Sabrina Carpenter Headlines Coachella With Star-Studded Set
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- Sabrina Carpenter headlined Coachella with a 90-minute set featuring costume changes, retro cars, a "SABRINAWOOD" Hollywood sign replica, and multiple Marilyn Monroe references
- Sam Elliott appeared in a black-and-white intro video as a cop warning Carpenter not to go to California, before the set launched into "House Tour"
- The show included the live debut of "We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night" and celebrity cameos from Will Ferrell (as an electrician) and Samuel L. Jackson (as a foul-mouthed "spiritual guide" voiceover), with Anya Taylor-Joy spotted singing along from the crowd
- A nearly 7-minute interlude with Susan Sarandon playing an older version of Carpenter and a cameo from Corey Fogelmanis was called a "momentum killer," with a viewer on the ground texting that people were sitting down and leaving
- Carpenter closed strong with "Espresso", recalling that when she played Coachella in 2024, the crowd didn't know the words to the song she'd released the night before — and that she had promised then to return as a headliner
- The finale featured "Tears", with Carpenter elevated in a sprinkler-head chair spritzing herself and her backup dancers before driving offstage in a vintage car
Why it matters: Carpenter's headline slot, earned just two years after a 2024 set where the crowd didn't know "Espresso," marks one of the fastest ascents from Coachella sub-headliner to top-billed pop headliner. The 7-minute Sarandon interlude exposed how celebrity-cameo staging can stall momentum at a festival where audience attention is the scarcest resource — a real-world test of whether the showbiz flair scaled up or just bloated the runtime.
