Her first time stepping on the Coachella stage was only two years ago, but it feels like Sabrina Carpenter has lived a million pop lives since.
The version of Carpenter who whipped up unique and unhinged viral “Nonsense” outros during her shows feels far away from the Grammy Award-winning global phenomenon she’s become in the time since. But her past has always been part of her evolution. “Coachella, see you back here when I headline,” Carpenter said in the outro during her early evening set in 2024. She made good on her word with an electric headlining performance on the Coachella main stage on Friday night.
The set was an intense, dramatic ode to Hollywood and California. Carpenter arrived to the stage in a vintage vehicle that appeared in her opening film noir nod. She featured special guests Will Ferrell, Sam Elliott, Corey Fogelmanis, and the voice of Samuel L. Jackson, which appeared mid-“Juno” and told her, “Now Sabrina, finish the motherfucking song.”
She packed 20 songs into the performance including the live debuts of “When Did You Get Hot,” “Sugar Talking,” and “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night” from Man’s Best Friend, plus the limited edition bonus track “Such a Funny Way.”
Carpenter kept the film theme going with nods to Kool & the Gang’s “Hollywood Swinging” and Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana” during a thrilling performance of “Feather” complete with a burlesque-themed set. During “Go Go Juice,” she seemed to reference “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago, while “When Did You Get Hot” pulled from Some Like It Hot and “Busy Woman” nodded to The Rocky Horror Show. Her catwalk even resembled the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Midway through the set, Susan Sarandon took over the spotlight for an extensive monologue delivered from a car on the festival grounds. She spoke in both a wistful and haunted manner as she reflected on the idea of youth, courage, and ambition — all of which Carpenter has plenty of.
Carpenter has been running full steam ahead since “Espresso” launched her into the pop stratosphere. She spent over a year taking her Short n’ Sweet tour around the world. The run — first set around 2024’s Short n’ Sweet then expanded to include 2025’s Man’s Best Friend — stretched across 72 dates. Each night was a major production — a massive house that doubled as a television studio — but more than anything it was her playground.
When she returned to the stage for the 2026 Grammy Awards, Carpenter transformed the space into SC Airlines, where hits took off and any baggage that might’ve hindered the amount of fun she was having was checked at the gate. At Coachella, Carpenter created something of a wonderland with Sabrinawood. The set design blended in elements of Los Angeles and the desert her audience stood in. It created an intriguing grounding effect that kept the thousands-deep crowd hanging onto her every move, just the way a blockbuster performance should.
Ahead of the festival, Carpenter teased the set in conversation with Marc Jacobs for Perfect. “It’s the most ambitious show I’ve ever done,” she said. “It’s probably the most time I’ve ever had to actually just sit down and talk about a show as I’m building it. Most of the time, you’re really quickly thrust into physical rehearsals, but this time around we started this process around seven months ago. So it’s been a long journey. It will be very special.”
When she first released “Espresso,” just before her 2024 Coachella appearance, Carpenter predicted exactly what would get everyone so hooked on it. “There was something really exciting about the fact that there was so much personality throughout the entire song, because those are the ones that are really, really fun to sing live with a crowd,” she told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe at the time. “Those are the ones that people, I think when they don’t know my music or who I am or anything, they can just tune in to a single song and kind of leave with a better idea of my sense of humor.”
The crowd that gathered by the thousands on Friday knew every word. Carpenter had Coachella wrapped around her finger for the entirety of her set. It’s what she wanted all along. It was only a matter of time. “Two years ago I wanted to put out a song before Coachella and now I think you might know the fucking words,” she said before launching into “Espresso.”
“I’ve really just been making things, excited about them, and then continuing forth,” Carpenter told Rolling Stone last year. “Not to be dramatic, but what can I do while my legs still work? I’m limber, let’s use it. My brain is sharp, let’s write. I try not to get sad about the fact that nothing lasts forever, but genuinely, it’s such a beautiful time right now. I want to soak it up and keep making things while I’m feeling this way.”