"On Purpose" is a song by American singer Sabrina Carpenter. It was released as the lead single from her second studio album, Evolution (2016), on July 29, 2016 by Hollywood Records. The song was produced by Ido Zmishlany and written by Zmishlany and Carpenter. It is a pop and tropical house song and lyrically talks about a relationship that wasn't supposed to happen.

After Sabrina released her debut album, she started writing new songs for her second album. Ido Zmishlany collaborated with Sabrina in several songs such as "No Words", "Feels Like Loneliness" and "Smoke and Fire" the latter being the supposed first single from Evolution. In November 2015, Sabrina filmed a sample from the song chorus. On July 22, 2016, Sabrina revealed on her Instagram and Twitter that the song will be released on July 29, before that, Sabrina had already performed the song live. Sabrina explained that the song is quite ironic because it appeared accidentally. She also said that the song was mean to be a piano ballad, but it became something more fun and energetic.

"On Purpose" is a three minutes and fifty-eight seconds pop song with tropical house breaks. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com. The song is composed in the time signature of common time with a moderate rate of 100 beats per minute. It is written in the key of F major and Sabrina's vocal range spans from the low C3 to C6, thus making Carpenter's range a full three octaves. Lyrically, "On Purpose" talks about a relationship that Sabrina didn't expect to arise. The media circulated rumors that the song was based upon Carpenter' old relationship with Bradley Steven Perry.

In addition to producing "On Purpose", Ido Zmishlany engineered the track and do the additional vocal engineering. Nolan Wescott played the piano and do the vocal engineering. Serban Ghenea mixed the track and Chris Gehringer did the audio mastering at Sterling Sound in New York. The vocals were recorded at UMPG Studios in Santa Monica and the additional vocals were recorded at Faculty Studios.

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