I fear the 2025 song of the summer competition is officially over… Once Sabrina Carpenter enters the chat, no one else realistically stands a chance. Not even Benson Boone and his moonbeam ice cream anthem! Hehe.

The impact of 2024’s “Espresso,” and “Please Please Please” is truly difficult to overstate, and I have a strong feeling that “Manchild” is about to dominate pop culture and award shows in a similar way. Right on time (June 2), the queen of pop girl summer began teasing her next single with a few cryptic billboards and a teaser video of her attempting to hitchhike in cutoff shorts and heels. “Oh boy,” she says in a playful voiceover. On June 3, Sabrina shared the cover art for the single and revealed that the new song is coming this Thursday, June 5. She captioned her announcement post, “This one’s about you!!”

To ask the obvious question: Does “you” refer to her famous Irishman ex? Based on a few intriguing hints, I think “Manchild” might indeed be about Barry Keoghan, and I also think it’s a response or sister song to Sabrina’s 2024 love song, “Please Please Please.” Allow me to break down this brilliant theory.

Sabrina Carpenter New Song “Manchild”: Is It About Barry Keoghan?

Sabrina Carpenter “Manchild” Lyrics

We won’t have all the “Manchild” lyrics until Thursday, of course, but the billboards teased a few interesting lines. “I swear they choose me, I’m not choosing them,” one read. Another displayed, “Amen,” while a third one read, “Hey men!” It’s fairly obvious (just based on the title alone) that this is gonna be a misandrist anthem, which I think is precisely what we need this summer.

If I had to take an educated guess, I’d say this song is likely about a recent heartbreak (*cough* Barry) and Sabrina’s frustrations about men always treating her poorly. A quick refresher: Sabrina and Barry broke up in December 2024 after about a year of on and off dating. “They are both young and career-focused, so they’ve decided to take a break,” a source told People at the time. Mhmmm, I’m sure that’s all it was.

They had a fairly public relationship — Barry starred in Sabrina’s “Please Please Please” music video, which is still the first pinned post on Sabrina’s Instagram. And that song, along with several others on Short n’ Sweet, were obviously inspired by the Saltburn actor. Interestingly, Sabrina first teased “Please Please Please” on June 2, 2024, exactly one year before she teased “Manchild.” And “Manchild” is coming out almost exactly one year after “Please Please Please” (off by one day).

“I heard that you’re an actor, so act like a stand-up guy,” Sabrina croons in the 2024 hit. “Whatever devil’s inside you, don’t let him out tonight / I tell them it’s just your culture and everyone rolls their eyes.” She begs the “motherfucker” to not “embarrass” her, and, well, it appears he may have done just that.

Sabrina also warned, “If you don’t wanna cry to my music / Don’t make me hate you prolifically.” Her “Manchild” announcement caption, “this one’s about you!” just makes me think… These two songs are connected and Barry is almost definitely gonna be crying to the new music.