Britney Spears Reacts to Sabrina Carpenter’s VMAs Performance

Britney Spears has some questions for Sabrina Carpenter after her other-worldly performance at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards.

Spears, 42, took to her Instagram on Thursday, September 12, to share her thoughts on Carpenter’s medley of her hits “Espresso,” “Please Please Please” and “Taste,” noting that while she didn’t watch the awards ceremony on Wednesday, September 11, she saw clips on YouTube.

“Why is she kissing an alien onstage?” Spears said in the video. “I love her. I adore her to death [but] I didn’t understand that part. Why didn’t she kiss a girl? That was weird.”

The pop star went on to gush over Carpenter, 25, giving her a shout-out on the red carpet.

“This Sabrina girl, she said my name on the red carpet and I thought that was kind of cool,” Spears said. “Because I forget I’m famous sometimes … but that was kind of cool. This Sabrina girl, Carpenter, she said something about me and I was like, ‘Thanks! That’s cool!’ She made me cool.”

During Carpenter’s performance, the singer appeared to pay homage to Spears by playing a snippet from her song “Oops!…I Did It Again” during the transition from “Please Please Please” to “Taste.” While performing “Taste,” Carpenter also adopted a space theme similar to Spears’ music video for “Oops!”

Related: 2024 MTV VMAs Winners List

The stars turned out for the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards as several of the industry’s biggest names won big. Ahead of the Wednesday, September 11, ceremony at UBS Arena in New York, Taylor Swift led with 12 total nominations, followed by Post Malone with nine. Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter and Eminem racked up six […]

Carpenter also paid tribute to Madonna by wearing the vintage white Bob Mackie-designed gown that Madonna wore at the 1991 Oscars.

The pop star’s performance at the VMAs also reignited speculation about her history with fellow performer Shawn Mendes, who took the stage moments before she did.

Fans have speculated that Carpenter’s recent album, Short n’ Sweet, was inspired by a brief romance with Mendes, 26. The pair were first spotted together in February 2023, sparking dating rumors. After they attended the Vanity Fair Oscars Party separately the following month, Entertainment Tonight reported that they were an item, but Mendes denied that he was dating Carpenter.

Mendes subsequently rekindled his relationship with Camila Cabello — whom he initially dated from 2019 to 2021 — after they were seen kissing at Coachella in April 2023. Mendes and Cabello, 27, ultimately split for good in June 2023, with a source exclusively telling Us Weekly at the time that Cabello was the one who “decided to end things” and Mendes was “very upset” that they could not make it work.

Carpenter’s fans noticed apparent nods to the situation on Short n’ Sweet. For one, the title of the album refers to “some of these relationships and how some of them were the shortest I’ve ever had and they affected me the most,” she told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe.