Sabrina Carpenter delivered an apology after she misidentified a fan’s celebratory Arabic call as “yodeling” during her Coachella headlining set in an awkward moment that sparked outrage.
“My apologies,” she wrote on X on Saturday afternoon. “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!” she added. “I welcome all cheers and yodels from here on out.”
During her Friday night performance on the California festival’s main stage, Carpenter paused between songs after hearing a loud call from the crowd.
After finishing her hit “Please Please Please,” she sat at her keyboard as the audience quieted — except for one fan who continued shouting.
“I think I heard someone yodel,” Carpenter said, prompting the fan to repeat the sound.
“Is that what you’re doing?” she asked. “I don’t like it.”
“It’s my culture,” the fan replied.
“That’s your culture, is yodeling?” Carpenter said.
“It’s a call of celebration,” the fan explained.
Carpenter didn’t engage further with the clarification and instead joked, “Is this Burning Man? What’s going on? This is weird.”
The exchange quickly spread online while many people identified the sound as “zaghrouta,” a traditional celebratory vocal expression used in Arabic cultures at weddings and parties.
The moment fueled debate on social media over whether Carpenter’s reaction was appropriate.
“The way Sabrina doubled down and decided to continue to be ignorant even after it was clarified yodeling is part of that person’s culture says a lot about her,” one disappointed fan tweeted.
“Did Sabrina Carpenter just call that girl’s culture weird and creepy?” another added.
Others, however, defended the “Espresso” singer amid the backlash.
“She clearly could not hear the girl speaking,” one user wrote. “You have to remember she’s all the way up on stage.”
Before introducing her next song, Carpenter explained to the crowd why there was a slight delay, saying, “You know, the last time I played Coachella, I had some crazy piano malfunctions, so I’m making sure that we’re good here.”
She then introduced the track “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night”, telling fans, “I wanted to sing you guys a song I’ve never sung before from ‘Man’s Best Friend.’
“If anyone here has ever been in a relationship that starts, and ends, and then starts and ends, and then starts, and then ends, and then maybe it starts again and ends again, I’m singing this directly to you.”
Carpenter’s Old Hollywood-themed show also featured several surprise appearances.
Will Ferrell appeared onstage in a comedic bit as an electrician dragging a cable, Samuel L. Jackson contributed a voiceover segment during “Juno,” and the performance opened with a black-and-white intro featuring Sam Elliott.
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