Sabrina Carpenter has apologised after mistaking an Arabic celebration call for yodelling during her Coachella performance.
The Espresso hitmaker called out a fan for yodelling during her headline set at the California festival on Friday (10.04.26) but has now issued a social media apology after it turned out that the audience member had in fact performed a celebratory Arabic ululation known as a Zaghrouta.
In footage posted on social media, Sabrina said: “I think I heard someone yodel. Is that what you’re doing? I don’t like it.”
When the fan replied that the sound was “part of my culture” and “a call for celebration”, she replied: “That’s your culture, yodelling? Is this Burning Man? What’s going on? This is weird.”
The comments were met with a backlash on social media and the Please Please Please artist has now expressed contrition for her remarks on X.
The 26-year-old singer wrote: “My apologies, I didn’t see this person with my eyes and couldn’t hear clearly.
“My reaction was pure confusion, sarcasm and not ill intended. Could have handled it better! Now I know what a Zaghrouta is! I welcome all cheers and yodels from here on out.”
Sabrina’s opening Coachella performance (she will also play a show on April 17) featured guest appearances from Hollywood stars Will Ferrell and Susan Sarandon and she had previously promised her “most ambitious show” yet at the festival.
Speaking to fashion mogul Marc Jacobs for Perfect magazine, she teased: “It’s the most ambitious show I’ve ever done.
“It’s been the longest lead-up she’s had to a concert, and it’s given her more time than ever to focus on building a ‘special’ gig.
She added: “So it’s been a long journey. It will be very special.”
Sabrina made her Coachella debut in 2024 and admits that it is “surreal” to see how her career has soared over the past two years.
The Manchild hitmaker said: “And now, two years later, we’re back. And I think that’s what makes this show feel really, really surreal:
“Getting to celebrate all the songs that have come after it, and just how many lives they’ve lived since they’ve come out.”