"Exhale" is a song recorded by American singer

Sabrina Carpenter Sabrina Annlynn Carpenter (born May 11, 1999) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She first gained prominence starring on the Disney Channel series ''Girl Meets World'' (2014–2017). She signed with the Disney Music Group, Disney ...

from her fourth studio album '' Singular: Act II'' (2019), released as the album's second promotional single on May 3, 2019. Before the song's release, Carpenter performed the song as an encore on the Singular Tour.

Background and release

Carpenter stated that "Exhale" is the most difficult song for her to sing as she gets very emotional. Carpenter also described the song as being her most personal and vulnerable song yet. Carpenter began performing the song as an encore of the Singular Tour. After the reception from her fans, Carpenter considered putting the song on '' Singular: Act II'', before finally deciding to include it on the track list. In April 2019, Carpenter stated that "Exhale" would be released very soon, presumably being released as a single. Carpenter further fuelled the rumours at the 2019 ''Billboard'' Music Awards, saying that she would be releasing her "most personal song yet" soon. On May 2, 2019, Carpenter formally announced the single via her social media. The song was released that night. The song was written in 2019, just before Carpenter embarked on the Singular Tour, by Carpenter,

Ross Golan Ross Jacob Golan (born April 8, 1980) is an American songwriter, record producer and playwright. Life and career Early career Golan graduated from Deerfield High School (Illinois) of Deerfield, Illinois in 1998. He studied music at the Universi ...

and the song's producer, Johan Carlsson. The vocals were produced by Carlsson and Noah Passovoy. Carlsson played electric guitar, programmed, and served background vocals with Carpenter and Golan to the track. The strings were recorded and edited by Mattias Bylund at Studio Borgen in

Partille Partille () is a former urban area in the county of Västra Götaland in Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to ...

and arranged by Nils-Petter Ankarblom. The orchestra consists of David Bukovinszky on

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

, Mattias Johansson on

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

and Bylund and Ankarblom on string synthesizers. The song was mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach (colloquially VB) is the List of cities in Virginia, most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeaster ...

and John Hanes served as an engineer for mix. The song was

mastered Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source from which all copies will be ...

Sterling Sound George Marino (April 15, 1947June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He attended ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

by Chris Gehringer with Will Quinnell serving as an assistant.

Composition

"Exhale" is a "somber"

midtempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given composition, and is often also an indication of the composition's character or atmos ...

R&B

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

that runs for two minutes and forty four seconds. Lyrically, the song is about pressure and

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...

in life and the need to take a breather or break from them.

Music video

A visualizer video accompanied the song's release. It features a digitally edited version of the single artwork moving around. The song's official music video was premiered on Carpenter's YouTube and VEVO channels on May 17, 2019. It was directed by Mowgly Lee and features Carpenter singing in a valley. At the end of the video, Carpenter's studio vocals turn into a live a cappella of her singing the song. John Blistein of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' called the video "simple but affecting". The music video was re-released on July 27, 2024 shortly ahead of Carpenter's 2024 album ''

Short n' Sweet ''Short n' Sweet'' is the sixth studio album by American singer Sabrina Carpenter. It was released on August 23, 2024, through Island Records. Primarily a pop record with country, folk, disco, rock, and R&B influences, ''Short n' Sweet'' was ...

''.

Live performances

"Exhale" was performed as the encore on the Singular Tour.

Credits and personnel

Recording and management *Strings Recorded and Edited at Studio Borgen (

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

) *Mixed at MixStar Studios (

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

) *Mastered at

(

) *MXM (ASCAP) all rights administered by Kobalt Songs Music Publishing (ASCAP), Back In Djibouti (BMI) and Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI) all rights obo Itself and Back In Djibouti administered by Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp., Seven Summits Music (BMI) obo Itself and Pink Mic Music (BMI) Personnel *

– lead vocals,

songwriting A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

, background vocals *Johan Carlsson – songwriting,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

, vocal production, background vocals,

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

– songwriting, background vocals *Noah Passovoy – vocal production *Mattias Johansson –

*Mattias Bylund –

string synthesizer A string synthesizer or string machine is a synthesizer designed to make sounds similar to those of a string section. Dedicated string synthesizers occupied a specific musical instrument niche between electronic organs and general-purpose synthes ...

, string recording, string editing *Nils-Petter Ankarblom – string synthesizer,

string arrangement The string section of an orchestra is composed of bowed instruments belonging to the violin family. It normally consists of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. It is the most numerous group in the standard orchestra. In ...

*David Bukovinszky –

*Serban Ghenea – mixing *John Hanes – engineering *

Chris Gehringer Chris Gehringer (born May 27, 1962) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound in New Jersey. Gehringer is known for having mastered recordings by popular artists such as AJR, Dua Lipa, Drake, Ed Sheeran, Gwen Stefani, Harry Styles, ...

– mastering *Will Quinnell – assistant Credits adapted from '' Singular: Act II'' liner notes.

Charts

Release history

References

{{authority control 2010s ballads 2019 songs 2019 singles Contemporary R&B ballads Hollywood Records singles Pop ballads Sabrina Carpenter songs Songs written by Sabrina Carpenter Songs written by Johan Carlsson (musician) Songs written by Ross Golan