Indio, California - Sabrina Carpenter has issued an apology after she called a fan's cultural chant "weird" during her headlining gig at the Coachella music festival.

On Saturday, the 26-year-old addressed the viral incident via X, admitting that she "could have handled it better".

"my apologies i didn't see this person with my eyes and couldn't hear clearly," she said in reply to a clip of the moment. "my reaction was pure confusion, sarcasm and not ill intended."

Sabrina added that she's now aware of what the chant – a Zaghrouta – is and added that she will "welcome all cheers and yodels from here on out."

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As the Espresso singer performed her 20-song set on Friday night, a fan's Zaghrouta caught Sabrina off guard during a quiet part of the show.

"I think I heard someone yodel," she told the crowd, "Is that what you're doing? I don't like it."

The fan then attempted to explain the chant, telling Sabrina, "It's my culture."

"That's your culture, is yodeling?" she replied before joking further, "Is this Burning Man? What's going on? This is weird."

Sabrina's reaction to the Zaghrouta – an Arab ululation typically used to convey excitement and celebration – sparked a divided response on social media, with many calling her out for cultural insensitivity.

Some users said Sabrina was being "disrespectful" or even Islamophobic with her reaction to the chant, while others gave her a bit more grace, arguing that she clearly didn't understand what the sound was.

"I honestly don't get why people are getting offended over this, Sabrina didn't realise what it was, now she does, end of story, she shouldn't need to apologise," one X user said.

The on-stage exchange was just one of many moments to go viral during the sprawling music festival: fellow headliner Justin Bieber sparked some online discourse of his own with a very minimalist set that saw him pull up his old music videos on YouTube to display on the screen behind him as he sang along.