Dripped in Dior and Betty Boop-realness, Sabrina Carpenter turned opening night of Coachella 2026 into her own playground. She’s come a long way from the set she performed two years ago when she vowed to return as headliner. Keeping good on that promise, Sabrina gave arguably the highest quality performance of her career thus far.

She has always had nice vocals to me, but I’ve never really pegged her to be an A-class singer in the vein of Christina Aguilera or any other artists she lists as inspiration. What Sabrina lacked in impressive vocal ability, she made up for in state-of-the art staging, charismatic presence and a clever storyline narrative, all presented in a playful and entertaining package.

The sets and special effects were all part of the experience. There was a squirting chair during “Tears”, perfect for an artist like her who always toes the line between hilarious and horny – exactly the exact kind of pop star I love because you can tell she wants to be on that stage, she’s having fun and she’s inviting us to have fun watching. As a viewer at home the entire show was shot beautifully, and really helped bring this latest album of hers to life. There’s some conversation surrounding performances that are designed for the camera rather than the live audience, but what else do you expect by a festival that is live-streamed worldwide? Sabrina played both to the camera and the audience, remaining super engaged with her crowd almost to a fault (more on that soon). The general consensus is that Man’s Best Friend isn’t as strong of an album compared to Short n’ Sweet, but this entire set highlights the tracks from MBF that, nine months after its release, enhances the overall body of work. I actually think Man’s Best Friend is a better album with a more focused sound and aesthetic: old Hollywood. Friday’s set was the first true look into how she’s visualizing it, as she performed eleven of the thirteen album tracks to tell the story.

“House Tour” has been one of my favourites from the new album and seeing it as the opening number was a fun surprise. The sound of that song is very bouncy, New Jack Swing inspired, giving a joyful feeling on that stage. Margaret Qualley directed the new video just in time for “Sabchella” and it is as fun, flirty and as sexy as the song sounds… which if you know, it’s a lot. The song has become something of the theme song to “Sabchella” with Kylie Jenner using it as the sound for her TikTok showing off her digs for the weekend. Kylie is all over my feed right now from her general Coachella history to her current Bieber themed weekend. It’s definitely a Coachella for the pop fans this year, even though Bieber’s pop days are long behind him as shown in his own performance the following night.

@kyliejenner

sabrina night !!!!

♬ House Tour - Sabrina Carpenter

Back to the music video – an older version of Sabrina is played by Susan Sarandon, while Will Ferrell and the voice of Samuel L. Jackson make an appearance. The music however is all Sabrina, with no musical artists making any special appearances during the show. One name that many thought would appear as a special guest but did not is Olivia Rodrigo. When Sabrina was posting teasers leading up to the performance, many fans noticed a striking resemblance to the “drivers license” visuals. The girls have history dating back to early 2021 when the “blonde girl” Olivia mentions in that very song was alleged to be Sabrina. It would have been a break the internet moment, and after Olivia’s recent sighting with Taylor Swift, many think that Sabrina was the logical next step. It didn’t happen and that’s a shame because there’s nothing better for a pop stan than two pop girlies making good on stage. I guess there’s always weekend two? Another moment that's expected to happen next weekend is a rumoured appearance by Madonna which had been circulating online. This would be poeteic after Sabrina recently channeled the Queen of Pop on the March 2025 cover of Vogue. Madge is on the brink of the start of a new music era and Coachella feels like the perfect place to make a grand return.

The set wasn’t without controversy though. In a moment where Sabrina sits by the piano about to perform “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night” she calls out what she calls “yodeling” from the audience. It was actually “zaghrouta”, an Arabic sound of joy. The cry is used in many Middle Eastern and North African cultures. I myself am very familiar with it coming from a Sephardic Jewish Moroccan family, but we call it the “you-you”. Women generally do it during parties and moments of celebration. Point is, the fan was essentially expressing pure joy, or at least what was intended to be joy before Sabrina’s confusion set in. Fans online were quick to call Sabrina out for questioning when the fan pointed out that it was their culture, while others say she may just not have heard correctly. I will say, she does say “it’s your culture?” before her now viral “I don’t like it” so she definitely heard, she just didn’t understand and respect the way that audience member was actually enjoying HER show. She has since apologized via X and acknowledged she could have handled it better.

Is Sabrina at Gaga or Beyoncé level when it comes to Coachella? Not quite, but she is showing a devotion to being the best pop diva she can be, from the school of the artists who came before her where she would have learned that you don’t do the same thing twice – so it’ll be interesting to see how she adjusts her set for next weekend, how she changes it up on the performance level but also, maybe, the attitude.

 

Photo credits: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com

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