Sabrina Carpenter was the lucky lady in Usher‘s crowd at the 2025 Met Gala who got to share a sensual moment with the R&B powerhouse Monday (May 5) — but the cherry on top was her dad’s hilarious reaction to the moment after the fact.
In a photo taken that night inside New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Usher performed for gala attendees following the pomp and circumstance of the red carpet, the “Yeah!” musician holds a microphone in one hand while pinching a maraschino cherry by the stem in the other, dangling it over the pop star’s open mouth. Carpenter, meanwhile, eagerly tilts her head back and sticks out her tongue to accept the offering.
The up-close-and-personal gifting of cherries has become a staple of Usher’s live shows, with the star first doling out the fruits to fans at his 2022-23 Las Vegas residency concerts. “It started with strawberries in Vegas,” he explained on The Jennifer Hudson Show in February. “So, you know, I just figured we try all the fruits until we figured out which one works the best. But cherries were something that I felt was fun and just kind of active. It was a bit erotic.”
“That’s what R&B is all about, right?” he added at the time with a cheeky smile. “Being connected and making people feel something fun — I don’t mean to break up houses.”
It’s probably the admittedly “erotic” nature of Usher’s cherry tradition that didn’t exactly thrill Carpenter’s dad, though. On Instagram Wednesday (May 7) — two days after the gala — the “Please Please Please” singer shared a screenshot of her texts with “Dadda,” who sent her the photo of the moment and simply wrote “? Weird.”
Beyond accepting snacks from Usher, Carpenter also hung out with “Taste” music video costar Jenna Ortega and modeled a leggy brown Louis Vuitton leotard on the red carpet at this year’s Met. The 2025 theme was “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which Usher — in addition to being that night’s performer — helped exemplify as one of the members of this year’s costume institute benefit host committee.
