On Apr. 10, during Sabrina Carpenter’s first headlining show at Coachella, a fan called out a high pitched scream called a zaghrouta. Carpenter reacted by calling the shout “weird,” and has since faced backlash for her response.
A zaghrouta is a high pitched cheer or vocal trill performed by women in Middle Eastern or North African cultures (particularly in Egypt) to express joy or celebration. Typically, it’s expressed at weddings to honor the bride and groom. It has been described as a “soundtrack for happiness” when there are no words to display such excitement. “It’s a sign of joy, excitement and good news! Think of it as an Arab equivalent to a celebratory fanfare!” said a woman from The Corner Shop Network on Youtube.
She apologized on X the following day and wrote, “My apologies, I didn’t see this person with my eyes and couldn’t hear clearly. My reaction was pure confusion, sarcasm and not ill intended. Could have handled it better!”
The confusion happened while Carpenter was in between songs. When she sat down at a piano, she heard the shout from the crowd. “I think I heard someone yodel,” she said to the crowd. “Is that what you’re doing? I don’t like it.” Then, a voice from the crowd shouted back, “It’s my culture.” She responded with, “That’s your culture … is yodeling?”
The audience member then responded “It’s a call, it’s a call of celebration,” to which Carpenter responded “Is this Burning Man? What’s going on? This is weird,” before continuing on to her next song.
A post on X called her reaction “…insensitive and Islamophobic.” That’s when the singer replied with her apology. Another user wrote that she was “Mad disrespectful for mocking the zaghrouta,” and “What’s worse is the blatant racism that followed and the laughs of the audience.”=
However, some see it as an ‘overreaction.’ One user on Threads wrote, “People are overreacting about Sabrina Carpenter. It was a live moment, she heard something unfamiliar and reacted. What do you people actually want? For her to never perform again, never show her face, be completely erased?”
Despite the backlash, Carpenter continued to perform both weekends at Coachella, and even played with Madonna. This controversy hasn’t stopped her from continuing to move her career forward, potentially giving fans a reason to step back and question cancel culture.
