Sabrina Carpenter captivated audiences on Friday night with her electrifying headline performance on the opening day of Coachella.
The 26-year-old artist took to the stage amid a wave of applause, kicking off her set with a lively rendition of her romantic hit, “House Tour.”
Carpenter dazzled in a form-fitting sequined red minidress, showcasing her impressive figure and toned legs.
She followed up with a sultry performance of “Taste,” a track speculated to reference her former relationship with Shawn Mendes and his on-again, off-again partner, Camila Cabello.
With dynamic showgirl choreography, Carpenter danced atop backlit panels, accompanied by her backup dancers, in a nod reminiscent of Catherine Zeta-Jones’ iconic “Cell Block Tango” from the 2002 film “Chicago.”
The energy continued with a spirited performance of her 2024 hit “Busy Woman,” where she warns a former lover, “I’ll turn into someone you’re scared to know.”
Sabrina Carpenter set the crowd ablaze Friday night as she delivered her hotly anticipated headline set on the first day of Coachella
The 26-year-old thundered onstage to an explosion of applause and barreled into a n upbeat performance of her love song House Tour
Her statuesque figure was draped in a clinging sequined scarlet minidress that allowed her to show off her shapely legs
She then assures her uninterested quarry that she is a ‘busy woman,’ only for the song to take a turn with: ‘unless you call tonight.’
Her follow-up was Manchild, her scathing single directed at her ex Barry Keoghan and a song so beloved by her fans that she was able to hold the mic out and have them recite several of the lyrics for her from memory.
A clip played of Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe discussing jazz in the classic 1959 movie Some Like It Hot, giving Carpenter time for a quick-change.
She emerged in a slinky gold sequined bodysuit with a diaphanous cape that billowed around her as she crooned her song When Did You Get Hot?.
‘I can’t believe I’m headlining Coachella!’ she told the audience during one interlude before cheekily adding: ‘I can a little bit but it’s nicer to say that, right?’
Then, in a set made to resemble a recording studio, she sang her plaintive song Please Please Please, another single with Keoghan as its widely presumed target.
As she sat down at the piano to accompany herself for her next song, she was distracted by a yodeling fan who prompted her to joke: ‘Is this Burning Man?’
To a burst of excited shrieks from the audience, she delivered her first-ever live performance of her ballad We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night.
Leaving the recording studio, she strode across a set made to look like a city sidewalk at night, with cold mist blowing past the streetlight.
Her next song Nobody’s Son saw her sitting at a busy bar, otherwise populated by festive patrons as she sang wanly about ‘third wheeling’ for her friends.
Carpenter followed that number up with Because I Liked a Boy, which was about the public opprobrium she was heaped with because of her love triangle with Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett early in her career.
‘Now I’m a homewrecker, I’m a slut, I got death threats fillin’ up semitrucks,’ she sang: ‘Tell me who I am, guess I don’t have a choice, all because I liked a boy.’
She whirled through a succession of songs including My Man on Willpower – and then introduced a surprise celebrity cameo to the proceedings.
At a drive-in movie filled with vintage vehicles, Susan Sarandon said: ‘What a moron I was, running around like nobody’s gonna judge you, just bippity-boppity-boo, but of course, everyone’s judging you. What about that? What are you gonna do about that? Care? Of course you care.’
The monologue may have been interpreted by fans as a glancing reference to her recent remarks about having become persona non grata in Hollywood over her remarks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
‘You are supposed to care,’ she said. ‘I look happy, though, I do. What is it that Franny always says when she looks at pictures of me from way back in the day? S***, what was it? She was so cute. It was so cute.’
She then revealed herself to be playing an aged version of Carpenter, recalling that ‘Franny,’ whoever she is, would say when looking at pictures of her: ‘Aunt Sabrina’s happy but she doesn’t smile.’
Sarandon continued by noting, in character as an old Carpenter, that her niece Franny watches her on YouTube but notes that the medium is not ‘real.’
She added: ‘It’s a shame she never got to see me do anything real like a concert live in a real nice arena. You know what I would do? I would’ve made the label fly her and her mom and her dad to whatever country I was in and they’d be right down the hall from me in a really expensive hotel in whatever city I was in.’
However she clarified that her fantasy might not have been ‘such a great idea’ and ‘might have been a little weird. In this way I’m just Aunt Sabrina, and that’s real. It’s maybe not that exciting but it’s real.’
Carpenter then said that Franny’s mother – presumably one of Carpenter’s sisters Sarah, Cayla or Shannon – felt overshadowed by her being ‘the center of attention.’
She mused: ‘Anyway it must be impossible for a little girl to really understand what’s going on onstage. I mean, all people think they know what it’s like to be a star, that glow of all that attention, all those people rotating around you like little tiny planets.’
Those with a romantic view of stardom ‘don’t see all the nasty people, all of the vampires. They just see the light – and I like that.’
At the end, Carpenter’s old Girl Meets World co-star Corey Fogelmanis had a cameo as a harried drive-in employee who arrives to close out her tab.
After her monologue, another nod to Cell Block Tango came – a percussion opening that eerily recalled the number – Carpenter’s song Go Go Juice.
That performance was set in a dance studio, surrounded by her backup performers dashing around and doing their stretches in rehearsal gear.
The dance studio aesthetic continued into her performances of Such a Funny Way and Sugar Talking, both from her latest album Man’s Best Friend.
