Singer-songwriter Sabrina Sterling releases her long-awaited single “Bittersweet” today via Columbia Records and Disruptor Records. Listen HERE. Sabrina’s soft voice and gentle guitar tell a heartfelt and nostalgic story about the complicated dynamics of sibling relationships. After sharing snippets of the track on TikTok in 2023, she was met with an unexpected flurry of support from commenters who connected with her lyricism, expressing the need for songs about siblings. Sabrina had a realization: “Wow, people really need and relate to this. So I decided to make it a full song.” Watch the Carly Sharp directed visualizer HERE.
In speaking about the song, Sabina says: “Bittersweet” was written about my older sister. I was nearing the end of my senior year and was feeling all the emotions that come with the reality of growing up and moving away. My sister and I used to share a bunk bed, fight over the front seat of my mom’s minivan, and wake up early to play video games together every morning in the summer. “Bittersweet” is a recollection of all my childhood memories with her. Now that both of us have graduated high school and started our own lives, it made me realize I even miss the chaos and the bickering. It’s always sad to know we will never share a bedroom again.”
Sabrina has found her people by writing songs that are vulnerable, self-aware, and full of a wisdom that’s far beyond her years. She cites diaristic lyricists like Phoebe Bridgers, Lizzy McAlpine, Julia Michaels, and Gracie Abrams as influences—a maturity that conceals the fact that until she got Spotify on her phone in eighth grade. In 2021, the then 16-year-old Sterling taught herself basic chords on the guitar and wrote her first song. Three months later, her first video blew up on TikTok. Sterling’s gentle acoustic guitar arrangements have won her a vast audience on TikTok, where tracks like “Bittersweet” and “Love Me That Way” have racked up millions of views and earned co-signs from the likes of Finneas and Olivia Rodrigo.
