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Sabrina Carpenter’s “Feather” isn’t the most provocative song but its music video changed all that. The clip was set in a church and it created a firestorm of controversy for the “Espresso” singer. Carpenter reacted to these events with some of her trademark humor.

Sabrina Carpenter dismissed the controversy around ‘Feather’ by comparing herself to Jesus

The music video for “Feather” featured a bunch of men fighting each other to the death in an oddly bloody sequence for a pop video. Carpenter then dances around at their funeral in a Catholic Church. It’s not exactly a respectful portrayal of Christianity, which often promotes pacifism. Variety reports that the clip was filmed in a Catholic Church in Brooklyn. The priest who gave her permission to film there was removed from administrative duties and the building was re-blessed.

The “Please Please Please” star explained her feelings about all this. “We got approval in advance and Jesus was a carpenter,” she said. Her joke is a play on the fact that Jesus was a carpenter prior to his ministry and Carpenter’s last name. Carpenter’s words arguably aren’t respectful either, as she seems to be comparing herself to the man that billions of people consider the Messiah. Of course, pop stars like John Lennon, Madonna, and Lil Nas X all made headlines for similar sacrilege.

Sabrina Carpenter explained why she wrote the song

The controversy surrounding “Feather” almost overshadowed the meaning of the song. During a 2023 interview with Grammy.com, the singer explained how the track came together. “I was actually on the phone with my producer, John Ryan, and we were laughing about it because honestly, when we made it, we were just having fun,” she said. “We wanted to make this song about all the s****y events happening in my life, because it’s so much more fun to turn it into a positive than to sit in the sadness.”

The “Nonsense” star gave fans the backstory to the piano riff from “Feather.” “When we wrote it, it was me, John and one of my closest friends, the songwriter Amy Allen,” she said. “We were just literally dancing around when John was playing a chord progression and a cool, feathery thing on the piano. We wrote it in two hours and the fact that it fit so perfectly on the deluxe [version of Emails I Can’t Send] was a very kismet situation.”

‘Feather’ was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean

“Feather” reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it her biggest hit in the United States at that point. The tune lasted on the chart for 26 weeks. “Feather” appeared on the album Emails I Can’t Send. That record reached No. 23 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 36 weeks.

Interestingly, “Feather” became Carpenter’s biggest hit in the United Kingdom as well. According to The Official Charts Company, “Feather” reached No. 19 in the U.K. and spent on the chart for 16 weeks. In the U.K., Emails I Can’t Send peaked at No. 76 and charted for seven weeks. It remains her only record to become a hit there.

It’s impossible to know whether the controversy surrounding “Feather” hurt or helped the song, but it undeniably became an international hit.

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