"Why" is a song by American singer Sabrina Carpenter. It was written by Leland, Sabrina Carpenter and Jonas Jeberg, with production handled by Jeberg. The song was released on July 7, 2017, through Hollywood Records, as the lead single from the singer's upcoming third studio album.

Carpenter teased the single release by sending postcards with handwritten notes and pieces of the artwork to fans. She also posted stills from romance movies on social media.

She told Billboard magazine that the song "happened very quickly". "We started with the first line of the song – 'You like New York City in the daytime; I like New York City in the night time' – and from there, the song kind of wrote itself. It's basically [about] these differences that we all have, that keep us different from one another but at the same time glue us together... I like to say it's very conversational, which some of my other songs haven't been before." She said that she "wanted this song to be able to take [fans] through the summer".

"'Why' is a question we seem to pose daily, so there are multiple meanings within the song that are up to interpretation. We don’t necessarily need to be the same, to love the same. Sometimes differences can hold us together and I think that’s a beautiful sentiment to how we deal with divergence and how it can furthermore prove our compatibility. In the end, we don’t really need to know 'why' if we are confident in our own emotions," Carpenter told iHeartRadio.

In an interview with Music Choice, Carpenter said that she is very excited about the song, and that she wrote it "a few months back". She said that once "we found that line [the first line of the song] we started going off on finding these little things that make us different from each other but they're not deal breakers".

Jason Lipshutz of Billboard magazine wrote that the single is "both extremely likable and highly promising of what's to come from the 18-year-old" and "the first step in an inevitable crossover", and that it "finds Carpenter playing a game of opposites attract with her beau, and sounding steadier in her vocal delivery". He felt that the "chopped-up synths" evoke Zedd and Alessia Cara's song "Stay". Katrina Rees of CelebMix thinks that the song "experiments with an electro-pop sound", and that Carpenter's "distinctive" vocal "glides effortlessly over the slick beat". Ilana Kaplan of New York Observer called the song a "pure dark-pop bop" and "hypnotic", and that it shows "Carpenter is more than ready to be taken seriously" and "a new side of the 18-year-old star". Brandon Yu of SFGate regarded the song as "a catchy electro-pop tune", and that it "sounds like a surefire summer radio staple". Mike Wass of Idolator referred the song as "one of the year's catchiest pop songs in early July", and felt that the "very on-trend" drop evokes Kiiara's debut single "Gold" and Kygo and Selena Gomez's collaboration "It Ain't Me".

...
Wikipedia