Warta Kema – Sabrina Carpenter has returned to the infamous yearly music festival, Coachella, on the 10th of April 2026. She’s now taking the position as the headliner after her last Coachella on the 12th April 2024.

Sabrina made her entrance as the headliner of Coachella 2026 in 4 different acts and aesthetics. The 4 themes consist of the Hollywood arrival, 70s studio, 80s cinema, boudoir glamour, and her last act, being the Hollywood Glamour. 

These 4 different concepts are connected to her main style, being the “Sabrinawood” that contains stage decorations from her “seemed-to-be-fixation” with the Classic Hollywood theme. As we can see from her recreating the Hollywood sign into her real name, “Sabrinawood”, suggesting that she is making the stage of her own world.

Sabrina also conjured up several surprises for her fans, leaving them in shock, and created an unforgettable experience in the sun-drenched desert oasis. From changing outfits, surprise songs, guest stars, and engaging with her fans twice from the stage barricade. Her first performance captivates the crowd and even the internet.

Her first surprise performance is singing one of her songs from her 7th studio album, Man’s Best Friend, titled “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night.” 

“I wanted to sing you guys a song I’ve never sung before from ‘Man’s Best Friend,” she said before leaving the crowds in shock. She continued teasing this song by saying, “If anyone here has ever been in a relationship that starts and ends and then starts and ends and maybe it starts again and then ends again. I’m singing this directly to you. This is ‘We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night’.” This marks the debut of the song, where she performed it with a more refined guitar solo.

Sabrina has also created a remix of her song Feather by sampling the rhythm from the song “Copacabana” by Barry Manilow. She remixed the song by changing “En el Copa (Copa) Copacabana (Copacabana)” into “Sabrina/She’s at Coachella!” The remix started after the lyric “with you off my mind,” where the instrument of the music suddenly changed into a short instrumental break before the remix started with “Sabrina/She’s at Coachella!” This remix shocked the fans and received positive comments as fans were commenting on how they want the full version on Spotify and how the remix “blessed” their ears. 

As the headliner, Sabrina also stirred some tension online right after she left the stage. She was alleged to be disrespectful towards Middle Eastern culture when she interacted with her fans before she teased, “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night.” 

Before she sang the song, she heard one of her fans cheering her with an Arabian call, Zaghrouta, which symbolizes happiness. Sabrina had no idea why her fan cheered her like that because she didn’t know about the call. With confusion, she replied, “That’s your culture is yodeling? I don’t like it.” This left Middle Eastern fans angered on the internet because they saw her attitude as a form of disrespect towards their culture. 

One day after her performance, she later apologized on her Twitter: “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,” she stated.

Sabrina has also prepared a bunch of surprises for her fans by inviting famous actors as her guest stars. The first actor was  Sam Elliot as a cop who stopped Sabrina’s car while she was on her way to California (to perform at Coachella). Sam’s existence has established the high-budget cinematic tone of the set. 

The second was Susan Sarandon, who played the older version of Sabrina Carpenter in a 7-minute monologue reflecting on her career and fame. Sabrina’s invitation to Susan also symbolizes a way to defy the “Hollywood Blacklist.” Susan was blacklisted in late 2023 by her agency, UTA  (United Talent Agency), for speaking up about Palestine. 

This bold movement shocked and impressed the audience. This can be seen from one of the Twitter users, @vintagewordstuf, who interpreted that Sabrina’s performance as a headliner is much more than pop.

The surprise doesn’t stop there, when Corey Fogelmanis, as a carhop, interrupts Susan’s monologue. The moment the camera tilts to Corey, fans are screaming because Corey was one of the most significant actors in Sabrina’s acting career. He was her co-star on one of her oldest shows on Disney Channel, Girl Meets World, where he played Farkle Minkus, Maya Hart’s (Sabrina Carpenter) best friend.

The last “on-stage” guest star is Will Ferrell, who played a role as a repairman to fix the lighting of the set after Sabrina performed her song Bed Chem in her previous act. This short comedic transition serves as a short break for the audience before Sabrina launches her final act.
Sabrina presented the very last surprise guest star in a unique way, similar to how she presented her first actor, Sam Elliot. Her last guest star was Samuel L. Jackson, who acts as a “spiritual guide” when Sabrina performs her song “Juno” and replaces the “Juno Position.” Right after she sang the lyrics “Have you ever tried this one?” The music stops abruptly, and a gong comes up to the stage with Samuel’s voice, where he hilariously instructs the audience to breathe in and breathe out. Then he instructs Sabrina to continue the song by saying, “Sabrina, finish the m**********ing song!” 

She later finished her performance with her final song “Tears”. The final surprise of this song was when Sabrina was sitting on a car seat, and it suddenly turned into a water fountain. This element of surprise happened when the song Tears entered its bridge. After the lyric “dance break”, the final surprise is water bursting out of the stage, drenching Sabrina, her dancers, and the audience with water while closing the performance with a blast. 

Many fans have commented that “this is what happens when you’re giving an unlimited budget for a theater kid.” This comment suggests that Sabrina’s performance as a headliner shows a huge difference from her last performance in 2024. The quality differences can be seen through the amount of surprise she pulled off, different acts with different concepts and attire, and even more avant-garde stage props. 

As the headliner, it is an unwritten rule that an artist needs to pull a memorable performance, and Sabrina did it successfully in her first week.

Reporter: Firdaus Isamida Prabowo

Editor: Elga Thalita Perangin Angin, Khayla Dinda Pradwina, Fernaldhy Rossi Armanda