Busy Woman

Sabrina Carpenter's "Busy Woman" is an ode to balancing a high-powered lifestyle with a flirtatious invitation for the right suitor to "come into her calendar." Though rejection shatters her composure, she protects her ego by acting indifferent, as she is too busy to entertain anything less than what she deserves.

The song provoked some controversy. The lyric "If you don't want me, I'll just deem you gay" sparked debate, with some listeners calling it insensitive and others defending it as satire. Carpenter's longtime support for the LGBTQ+ community was cited as evidence of the latter. Comparisons were made to Taylor Swift's original "Picture To Burn" lyric, where Swift sang, "That's fine, I'll tell mine you're gay" before later revising it to avoid offense.

Lyrical quibbles aside, "Busy Woman" is a musical sugar rush, co-written with Amy Allen and produced by Jack Antonoff, whose signature maximalist pop tendencies are on full display. The track was a last-minute creation, arriving just after Carpenter had finalized her Short n' Sweet album. Determined not to let it languish in the archives, she squeezed it onto a limited digital edition, titled Short n' Sweet(er), before eventually giving it a full-fledged release on the album's deluxe edition.