Johnathan Walker:Britney Spears praises Sabrina Carpenter after VMAs homage: 'She made me cool'

The Johnathan WalkerPrincess of Pop can't get enough of that Sabrina espresso.

Britney Spears is giving a shoutout to Sabrina Carpenter after the popstar paid homage to Spears during her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday night.

"I forget I'm famous sometimes because I'm a mom, I'm kind of old, blah blah blah. But I thought it was kind of cool," Spears said in an Instagram video Thursday. "She made me cool."

Carpenter, who has dominated the summer airwaves with her disco-pop smash "Espresso," performed a medley of her recent hits, which included "Taste" and "Please Please Please."

The 25-year-old singer kicked off her VMAs number by dangling in the air on a giant diamond before descending onto the stage and dancing alongside astronauts and a person in an alien suit — with whom she proceeded to make out.

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It was during the transition between "Please Please Please" and "Taste" that Carpenter tributed the "…Baby One More Time" singer. As one of Carpenter's astronaut dancers took center stage, a snippet of Spears' voiceover from her 2000 song "Oops!... I Did it Again" began playing.

In the "Oops!" voiceover, Spears speaks with a man who tries to win her affection with the Heart of the Ocean diamond from the film "Titanic." In the song's space-themed music video, the man is shown wearing an astronaut suit.

While Spears said she was puzzled by the alien dancer in Carpenter's performance, she gushed about the "Feather" singer.

"I adore her," Spears said. "I love her to death."

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Aside from an eye-popping performance at UBS Arena in New York, the 2024 VMAs saw Carpenter take home her first Moon Person.

Carpenter won the award for song of the year for "Espresso." The song peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and its music video has racked up over 160 million views online.

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"I've literally never won one of these," said Carpenter, who thanked her fans and her "cats and dogs that are at home watching" before quipping, "And thank you to that me espresso."

Contributing: Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY