoke to British Vogue about the music she listens to and revealed she was on her own Spotify Wrapped list. 'It’s funny because when I first saw mine, my initial reaction was, "Oh, damn, I can’t post that, because I’m on my own [list]. It’s a bit conceited,"' she quipped. 'But then I was like, I guess it’s a good thing that I’m on my list and listening to my own music, because it means I fuck with what I do. But the other ones were Dolly Parton, ABBA, Kacey Musgraves and the Bee Gees.'

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