Sabrina Carpenter mistakes fan’s ‘call of celebration’ for yodeling in awkward Coachella moment: ‘This is weird’

Sabrina Carpenter brought a shiny, sexy pop spectacle to Coachella’s main stage on Friday night — but she also stopped mid-set for an awkward moment with a very enthusiastic fan.

After belting her hit single “Please Please Please,” the singer sat at a keyboard and adjusted her microphone to prepare for her next song. After widespread applause died down, a single fan could be heard uttering a zaghrouta, a celebratory cry commonly heard at Arabic celebrations.

“I think I heard someone yodel,” Carpenter said, prompting the fan to repeat the sound.

“Is that what you’re doing?” the “Espresso” singer asked. “I don’t like it.”

“It’s my culture,” the fan responded.

“That’s your culture, is yodeling?” Carpenter asked.

The fan tried to offer some context. “It’s a call of celebration,” they said.

Carpenter did not directly acknowledge that explanation. “Is this Burning Man? What’s going on?” she asked. “This is weird.”

The singer then explained why there was a slight delay between songs. “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 said before introducing her next track.

“I wanted to sing you guys a song I’ve never sung before from Man’s Best Friend,” she said as the audience applauded. “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 then began performing her song “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Carpenter and Coachella for comment.

The singer’s Hollywood-themed set included a number of guest appearances from iconic actors. The show began with a pre-recorded segment echoing Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho that featured Sam Elliott as an off-putting traffic cop.

Later in the performance, Susan Sarandon performed a long monologue in character as an older version of Carpenter who reflected on “what it was like to be a star” while sitting in a vintage car. Her speech was interrupted by Carpenter’s former Girl Meets World costar Corey Fogelmanis, who portrayed a bellhop in the live segment.

After several more songs, the power on stage appeared to glitch out (in what was clearly a planned stunt) as Carpenter concluded her song “Bed Chem.” Will Ferrell emerged from a trapdoor dressed as a repairman and complained to the audience as he fixed the electricity with a long power cord.

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.

The next song, “Juno,” featured a brief interlude that boasted a pre-recorded audio message from Samuel L. Jackson. The Pulp Fiction star led a breathing exercise before commanding Carpenter to “finish the motherf—ing song.”

Carpenter is scheduled to return to Coachella’s main stage for the festival’s second weekend on April 17. Justin Bieber and Karol G are headlining the main stage both weekends on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly