Sabrina Carpenter brings her hits (and Susan Sarandon?) to Coachella

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“How you feeling, Sabrinawood?” Sabrina Carpenter asked as she gazed out at the tens of thousands of fans she’d gathered into a makeshift city Friday night.“I can’t believe I’m headlining Coachella.“I mean, I can a little bit.”Indeed, when Carpenter made her Coachella debut in 2024, the Disney kid turned pop icon vowed that the next time she played the desert festival, her name would be atop the bill.She returned as promised this weekend as one of music’s biggest acts, with two No.

1 singles and a pair of Grammy-nominated albums under her belt and a story to tell about her rise to stardom.Music Sabrina Carpenter headlined and P-pop group Bini made history at Coachella 2026’s opening day.

Meanwhile high winds forced Anyma to cancel.See photos of the XX, Katseye, Turnstile and more.Heading into Coachella, I’d wondered whether Carpenter, 26, would simply play the same show she’d already brought several times to L.A.

(as recently as November) on tour behind 2025’s “Short n’ Sweet” and last year’s “Man’s Best Friend.”To her credit, though, she created a whole new production, which began with a video in which Carpenter is pulled over by a police offer played by the actor Sam Elliott as she drives toward a new life in Hollywood.In the video, Elliott lets her go, after which she turned up in the flesh at Coachella to strut down a Walk of Fame situation and end up onstage in a detailed simulacrum of the Hollywood Hills.The first half of the show featured a bunch of songs from the singer’s last two LPs — she sang “Please Please Please” in a mock-up of a recording-studio vocal booth, while “When Did You Get Hot?” sounded like En Vogue’s “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” — as well as an oldie in “Because I Liked a Boy.”Then came a very long appearance by Susan Sarandon, who delivered a monologue about … the trauma...