Yahoo Lifestyle “She Was Right”: Sabrina Carpenter’s “Girl Meets World” Co-Star Danielle Fishel Just Admitted That She Advised The Singer Against Releasing One Of Her Hit Songs
Last month, Danielle Fishel fought back tears as she shared her pride for Sabrina Carpenter after attending her sold-out Short n’ Sweet tour in Los Angeles.
For context, Danielle and Sabrina first met when Sabrina was just 14 years old and landed a breakout role in the Disney Channel show Girl Meets World.
This was a sequel series to the sitcom Boy Meets World, which catapulted Danielle to fame in the '90s.
Danielle reprised her role of Topanga for GMW, and while Rowan Blanchard played the titular “girl,” Riley Matthews, Sabrina was cast as her wisecracking best friend Maya Hart.
Girl Meets World ran from 2014 until 2017, and in that time, Sabrina and Danielle grew incredibly close.
Danielle is 18 years Sabrina’s senior, and she called her costar “the closest thing I'll ever have to a daughter” in a sweet Instagram post back in 2022.
In fact, Sabrina was one of Danielle’s bridesmaids at her 2018 wedding to Jensen Karp, and when she was pregnant with her and Jensen’s first son, Adler, in 2019, Danielle revealed that Sabrina would be known as her children’s “auntie."
Through all of this, Danielle has been Sabrina’s biggest cheerleader when it comes to her music career, which didn’t really explode into the mainstream until this year thanks to her hit songs like “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.”
It’s worth mentioning that Sabrina’s success in 2024 is so staggering that she was nominated in the Best New Artist category for the 2025 Grammys, despite technically being a part of the music scene since 2015.
During a recent episode of her podcast, Pod Meets World, Danielle said she always knew that Sabrina would be a huge star one day as she admitted she “sobbed through” the first night of her friend’s sold-out LA shows.
And she reiterated this in a new article for Entertainment Weekly after the outlet named Sabrina one of their 2024 Entertainers of the Year.
Kicking off the piece, Danielle said that she is often asked if she can “believe” Sabrina’s “meteoric rise” in recent months, with the mom-of-two adding: “My honest answer will always be, ‘Yes.’”
Reflecting on Sabrina’s impressive work ethic and talent, Danielle then shared a confession that highlights just how well the singer understands her craft.
Discussing the star’s fifth album, Emails I Can’t Send, Danielle said that she advised her friend against including one of the songs — but Sabrina totally ignored this advice.
“Her instinct cannot be beat,” Danielle wrote. “I once told her I didn't think a song should make it on her 2022 album, Emails I Can't Send. I thought it wasn't relatable enough, and she politely told me I was wrong.”
“This past November, as I heard 20,000 fans in the Crypto.com arena sing every word to that exact song right along with her, I knew she was right. She's always right,” Danielle went on to admit.
The star did not name which of Sabrina’s songs she’d encouraged her not to release, with eight songs from Emails I Can’t Send being included on her Short n’ Sweet tour setlist.
If you’re wondering, they are “Tornado Warnings,” “Decode,” “Fast Times,” “Read Your Mind,” “Because I Liked A Boy,” “Nonsense,” “Opposite,” and “Feather” — with the last two only included in the deluxe release of the album.
All of these songs are huge fan favorites, with "Because I Liked A Boy," "Feather," and "Nonsense" particularly popular within both Sabrina's fandom and the mainstream.
Interestingly, Sabrina previously revealed that she almost didn’t include “Nonsense” on this album — suggesting that she feared it wouldn’t “resonate with people.”
For reference, “Nonsense” ended up being the breakout song that arguably paved the way for Sabrina’s sudden ascent this year.
Speaking to Interview magazine in February, she said: "Sometimes I get insecure about pop music and the fact that it can’t always resonate with people. So it was really special for me to experience [Nonsense] having its own life, maybe because it felt like the closest to my true personality, as silly as that sounds."
"I was at a really, really low point in my life about two years ago, so I was writing very few optimistic love songs," Sabrina added. "[Nonsense] always stuck out, but I felt like it might discredit some of the songs on the album that were about more sensitive subjects, so it almost didn’t make it in."
"People in the past had told me my music didn’t have symmetry, that I didn’t have every song sounding the same, and that got in my head," she concluded. "So I’m grateful, because the fans decided on their own that it meant something to them."
And Sabrina had a similar experience with her smash hit “Espresso,” which many consider to be the anthem of 2024.
Speaking to Variety earlier this year, she said that she was “completely alone in wanting to release ‘Espresso,’ adding: “Not so much from my immediate team, but when it came to the ‘powers above.’”
“There was a lot of questioning behind whether it made sense,” she explained. “They trusted me in the end, and I was happy that I believed in myself at that moment.”
And Island Records co-CEO Imran Majid echoed Danielle’s sentiment at the time of this interview, telling Variety: “Sabrina’s instincts and creative vision are incredible. She’s always thinking 10 steps ahead of the market.”
Which song do you think Danielle advised Sabrina against putting on her album? Let me know in the comments!
After Being Sabrina Carpenter’s Biggest Cheerleader For The Last 10 Years, Danielle Fishel Just Fought Back Tears As She Reflected On The “Short N’ Sweet” TourStephanie Soteriou · Nov. 27, 2024
Sabrina Carpenter Expertly Embraces Her Sexuality Without Succumbing To The “Male Gaze,” And This Is Why I Think It’s Kind Of A Big DealStephanie Soteriou · Oct. 25, 2024
“I Was A Size 4”: “Boy Meets World” Star Danielle Fishel Just Recalled The Moment Producers Told Her That She’d Gained So Much Weight They Were Turning It Into A StorylineStephanie Soteriou · Aug. 13, 2024
Sabrina Carpenter Has Officially Kicked Off Her “Short N’ Sweet” Tour, And There’s One Major SurpriseStephanie Soteriou · Sept. 24, 2024
