Sabrina Carpenter issues apology after 'mean girl' comment at Coachella

Sabrina Carpenter has issued an apology after making a social faux pas regarding someone’s cultural expression during her Coachella opening performance.

Coachella was a big moment for Carpenter, who took to the stage on April 10 to croon her hits, play piano, and dance like thousands of people were watching (because they were).

But in a moment of pause in between hits like House Tour, Please, Please, Please, and When Did You Get Hot, Carpenter ended up saying something that caused social media to explode.

It began when the 26-year-old suddenly stopped playing the piano as she told the audience: "I think I heard someone yodel.”

Once she seemed to have located the person in question, she asked: "Is that what you're doing?"

As the woman can be heard in clips posted to X, that it was a celebratory call that’s part of her ‘culture’, with the singer went on to tell her: "I don't like it.”

Sabrina Carpenter could be seen calling out a fan during her performance (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Coachella)

She added: "That's your culture, yodeling? Is this Burning Man [festival] what's going on? This is weird.”

Online, people began to slate Carpenter, as one X user claimed: "Sabrina Carpenter is so ignorant, someone was doing a zaghroot (an arab cheer), and she called it yodelling and disrespectfully dismissed the fact that it was a part of the person's culture, saying 'she doesn't like it.'"

“The 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,” another person wrote.

However, the singer has since cleared things up with an apology, explaining why she reacted the way she did.

Carpenter was filmed at Coachella (X)

“My apologies, I didn’t see this person with my eyes and couldn’t hear clearly,” she wrote on X on April 12, two days after the clip began to circulate online.

She went on to say that she’s now educated on the call, writing: “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.”

Plenty have defended the singer online after the slew of hate, with a person writing: “She’s a pop star, not a f***ing anthropologist, leave Sabrina Carpenter alone.”

Someone else said: "I am Middle Eastern, I didn’t take offense, she didn’t understand and thought they were heckling her… yes she didn’t understand when they told her it’s cultural either because why would she? A Caucasian American who I’m assuming is not aware about the types of celebrations around the world."

UNILAD previously reached out to the representatives of Sabrina Carpenter.