This Summer’s Hottest Pop Star Is Bart Simpson’s Niece

Lisa isn’t the only musician in the family.

Over the years, many chart-topping musicians have been associated with The Simpsons in one way or another. For instance, Beatles legend Paul McCartney famously helped the aforementioned saxophonist learn to reconcile her newfound vegetarianism with her family’s carnivorous cravings in the episode “Lisa the Vegetarian.” Cypress Hill launched their collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra in “Homerpalooza.” And Michael Jackson was, uh, kind of in an episode. 

Basically, The Simpsons has always had a close relationship with the world’s most adored musicians, for better or worse — for every James Brown cameo the show somehow secured, there’s an entire Simpsons episode devoted to drooling over Lady Gaga.

Even beyond the on-screen appearances from beloved artists, The Simpsons has its ties to the music world behind-the-scenes, and one such connection is heating up faster than a Breville. Recently, many fans of former Disney Channel star and singer of the hit single “Espresso” Sabrina Carpenter realized that the pop star is the niece of Nancy Cartwright, the voice actress behind Bart Simpson. 

Next we’re going to learn that Homer’s brother is on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Carpenter, whose star has been steadily rising in the music world ever since she first pivoted from acting in children’s properties like Girl Meets World and Adventures in Babysitting with a pop career in the late 2010s, is quickly becoming one of the most talked-about artists in the genre following the success of her recent single and her stint as the opener for pop mega-mogul Taylor Swift on her 2023 Eras Tour. However, as star-struck as Carpenter may have been warming up stadiums full of Swifties, she’s been used to having a little star power in her life for a little while now.

In a 2021 interview with London-based radio station Capital, Carpenter spoke about her famous aunt and her experience growing up as an unofficial member of the Simpsons family, saying that her connection to Cartwright is “a very niche fun fact” about her background. “My whole life, that was just, like, the coolest thing in the world to me,” Carpenter said of her aunt’s accomplishments, though she added of The Simpsons, “I wasn’t really allowed to watch the show until I was a little older.”

“The woman is a woman of many talents, not just Bart,” Carpenter said of Cartwright. “She always blows me away.” Carpenter added that, though her aunt rarely played up her claim to fame, Cartwright was able to secure service at a fancy restaurant for her family on more than one occasion by breaking out the Bart card and doing the voice to impress a maître d’ into giving her, Carpenter and the rest of the family a VIP table.

Hopefully, the whole family wasn’t invited to such excursions — Cartwright’s name would lose a little gravitas should an errant uncle test the limits of “all you can eat.”