Fact Check: Did Sabrina Carpenter trigger Zohran Mamdani's win?

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A viral claim on social media says that pop star Sabrina Carpenter is the reason behind Zohran Mamdani's historic victory as New York City's mayor-elect. 

So, let's find out if there's any truth to these claims. 

Claim: Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Feather’ led to Zohran Mamdani's win

Numerous social media posts claim that Sabrina Carpenter's "Feather" music video led to the federal indictment of then-Mayor Eric Adams, whose subsequent withdrawal from the mayoral race in 2025 created the opening for Zohran Mamdani to win.

A post published on November 6, 2025, by the @Zoomer_Doomer_ on X stated, “Currently thinking about how if Sabrina Carpenter didn’t film that music video which led to a church getting investigated which then led to Eric Adams getting indicted, Mamdani wouldn’t be mayor-elect rn.”

Another account @soulcontrolled wrote, “Thinking about how sabrina carpenter may have inadvertently been the catalyst for zohran getting elected.”

Fact Check: No! Sabrina Carpenter did not trigger Zohran Mamdani's win

While there was a sequence of events, what comes out to be the direct connection between Sabrina Carpenter's actions and Zohran Mamdani's victory is a theory popularized by fans and not a real cause-and-effect relationship.

There is no confirmation from any official source that the video was the direct reason for the federal investigation into Eric Adams' associates, nor that Adams' stepping down was the sole decisive factor in Mamdani's win. 

It is to be noted that Eric Adams was indicted on federal corruption charges in September 2024. While the charges were dropped without prejudice, he stepped down a month before the election, citing "constant media speculation." That did narrow the field, but Mamdani had already defeated Cuomo in the primary and ran a strong campaign focusing on inequality and corruption.

How it all started with Sabrina Carpenter's song 'Feather' in 2023

The rumored connection between Sabrina Carpenter and Zohran Mamdani's political success is an intricate chain of events which started with the singer's 2023 music video for her song, "Feather." The video, filmed partly inside the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, stirred controversy for showing Carpenter dancing in a revealing outfit after scenes suggesting the death of inappropriate men. 

Carpenter initially played down the backlash, but reportedly, the Diocese of Brooklyn was "appalled," and a Catholic priest, Monsignor Jamie J Gigantiello, was stripped of his administrative role for allowing the shoot, per the New York Times.

This debacle allegedly brought the church under federal scrutiny, according to an Entertainment Weekly report in 2024. Federal authorities subpoenaed the church after that, bringing Gigantiello's suspected business dealings with then-Mayor Eric Adams' office, specifically with Adams' confidant and former chief of staff Frank Carone, under the microscope.

The probe into Gigantiello's activities was part of the larger federal corruption investigation into Mayor Adams himself, which culminated in Adams' indictment in September 2024 for bribery and other charges. Carpenter even later joked about her role in the indictment.

Although Adams pleaded not guilty and charges were dropped in April 2025, enabling him to rerun for mayor, he stepped down a month before the election, citing "constant media speculation." For those who would make that connection, this move cleared the electoral field, reducing competition to a three-way race between Mamdani, Cuomo, and Sliwa.