Sabrina Carpenter’s Coachella Headlining Set: Best Moments and Highlights

Sabrina Carpenter headlined the first night of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday, April 10, 2026, delivering a performance centered on a vintage Hollywood theme. The set, which Billboard described as a superstar-caliber headline performance, featured an elaborate production dubbed SABRINAWOOD, a play on the iconic Hollywood sign that remained visible on stage for the majority of the show.

The performance began just after 9 p.m. With a black-and-white introductory video. According to reporting from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, the sketch featured actor Sam Elliott as a menacing police officer who pulls Carpenter over on a dark desert road. In the video, Elliott warns her against traveling to California, stating, You know it’s not right out there. It’s wrong.

Following the video, Carpenter entered the stage via a catwalk designed to resemble a personal walk of fame. She opened the concert with House Tour, a single from her album Man’s Best Friend, which was released in mid-2025. The opening sequence transitioned from an orchestral suite into the track, coinciding with the lights flooding the stage.

Setlist and Musical Direction

The musical direction of the set blended disco influences with classic showbiz glamour. Carpenter’s setlist relied heavily on her most recent work, with the majority of the songs being newer than her hit Espresso. The performance featured several tracks from Man’s Best Friend, including Taste, Busy Woman, and Manchild. During the performance of Manchild, Carpenter was joined by background dancers dressed as Dalmatians and poodles.

While the set focused on recent hits, Carpenter included two songs from her Emails I Can’t Send era: Feather and Because I Liked a Boy. Billboard noted that the deep cuts from Man’s Best Friend were presented with beefed-up, extra-discofied arrangements to suit the festival environment.

One notable omission from the setlist was Nonsense, which remained the only major hit from the last three years that Carpenter did not perform. This omission was highlighted as a strategic choice, given that Carpenter had used the song’s outro during a previous Coachella appearance to predict her eventual return as a headliner.

The performance concluded with the song Tears, which provided a wild and wet end to the headlining set.

Celebrity Cameos and Production

The production emphasized cinematic elements and celebrity appearances to facilitate costume and set changes. In addition to Sam Elliott’s role in the opening video, the show featured acting cameos from Will Ferrell and Susan Sarandon. Variety reported that Sarandon delivered a bizarre monologue during the set.

Despite the presence of these high-profile actors, the performance remained a solo musical effort. Variety confirmed there were no musical guest duets during the set, noting that rumors regarding an appearance by Madonna did not materialize.

The visual presentation continued the Hollywood theme throughout, incorporating various costume changes and elaborate set pieces. Carpenter also integrated humor into the performance, including a boner joke during a rendition of When Did You Get Hot?

Fulfilling a Two-Year Prediction

The April 10 headlining slot served as the fulfillment of a public prediction Carpenter made during her debut Coachella performance in 2024. During that appearance, she closed her set with a proclamation in her Nonsense outro, telling the crowd, Coachella, see you back here when I headline.

During the 2026 performance, Carpenter acknowledged the accuracy of her previous claim. She joked to the audience, If I said that and I didn’t headline, it’d be pretty fucking awkward, before later admitting, I can’t believe I’m headlining Coachella! I mean… I can a little bit. But it sounds nicer to say that.