E8: Pop Royalty: How Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, & Charli XCX Ruled 2024 and Other 2024 Highlights

We can't go into 2025 without a look back on 2024! Who reigned supreme last calendar year? On this episode of BibimPOP with Sean, we’re crowning the top three pop divas of the year — Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Charli XCX! 🎤✨ From Chappell’s midwest princess anthems to Sabrina’s sweet domination and Charli’s brat energy, these icons gave us unforgettable moments and music.

But wait — There’s so much more! Join me for a quick walk down memory lane with 10 pop culture highlights of 2024:

• The lingering magic of Barbenheimer at the Oscars.
• The Paris Summer Olympics, complete with medals, boats, and breaking!
• Robert Downey Jr.’s unexpected and villainous return to Marvel.
• Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo, stealing hearts worldwide.
• The pop culture frenzy surrounding the 2024 Trump - Harris election.
• The world’s heartfelt goodbye to Liam Payne. 💔
• Beyoncé being crowned Billboard's greatest pop star of the 21st century.
• Taylor Swift and her epic the Eras Tour.
• Wicked defying expectations and gravity.
• And a year that balanced “brat” energy with being demure.

Don’t miss my special guest—my mom, Jeanie—who’s here to recap her favorite Olympic moments! Grab your headphones, hit play, and let’s dive into the year that was. 👑🎶

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Episode 8
• 5:57 3 Pop Divas Who Owned 2024
• 15:18 10 More Highlights for 2024
• 30:29 Subscribe, Follow, Like, & Share

Transcript

Hello. Hello and welcome to episode eight of BibimPOP with Sean, where pop culture ate! Happy 2025! I seriously can't believe that we are in a new quarter of a century. I am so excited for this year and we're going to talk about New Year's in just a moment. But first, I just want to say that over winter break, I spent some time in new Jersey where I grew up, and just before coming to new Jersey, I was hearing about and reading articles about these like mysterious drones that were flying all over the state and no one knew where they were coming from.

And the story actually made national news. There was an Associated Press article that said, quote. In response, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily banned drone flights in 22 areas of new Jersey and 30 areas in New York, mostly in and around New York City and on Long Island, where critical infrastructure is located, FAA officials said. Federal security agencies requested the flight restrictions, which are effective through mid January.

Close quote President Biden even made a statement saying that there appears to be nothing nefarious about the drones and so, of course, I was naturally curious and interested to come home to new Jersey so that I could look in the sky and see all these supposed drones flying everywhere. And every time I stepped outside while I was on my break.

And let's be honest, that didn't happen too often because I was hashtag relaxing. But when I did, I looked into the sky to see the drones and there was nothing there. I didn't see any, not a single one. And honestly, I really looking back on like this story and what happened, I really feel like this was probably started with a few people outside just flying drones in the same area, maybe, like, I don't know, two people.

Someone took a picture of it, posted it online, it gained interest and people got unnecessarily worried. So then I'm just like picturing this all happened. So then I bet some like random teenagers. I just thought it would be funny to put dozens of drones in the sky to worry people even more. And it worked. And now it has made national news.

And there's just a group of high school students out there from Princeton, new Jersey, laughing their heads off. That's my guess. And since the new Jersey drones seem to have now disappeared, I guess I can settle into the idea of moving seamlessly from 2024 into 2025. Okay, but what did everyone do to celebrate the New Year? I'm wondering, are you more of the state in and have a more intimate celebration with close friends and family?

Or are you more of a go all out and party with hundreds of people? I definitely like to keep it a little more chill. Give me a charcuterie board. And as you know, I am all set. Let me graze, let me pick. But every now and then, like maybe once in, I don't know, maybe every decade or so, it could be fun to go out and do something with a lot of people.

That's a little more grand in scale for me. I usually have the Rockin New Year's Eve program playing in the background as I'm celebrating, and this year's lineup was good. Not amazing. I wasn't overly thrilled, but definitely good. It was great to have Rita Ora, co-host with Ryan Seacrest. You know how I feel about Rita Ora. I love her, and some of the performances included Alanis Morissette, Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood which I just have to say I love Carrie Underwood one.

I love that she is like the most successful of all the American Idol winners, and I had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas in 2023. In December, right before the holidays with my sister Krista, and we saw her in concert and she put on an incredible show like, amazing. I was listening to Carrie Underwood exclusively, probably for about a month after that concert.

She was so good. So if you haven't gone to Vegas to see her show go see her show. She's doing a residency. It's amazing. So good. Well, change your life. Go see it now. Get your tickets. Going back to the performances on the Rock in New Year's Eve program, we've also got Jonas Brothers, Kesha, Natasha Bedingfield, Renee Rap, T-Pain, Tina Shay and TLC.

You know, I am always looking for someone to bring me back to 1999 with no scrubs. No I don't want no scrub. Scrub is a god. I can't get no love from me hanging out the passenger side of it. Best friends that are so good I could just. I could sing that song forever. Forever and ever on repeat, nonstop for the rest of my life.

Such a vibe. So I'm wondering, did you tune in to the rockin new Year's Eve program? I'd love to hear your thoughts. What did you think? Did you like the performances? All right, I'm really excited. For today's episode. We are talking about some memorable pop culture moments from 2024. Let's reflect on the year we just came out of with anticipation for all that we're going to experience in 2025 and a little later in the episode, we are going to get to hear from a special guest visitor to the podcast, my mom, Jeanie, which I'm so excited to bring her on to the show.

So let's get into it.

All right, pop tarts, we can't talk about 2024 without giving mention to the top three pop divas who ran literally owned 2024. No battle. I know you're running through your head right now. Who these women could be. Well, you would be right if you guessed none other than Chapel Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Charlie X, let's talk briefly about each one and their monumental success this last calendar year.

Whether you are a fan or not. I know you have heard Chapel Roan this last year, her album The Rise and Fall of a midwest Princess reached number two on the Billboard 200 and earned six Grammy nominations, including album of the year. She released Good Luck Babe in April, which peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her first top ten hit.

And for a newer artist to the scene that is unreal. So unheard of and I am so excited for her. I just looked at her Spotify stream numbers and this song now has over 1 billion listens. That's amazing. And of course, who hasn't had h o t t o g o stuck in their head nonstop for at least I don't know, the entire year.

I'm raising my hand right now. I have, I have had that song stuck in my head all year. Her music is just infectious. It's memorable and it's fun. Her sound and vibe are so unique, and I really like that she is clearly doing her own thing. She is so individualistic, but in a way that appeals, or at least interests the masses and attracts a huge following.

And that is so rare for someone to be able to do. She actually reminds me a lot of Lady Gaga in that way, and I don't know if we've had a pop star in recent years that I have felt similarly about. She opened for Olivia Rodrigo's Guts World Tour across the US and Canada from February to April. She made her Coachella debut in April and performed at other large music festivals.

She won Best New Artist at the 2024 MTV VMAs in September, and dedicated the award to the LGBTQ plus community, which obviously I love, and she gained a lot of attention for her very extravagant and fun red carpet fashion choices. Congratulations to Chapo Roan for owning 2024. Let's now talk about Sabrina Carpenter. She really is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Chapel Road.

Someone like Sabrina Carpenter is definitely still doing her own thing, but her version of own thing appears to be much more mainstream. She released her sixth studio album, Short and Sweet, on August 23rd, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Her hit single You Know It Espresso topped the Billboard Global 200, peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 101 song of the year at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Let's just briefly recap her VMA performance. I love that it paid homage to Britney Spears. Sabrina included the spoken portion of oops! I Did It Again in her performance, and it also featured aliens and astronaut, which has connections to the oops! I Did It Again music video. And Britney herself even said that she liked the tribute. But she did call it weird, which I think is so funny because I'm like Britney, you do and have done some pretty strange things also.

So what do you mean by weird? All love for Britney here. And really, that whole night at the VMAs, it was just a lot of love to Britney, which I am just obsessed with. Megan Thee Stallion with the snake Halsey revealing her favorite VMA performance, which was a Britney performance, and Tate McRae recreating a classic Britney look for the red carpet.

Okay, let's bring it back to Sabrina Carpenter. Her song please, please, please became her first U.S hot 100 number one single and did so well across the global charts to her song Taste debuted at number two on the hot 100 and really for Sabrina in 2024. It was just hit after hit after hit. She was the first female artist to hold the number one and number two positions on the UK Singles Chart for three consecutive weeks.

On top of that, Sabrina spent 20 weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart in a single year, which I don't think an artist has done in something like 70 years. Yes, 70 years. She also headlined her first arena tour, the Short and Sweet Tour, and I had so many friends and people I follow go to her tour and I'm like, how did I miss this?

Why didn't I go? Definitely a missed opportunity for me. The concert looked so fun. Sabrina received eight Grammy Award nominations, including Best New Artist, record of the year, song of the year and Album of the year. And let's talk about her streaming numbers espresso oh became the most streamed song of 2024 on Spotify, with over 1.7 billion streams.

I actually was in New York City the other day, and I saw a billboard about this in Times Square, and that is so impressive. My brain, my brain can't even comprehend what a billion of anything even means or looks like or amounts to. And I really like Sabrina Carpenter, and I'm excited to hear more from her. And on a personal note, speaking of espresso, I actually just started drinking coffee this last year and maybe it was because the song espresso was just playing on repeat over and over, and it got so ingrained in my head that I was like, maybe I'll try coffee in 2024, and I did.

I started drinking coffee in like the summertime. It was like June or July, August, sometime around then, and ever since I started, I haven't stopped. I've had it. I've had a coffee, I think, every single day since I started drinking coffee and I, I don't know, maybe it was because of Sabrina Carpenter. Dear Sabrina Carpenter, thank you for changing my life.

I now drink coffee. Thanks. All right, let's talk about the next pop diva of 2024, Charli XCX. She released the album Brat on June 7th of 2024, and the album received so much hype that it achieved a Metacritic score of 95, which was the highest for any album released in 2024. The album's lime green cover art and esthetic became a viral like when I say viral, I mean like viral internet trend, influencing everything from pop culture to political campaigns.

In fact, if someone were to ask me to sum up 2024 in 1 word, I would probably say brat. In pop culture, this was the year of brat energy and brat behavior. And what does that even mean? Well, just think brat means carefree. Being unapologetically self expressive, being bold and just unbothered. Just doing whatever you want to do when you want to do it how you want to do it with no pressure of expectation.

Honestly, that sounds kind of nice. It sounds like my holiday break that I just had. Sleeping in. Really sleeping in is my best brat life. She also went on tour with Troye Sivan, performing in major venues including Madison Square Garden. Again, so many people I know and follow went to this show. I would have loved to have been able to go myself yet another 2024 missed opportunity.

What is going on Sean? Get with it. She also won Best Collaboration for her song guess featuring Billie Eilish at the VMAs, and she also released a collab for Sympathy Is a Knife with Ariana Grande. I'm sorry if you're getting Ariana Grande to collab with you, then you've made it. Yes, Charli XCX go! Charli XCX was also named in music's Most influential artist of 2020 for reflecting her really big impact on the music industry across the year.

She was also featured in Vogue's Best Dressed of 2024 list. So really, what can't Charli X do? Nothing. There's nothing she can't do. That's the correct answer. So between these three pop divas chaperoned Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX, we pretty much just covered all of 2024 pop culture. All right, my pop tarts. If you're liking this content and this conversation, please remember to subscribe, follow, like and share BibimPOP with Sean.

And while these pop divas had much ado about 2024, there were also some other pop culture moments from 2024 that I'd like to share.

I wish that I could devote considerable time to everything that happened in 2024. Alas, I cannot. We would be here well into 2025 at this point if I did. So let's just venture through a little walk down memory lane with ten more pop culture moments from 2024, and these moments are not in any particular order. But the first one I wanted to talk about was Barb and Heimer, who remembers Barb and Heimer?

I know Barb and Heimer. It was a summer of 2023 phenomenon, but it's reach was so huge that it actually extended into 2024, especially with the awards shows at the Oscars. Ryan Gosling performed I'm Just Ken. We all remember that performance. It was amazing. It was hilarious. I love that we got a live performance of I'm Just Ken and Oppenheimer won Best Picture, which I still have yet to see, and many expressed that Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie had been snubbed.

Let's just say I fully and completely agree with that idea. Number two, 2024 also gave us the Summer Olympics in Paris, the United States, winning 126 medals, the most of any participated in country. And they had a different opening ceremony, which took place along the River Cen, with athletes parading in on boats. There were over 10,500 athletes from 206 nations that competed in 32 sports and 329 events, including the debut of break dancing.

As an Olympic sport, I didn't really have the opportunity to see too much of the Olympics, but you know who did? My mom, Jeannie. So let's bring her on to talk a little bit about the Olympics. Hi, mom. Welcome to BibimPOP with Sean. How are you doing today? I'm so excited to be on your podcast. This is my podcast debut.

Well, that is pretty exciting. It has been such a fun time visiting home for the holidays. Have you really enjoyed spending so much time with me? It's been magical. But no, we had to take a little break from each other today and it was really nice. Okay we're back! I am really excited to talk to my mom about the 2024 Olympics because like I said, I didn't get to really see much.

My mom got to see more of it than I did. So mom, what were some of your favorite moments from the Olympics? Well, it was being held in Paris, France, so that was kind of cool to see it there. And instead of the whole Olympic parade with all the countries come out, they went. Were all on boats on the river.

Yes. It was actually a really cool nod to Paris to be coming in on the boats on the sand River. I know one of the really exciting things about the Olympics is that Celine Dion performed. What did you think about that? She performed at the opening ceremonies, and of course, we love Celine and we haven't seen her. I felt like we haven't seen her when people have been worried about her, but she looked great and the voice sounded great.

So that was really exciting to hear. And Sean, do you remember when we saw her in concert? Yes, we went and saw her in Las Vegas when she had a residency there, and it was near the end of her residency, right as she was about to stop performing. And so I feel really lucky to have been able to see her before she started having all those health concerns.

And she was just so personable, and you really felt like you got to get to know Celine and she sang all of our famous songs. It was great. Yeah. So it was a lot of fun to be able to see Celine reprise on the stage for the Olympics, especially in France. Oh, wait, she speaks French? Yes, she speaks French.

Yay! Yay for Celine. Yay for us. All right, mom, what were some of the sporting events that you enjoyed watching at the Olympics? Well, I really love the Summer Olympics. Just because I like it better than the winter sports I felt like I did like, I always do like the track and field, but my favorite is always the gymnastics.

Yes, I love the gymnastics. I would say the gymnastics, the swimming, diving, like those are the most exciting of all Olympic events. Yes. And this year I usually love watching the, women's gymnastics because who doesn't love Simone Biles? Who is such a icon this year? I really loved watching the men's. The U.S. men's team who got the bronze?

Yeah, that's really great. I'm really glad that you enjoyed the men's Olympics this past year. What were some of the highlights of the men's Olympics for you? Well, just that they were such a close team and they seem to really support each other. And the names I don't remember all the names, but there was, an Asher Hong who has the same last name that I have.

My maiden name was Hong, and I found out that his whole family is actually from the part of China that my family's from. So that was kind of cool. And then there was Stephen, the pommel horse guy who got really famous because he did such a good job. And then he was on Dancing With the Stars, and he did really good there, too, with what's her name?

Riley. Yeah, he performed with Riley Arnold on Dancing with the stars. And if you haven't seen that Very last dance that he did where he had his teammates come out and, you know, support him and they are all doing the gymnastics, it was just so great. So you should spend three minutes of your time watching that because it was so good.

Yes. I think the men's Olympics team was a lot of fun. It sounded like they had really great energy. And just the fact that you touched on this idea that these athletes that go to the Olympics, they really specialize in one specific area or subcategory of the event that they're performing in. And it's really impressive how they train and train and train to be the best of the best in this one very niche category.

And then they go on for one moment, maybe even lasting seconds. And it's like the pinnacle of their career. And so very exciting to see people who spend so much time, energy and effort in their craft to really be able to showcase all that they have to give on the Olympics stage. Yes, especially when they're successful, because sometimes they aren't.

And then it's so sad because, you know, they can do so much better. But let's not talk about sad things right now on BibimPOP with Sean. Let's. Okay, wait. We got one more thing. What? What would you like to say? I actually loved Snoop Dogg. What? Snoop Dogg who? Because his personality, he's just like such a personality.

And he was everywhere. Every time I turned on the Olympics, Snoop Dogg was there. I didn't really. I, you know, they say you learn something new every day, and I did not realize my mom was such a big fan of Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg. Yeah, I love him. Okay, well, there you have. You've heard it here on BibimPOP with Sean Snoop Dogg, if you're listening, please send me a DM and I will let my mom know that you said hi, mom.

Thank you so much for joining us. I'll add one more thing. Oh, another thing. This is how life this is generally how life goes at home. One more thing. Well, I was thinking because, there was Suni Lee, who's on the women's team, who's Asian, and then Asher Hong, who's Asian, that, you know, for so long you don't really see Asians representation on more sports or even as on TV or as actors or whatever.

So that was kind of cool to see that there is Asian representation for the USA. Yes. Yeah. And like you said, that Asian representation for the United States of America team, you make a really great point about representation, especially for the United States of America. I think that is so great that so many cultures can come together and participate on one team.

Mom, thank you so much for joining us on BibimPOP with Sean. I know you probably want to say one more thing, but I'm not going to let you say one more thing. So thank you so much. Okay. Pop tarts, they're called pop tarts. Five brown sugar. My mom said goodbye. Brown sugar, cinnamon pop tarts. I prefer strawberry, actually.

But, you know, it's up to the eye of the beholder. I'm so glad my mom could join me for a little bit of BibimPOP with Sean. That was so fun. I hope you enjoyed that little segment there. Let's return to the list. At number three, Robert Downey Jr returns to the Marvel Universe, but in a very different and unexpected way.

It was announced that he will be playing the popular and fan favorite villain, Doctor Doom. I am really excited to see how this all comes together. I thought he was dunzo with Marvel forever and I am glad to be wrong, but are we going to be able to see Robert Downey Jr as anyone other than the Marvel character Iron Man?

I don't know, jury's out for me, but I am excited to see how it all plays out. Moving right along to pop culture moment number four of 2024. And while I myself may not understand this particular pop culture moment, it would not be a recap of the 2024 pop culture moment if I didn't talk about the cute baby animal Moo Dang, the pygmy hippo who resides at a zoo in Thailand.

The number of times my husband Matt talked about Moo Dang this year, I feel like his affinity for Madang is actually greater than his affinity for me. Am I not cuter than a pygmy hippo? Okay, please. Immediately forget that I said that. Moving right along to number five. The presidential election 2024 was defined in so many ways by the Trump Harris election, the way celebrities now get invested and involved with the election process definitely put the election in the pop culture spotlight.

Celebrities like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish openly supported Harris and celebrities like Kanye West and Kid Rock showed preference towards Trump. This is not a political podcast, so I'm not going to get into any personal political opinions or views. I'm just saying that the election was certainly all over pop culture in 2024. Number six on the list here is a very unfortunate moment.

Every year brings its share of excitement and also sadness. The tragic loss of Liam Payne from the former One Direction shook the entire world. He passed away on October 16th at the young age of 31. I will forever remember first hearing about his passing. It was on a school day and it was at the end of the day and a teacher had passed by my office and shared the sad news with me.

This situation gave me pause and just made me think of how much stress and expectation many young people experience growing up in stardom, more so than any teenager or young adult should. And many times it seems these experiences carry into adulthood and are the source of a lot of complexity and pain. I don't know the exact details, and I certainly don't want to project these thoughts across every situation or even this situation.

It was just a thought that came to my mind always and forever. Wishing Liam's loved ones peace and only the best memories of their beloved Liam. Number seven on our list actually happened last month. Billboard honored Beyonce as the greatest pop star of the 21st century, her music being a commentary on society, identity, race, empowerment as an artist, she has so much creativity and innovation.

She's always topping the charts, hit after hit. She is a performer. I am so grateful I got to see her perform with Destiny's Child back in 2005 2006, when Lose My Breath was big and she was spectacular. She is a performer through and through. You cannot take your eyes off of her because she is so captivating. Congratulations to Beyonce for this recognition.

I know this award sparked a lot of controversy because many felt like it should have been Taylor Swift. And don't get me wrong, I love me some Taylor Swift. I love me Beyoncé. Congratulations to Beyonce. Let's be classy people. And for number eight, speaking of Taylor Swift, 2024 was definitely her year as well. Let's talk about the Eras Tour, which sold over 10 million tickets.

How did 10 million tickets get sold? And somehow I didn't get a single one. Yet another missed opportunity, I think. I think what I'm learning from this podcast is I missed out a lot this last year. I love that each show that Taylor did was a little different. It's almost like if you compare the very first show that she did on The Heiress tour to the last show that she did, they were completely different shows, and I love that.

In the span of one tour, she continued to reinvent herself to keep the experience fresh, exciting and new for her fans. I think I even read articles at some point last year about how Taylor Swift actually like, quite literally changed the economy. I think that's so crazy and I love that. And while touring across the world, she released two rerecordings and one new album.

She also held the title of time magazine's person of the year for the better part of 2024 2024. It was definitely a year for Taylor at number nine on our list. Let's talk about wicked. Wicked success rounded out pop culture excitement for 2024. Typically, it seems that movies that do well commercially don't get critical acclaim or praise. At least it seems that way a lot of the time.

And such is not the case with wicked. And I love that. Congratulations to wicked for all your success. Specifically Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who made the magic come alive. Their press tour interviews were also so great in 2024. Viral clips. So much love for one another, tears on tears on tears. And we are all holding space for defying gravity at number ten.

To close out our list of pop culture moments for 2024, let's talk about what it means to be so demure. I love that a single word can have such an impact on pop culture. Like what is going on? I don't know, I think it's great and I just want to say that I know that demure made it into the election space in some way.

I didn't really keep up with this. So I just want to emphasize no political connection here on BibimPOP with Sean. Anyway, if 2024 was brat, then it was also just as much about being demure, which ironically, is kind of like the opposite ish of brat. But also kind of along the same energy. It's so confusing. I know I don't even quite get it myself.

To be demure means to be self-aware and socially conscious. So now I want to know, can you be brat and demure? Questions of the soul, am I right? Who? We did it. We wrapped up the list of pop culture moments to remember for 2024.

Right. Okay, pop tarts, that's a wrap on episode eight. Thank you so much for listening. What is coming for episode nine? I'm going to have for you the first pop culture updates for 2025. And as we go into 2025, I wanted to keep you updated on the episode release schedule for BibimPOP with Sean. I am going to have new episodes for you twice per week.

Episodes will release on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, so remember to subscribe, vibe, follow like and share BibimPOP with Sean and follow me on social media for updates @bibimpoopwithsean on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok and @bibimpopsean on X, formerly Twitter. And you can go to my podcast website bibimpopwithsean.buzzsprout.com for more information.

Thank you so much for listening to BibimPOP with Sean where pop culture ate.