{"id":528230,"date":"2026-04-13T09:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T09:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528230\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T09:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T09:03:13","slug":"sabrina-carpenter-issues-apology-after-coachella-moment-sparks-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528230\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabrina Carpenter issues apology after Coachella moment sparks backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sabrina Carpenter<\/a> has apologised for her reaction to a fan\u2019s Arabic celebration call<\/a> at Coachella<\/a>, explaining her response was \u201cpure confusion\u201d. <\/p>\n

The 26-year-old pop star was the first headliner of the 2026 California music festival, delivering an Old Hollywood-themed performance on Friday night (10 April). <\/p>\n

Carpenter ignited some debate, however, when she responded to a fan in the audience who let out a Zaghrouta<\/a> \u2013 an Arabic celebration call performed by women to express joy at events such as weddings, graduations, and births. It is described as a high-pitched, trilling sound. <\/p>\n

Speaking into the mic, the \u201cEspresso\u201d singer said: \u201cI think I heard someone yodel. Is that what you\u2019re doing? I don\u2019t like it.\u201d <\/p>\n

The fan yelled back: \u201cIt\u2019s my culture!\u201d to which Carpenter replied: \u201cThat\u2019s your culture, is yodelling?\u201d The fan could then be heard explaining: \u201cIt\u2019s a call of celebration.\u201d Carpenter quipped in return: \u201cIs this Burning Man? What\u2019s going on? This is weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her response sparked backlash on social media, with some people condemning Carpenter\u2019s words as culturally insensitive. <\/p>\n

On Saturday (12 April), Carpenter addressed the controversy in a statement on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy apologies, I didn\u2019t see this person with my eyes and couldn\u2019t hear clearly,\u201d she wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cMy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video of the moment spread across social media, igniting a heated debate over how Carpenter handled the moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe way Sabrina doubled down and decided to continue to be ignorant even after it was clarified yodelling is part of that person’s culture says a lot about her,\u201d one person wrote.<\/p>\n

Others defended the singer, with another person writing: \u201cShe\u2019s a pop star, not a f***ing anthropologist, leave Sabrina Carpenter alone.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"(Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival)<\/p>\n

Carpenter\u2019s headline set was filled with other notable moments, including cameos from stars such as Will Ferrell and Landman actor Sam Elliott. <\/p>\n

A particular stand-out was Susan Sarandon. The 79-year-old delivered a nearly seven-minute dramatic monologue<\/a> mid-set, during which she played an older version of the pop star ruminating on her life and success. <\/p>\n

Carpenter\u2019s headline set on Friday (10 April) was followed by Justin Bieber on Saturday (11 April), with the final headliner Karol G still to perform. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-528230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}