This first week of Coachella recently left pop star Sabrina Carpenter in a sticky situation after she called an iconic trill from Arab culture weird.

April tenth of 2026’s Coachella in California was Carpenter’s first performance as a headliner at the famous festival. Thousands of people of all backgrounds gathered to hear her sing. As she sat at the piano to play “We Almost Up Again Last Night” many fans began to cheer but one seemed to be louder than the rest. 

A fan used an Arab call called the Zaghrouta to cheer on Carpenter. The Zaghrouta is a high-pitched vocal call known as ululation and is used in the middle-east and Arab culture as a celebration. It is common to hear these cheers at weddings and other celebrations. 

Carpenter heard this call and reacted with confusion asking if they were yodeling. The fan responded with another call and said “it’s my culture.” 

Carpenter continued the conversation for a short while ending with “Is this burning man? This is weird.” 

The internet exploded shortly after with critics and die hard fans arguing via keyboard on virtually every social media platform. Lots of people, especially those who are from middle-eastern descent themselves, were outraged, saying Carpenter disrespected their culture and acted with ill-intent. Her fans defended her saying she was just confused or that she couldn’t hear well.

Carpenter fan Chloe Thorpe said “No one is going to cancel her.”

I believe the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Carpenter did seem genuinely confused but ignorance does not deserve immediate forgiveness. After hearing that the call was someone’s culture, she could have just backed off. Everything she said after that might have been genuine misunderstanding but there is no doubt that her response was disrespectful and inappropriate. Her apology does not acknowledge her wrongdoing and doesn’t even include the word sorry.

Does this mean I believe she should be shunned from the pop culture world? No, I believe that she should issue a genuine apology to the fan and educate herself a little more about how to respond to a culture that is not hers. There is no reason that her whole career should end after making one ignorant remark. 

Sophomore Chris Brown said “She’s not in the wrong for not knowing everybody’s culture.”