Doja Cat was the musical visitor on the season premiere of Saturday Night time Stay‘s 51st season, an episode hosted by Unhealthy Bunny.
Will Heath/NBC
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Will Heath/NBC
SNL‘s 51st season was sure to really feel transitional: It adopted the round-numbered spectacle of Season 50, which produced many accompanying specials and celebrations, and it accompanied a good bit of solid turnover — together with Bowen Yang, who departed with a music halfway by means of the season, accompanied by Cher and Ariana Grande.
However, when it comes to official musical visitors, the lineup was as eventful as ever, as bookers combined modern pop, rock and hip-hop chart-toppers (Sabrina Carpenter, Harry Kinds, Noah Kahan, A$AP Rocky, Sombr, Olivia Dean, Olivia Rodrigo), closely promoted up-and-comers (Function Mannequin, Dijon, Geese) and elder legends (Paul McCartney, Cher).
Rating any given SNL season’s music is all the time a idiot’s errand, a reality mirrored within the byline on the prime of this web page. As all the time, many elements can have an effect on the place a efficiency ranks — SNL‘s sound mixes had been improved this season, however they’re all the time a crapshoot — and this season’s crop felt notably difficult to judge as a result of nothing sank all the way in which into train-wreck territory. Would it not have killed them to, say, deliver again DJ Khaled to yell for some time, or possibly resuscitate Kanye West’s stint as a rapping soda bottle? What’s Ashlee Simpson as much as nowadays?
Regardless, for the ninth consecutive yr (here is 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018), it is time to run down the nice, the nice and the mediocre from SNL‘s 51st season. As all the time, we have included hyperlinks for the movies which can be nonetheless streaming on YouTube, however should you’re all about rigorous cross-checking, every of those units remains to be streaming on Peacock.
20. Function Mannequin, “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” and “Some Protector” (10/11/25)
Singer-songwriter Tucker Pillsbury (a.okay.a. Function Mannequin) injects his sturdy, genre-fluid folk-pop songs with traces of nation and even hip-hop, and executes the entire bundle with huge, daring, theater-kid vitality. That prolonged to his SNL debut, the place he opened his hit “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” from a seated place in a hayloft. From there, he spent the music bounding round smiling, clad in pants sparkly sufficient to summon Benson Boone.
The visitor who cameoed as a substitute was Charli xcx, who confirmed as much as strut throughout the stage, flip her hair and keep silent. However, for all of the gameness and bluster, neither “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” nor “Some Protector” may transcend Function Mannequin’s ragged, pitchy vocals, although he no less than salvaged the facility notes on the finish of an otherwise-static recitation of “Some Protector.” Chalk it as much as nerves, however he simply did not sound prepared for a stage so unforgiving.
19. Cher, “DJ Play a Christmas Music” and “Run Rudolph Run” (12/20/25)
OK, let’s get one factor out of the way in which upfront: Sure, Cher was clearly lip-syncing right here, notably throughout her effects-laden 2023 chart hit “DJ Play a Christmas Music.” A minimum of Cher and her folks knew to encompass her with plenty of pomp and flash all through each songs. And, after all, Cher is (1) a legend, and (2) 79 years outdated, which provides her a bit extra leeway than viewers would possibly grant to a pop singer 1 / 4 her age.
18. Lily Allen, “Sleepwalking” and “Madeline” (12/13/25)
Practically 19 years handed between Lily Allen’s SNL debut and her return to the present following the discharge of her 2025 comeback album West Finish Lady, constructed across the infidelity that led to the tip of her marriage. Its achingly private songs contributed to the intimacy of those reflective, melancholy performances, each of which had been set in or round bedrooms.
Sadly, Allen’s vocal fashion — conversational, muted, vulnerable to speak-singing — simply did not translate on TV, rendering her intricate songwriting troublesome to discern in a washed-out combine. (Allen appeared nervous, too, which made sense given the subject material and a protracted hiatus from touring.)
The visuals had been placing sufficient, notably when “Madeline” re-created an intimate dialog with a shadowy determine behind a curtain who turned out to be Dakota Johnson. However Allen would have been well-served swapping out no less than considered one of these songs for a West Finish Lady observe with a bit extra vitality.
17. Dijon, “Greater!” and “One other Child!” (12/6/25)
As a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Dijon has been a number one gentle on the planet of different R&B. Identified for his collaborations with Mk.gee and Bon Iver — in addition to Justin Bieber, whose album SWAG bears a lot of his sonic fingerprints — Dijon makes a speciality of unusual deconstructions whereby fragments of gospel, soul and Prince-esque funk are chopped up and reconstituted.
It is a unusual and heady concoction, and it would not lend itself simply to three- to four-minute bites on the SNL stage. Dijon compensated by filling the unadorned area with a small military of collaborators — together with Nick Hakim, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and former Soiled Projectors standout Amber Coffman — however the impact felt discordant, haphazardly combined and undercooked, like jam periods that hadn’t fairly shaped into songs.
16. Paul McCartney, “Days We Left Behind,” “Band on the Run” and “Coming Up” (5/16/26)
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If we’re giving Cher a principally free move for lip-syncing on SNL, then we’ll need to grant a lift to the nice Paul McCartney, whose voice has frayed with age with out shedding its emotional heft. Because the present’s season-ending musical visitor, McCartney leaned into his voice’s put on and tear in “Days We Left Behind,” the type of melancholy reflection that hits tougher at 83. (Although he sings it in a a lot greater register, the music feels aligned with a few of Johnny Money’s late-career work.)
From there, it was on to not one however two victory laps: McCartney’s rendition of the Wings hit “Band on the Run” coasted on the singer’s more-than-ample provide of goodwill, whereas “Coming Up” — the 1980 music he carried out over the present’s closing credit — let him play a bit looser. In that spirit, host Will Ferrell even joined the music late, which allowed him to as soon as once more occupy the identical body as his doppelgänger, drummer Chad Smith. It is all the time good to have reminders that they don’t seem to be the identical individual.
15. Cardi B, “Bodega Baddie (feat. El Prodigio)” and “ErrTime” (1/31/26)
Cardi B is not one to stint on stage manufacturing, and she or he definitely wasn’t going to carry again because the musical visitor on SNL‘s 1,000th episode. “Bodega Baddie” discovered her dancing and twirling at heart stage because the Dominican accordionist El Prodigio led a energetic and percussive band behind her, whereas “ErrTime” surrounded her with six lithe, athletic dancers. Each performances had been high quality items of stagecraft: energetic, flashy, all the time in movement.
Sadly, the songs themselves barely registered. The 2-minute-long “Bodega Baddie” was principally intro and outro; Cardi B herself rapped a few verses in roughly a minute, backed by a beneficiant vocal observe. That vocal observe made ample contributions to “ErrTime,” as properly, however no less than Cardi B stored the viewers’s eyes on her all through. Neither music was catchy sufficient to transcend the spectacle, however … hey, a spectacle!
14. Olivia Dean, “Man I Want” and “Let Alone the One You Love” (11/15/25)
“Man I Want,” Olivia Dean’s breakthrough single, may and would have been successful in 1976, 1986, 1996, 2006 or 2016, and at any level since. That eras-spanning attraction suggests one thing common in “Man I Want,” nevertheless it additionally speaks to the way in which the music’s edges have been sanded all the way down to create one thing uncanny and frictionless. It is impeccably crafted, and on SNL it was impeccably staged, proper all the way down to the location of an offscreen fan to maintain Dean’s hair in movement.
Dean carried out “Man I Want” with smiley, agreeable verve, whereas “Let Alone the One You Love” showcased her extra somber, downcast aspect. And, as soon as once more, the latter efficiency felt notable principally for its impeccability: the vocal well-balanced and note-perfect, the band stately and muted, the costume billowing dramatically. Even the normally unforgiving sound combine cooperated each step of the way in which. The one fault to be discovered got here, counterintuitively, within the sheer faultlessness of all of it. What does it say in regards to the AI age that considered one of its greatest breakout stars has discovered a technique to bury her humanity?
13. Harry Kinds, “Dance No Extra” and “Coming Up Roses” (3/14/26)
Harry Kinds is aware of his approach round SNL: He is a six-time musical visitor (counting three stints as a member of One Path), the final two of which discovered him pulling double obligation as host. For his newest look, following the discharge of Kiss All of the Time. Disco, Often., he showcased the 2 modes that pop up on the album most ceaselessly: EDM-friendly ringleader and swoony balladeer.
“Dance No Extra” discovered Kinds shuffling amiably on the heart of a well-populated, dutifully swaying band, whereas “Coming Up Roses” positioned the singer at a piano alongside a sturdy string part. Neither required feats of athleticism, bodily or vocally, however that is not what Kinds’ newest album is about anyway; as a substitute, it is about discovering your home inside the din of communal areas like dance flooring. On that degree, these performances labored as supposed.
12. Mumford & Sons, “Rubber Band Man (feat. Hozier)” and “Right here (feat. Sierra Ferrell)” (2/28/26)
Mumford & Sons’ stomp-and-clap folk-rock hoedowns fell out of mainstream industrial favor shortly after the band’s Grammy win for album of the yr in 2013. However SNL by no means stop Mumford & Sons, reserving the group in 2015 and 2018; if it weren’t for a protracted hole between albums, it absolutely would not have taken seven-plus years (not counting a fast Marcus Mumford cameo in 2021) for these guys to return to the present.
And, actually, why the heck not? Mumford and his assorted sons (who included producer Aaron Dessner right here) have all the time been masters of rousing, rustic, roots-adjacent anthems that really feel engineered to maneuver stadium-sized crowds, and it seems that they are greater than able to conquering the boxier confines of Studio 8H, as properly. It helped, for the band’s return to the SNL stage, that they introduced a pair of worthy ringers in Hozier (for “Rubber Band Man”) and Sierra Ferrell (for “Right here”), on condition that the previous was a headlining musical visitor a season earlier and the latter is prone to get the identical remedy quickly sufficient.
This wasn’t the very best stomp-and-clap-adjacent efficiency of the season — that’d belong to Noah Kahan, as mentioned beneath — however each songs had been energetic sufficient to maintain viewers awake by means of the closing credit. That is not nothing.
11. Anitta, “Choka Choka” and “Várias quejas” (4/11/26)
Anitta is considered one of Brazil’s greatest stars, and her crossover to the U.S. pop scene — which included a belated nomination for 2023’s greatest new artist Grammy — continued together with her first-ever stint on SNL. And if you wish to know the way she’s damaged by means of so successfully, properly… let’s simply say you do not have to know Anitta’s work to get “Choka Choka” caught in your head for a great, very long time.
The studio model of “Choka Choka” encompasses a visitor flip from Shakira. Anitta carried out it Shakiraless on SNL, with most of the music’s vocals relegated to a backing observe as Anitta led a gaggle of lingerie-clad dancers. For “Várias quejas,” she shimmied softly — and solo — at heart stage, letting her luminous vocals do many of the work for her. In all, the staging felt a bit of sterile, however the star’s charisma was unmistakable.
10. Sombr, “12 to 12” and “Again to Buddies” (11/8/25)
It kinda goes with out saying that this was Sombr’s SNL debut, on condition that the 20-year-old TikTok favourite was born after Kenan Thompson joined the present’s solid. However in contrast to, say, fellow riser Function Mannequin, the artist born Shane Michael Boose met the second, infusing “12 to 12” with lithe swagger, plenty of forceful kicks and a falsetto that hardly ever faltered.
At first, Sombr’s tackle “Again to Buddies” appeared as if it will drain the I Barely Know Her hit of its urgency, as he opened the music by reconfiguring it as a downcast piano dirge. However Sombr jumped to his toes quickly sufficient, let the music’s vitality construct and even carried off an Eddie Vedder-esque climb to — or no less than towards — the Studio 8H rafters.
Neither efficiency did a lot to remodel or transcend the studio’s confines; these had been simply shiny rock and roll jams, set aside by a placing and dedicated frontman. However in all his lanky glory, Sombr lived as much as the appreciable job he’d confronted.
9. Doja Cat, “Aaahh Males!” and “Beautiful” (10/4/25)
SNL kicked off its 51st season with Unhealthy Bunny as host. However he ceded musical-guest privileges to rapper and singer Doja Cat, since he’d carried out songs from DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS the earlier season anyway.
Luckily, Doja Cat made essentially the most of her SNL debut, as her live-wire presence fed a jolt of electrical energy by means of two songs that are not particularly hook-forward. Within the spiky, new-wave-inflected rap-pop music “Aaahh Males!,” that meant spitting rapid-fire bars in between a match of dramatic laughter and a match of dramatic coughing. “Beautiful” felt extra subdued, as she stayed seated on the heart of a huge rose.
Each performances relegated Doja Cat’s band to an afterthought, each visually and sonically. However her stage presence was sufficient to hold the night time.
8. Geese, “Au Pays du Cocaine” and “Trinidad” (1/24/26)
The arty, polarizing indie-rock band Geese launched a thousand suppose items in 2025, so it was solely pure that SNL would glom onto that dialog. Removed from settling the matter both approach, the band’s two songs supplied ammunition for devotees and detractors alike. At instances, Geese conjured recollections of mid-’00s weblog bands like Clap Your Fingers Say Yeah, and never simply with the “The place did all this adulation come from?” discourse; in “Au Pays du Cocaine,” singer Cameron Winter even sounded eerily like Zach Condon of Beirut.
Nonetheless, the band’s unusual, wiry vitality translated fantastically — and in the end timelessly — on the SNL stage, particularly within the chaotic, strobe-lit “Trinidad.” There, the band’s inscrutability paired properly with aggression, thanks partially to a combination that foregrounded Winter’s vocals with out relegating the band to background noise. Within the battle of “saviors of rock and roll” vs. “an overhyped psyop,” here is to casting a lone, defiant vote for: “Hey, fairly good!”
7. Jack White, “Derecho Demonico” and “G.O.D. and the Damaged Ribs” (4/4/26)
Jack White has develop into considered one of SNL‘s “break glass in case of emergency” musical visitors, irrespective of the way you outline emergency. The present has to disinvite Morgan Wallen for failing to comply with COVID protocols? Get Jack White to return in and crush it. Jack Black is becoming a member of The 5-Timers’ Membership as a number they usually wish to do a factor the place Jack Black and Jack White (a five-timer in his personal proper, not even counting his stint in The White Stripes) share prime billing? Get White to return again and carry out two brand-new songs that hadn’t even appeared on an album.
Absolutely, most followers watching Black on SNL hadn’t heard “Derecho Demonico” or “G.O.D. and the Damaged Ribs” by the point he confirmed as much as carry out them stay, although he did fulfill starvation for a traditional when he performed a little bit of “Seven Nation Military” throughout Black’s opening monologue. However the two new tracks sounded lots acquainted in their very own proper, with their many bluesy, solo-filled echoes of older tracks like “Ball and Biscuit” and “Lazaretto.”
These performances could not have raised White’s recreation past what he’d proven on the SNL stage already. However “get Jack White to return again and shred some extra” is rarely a foul recreation plan.
6. Brandi Carlile, “Church & State” and “Human” (11/1/25)
Brandi Carlile has now carried out as SNL‘s musical visitor 4 instances — thrice solo, as soon as alongside Elton John — and there is no thriller why: She’s received a booming, stellar voice, and she or he hardly ever goes far with out her ace backing band, which now consists of the members of SistaStrings. Carlile has been considered one of rock and people and nation’s ringers for greater than 20 years now, and when SNL bookers want a win, they know she’ll give them one.
Simply seven months after Carlile performed Studio 8H with John, she returned armed with two songs from 2025’s Returning to Myself: the nervy protest anthem “Church & State” and the reflective slow-builder “Human.” Although the sound combine did not showcase Carlile’s strengths within the early moments of “Human,” it is exhausting to search out fault in both efficiency.
5. A$AP Rocky, “Punk Rocky” and “Do not Be Dumb/Journey Child”https://www.npr.org/”Helicopter” (1/17/26)
A$AP Rocky’s chart-topping album Do not Be Dumb was a comeback eight years within the making — a sprawling, unpredictable burst of clashing concepts. The identical might be stated of his SNL debut, which compressed theater, style and motion right into a single efficiency of “Punk Rocky,” which featured Danny Elfman on drums and Thundercat on bass. Each second of the music got here bundled with one thing to see, from the row of curlers down the middle of A$AP Rocky’s head to synchronized dancing to flying trash to a wild battle scene that culminated in our star getting punched by means of the again wall of the stage. (For functions of context and comparability, the music’s video is even wilder.)
To open “Do not Be Dumb/Journey Child,” A$AP Rocky returned to the identical trash-strewn set, singing right into a lectern earlier than shifting to rap for the towel-swirling mayhem of “Helicopter.” If that looks like loads to digest, properly, that is a characteristic, not a bug: Give the person credit score for taking such a giant, idiosyncratic swing, particularly with songs as catchy and frenetic as these.
4. Gorillaz, “Clint Eastwood (feat. Del The Funky Homosapien)” and “The Moon Cave (feat. Anoushka Shankar, Asha Puthli & Black Thought)” (3/7/26)
Gorillaz had by no means carried out on SNL earlier than this set, so it was a pleasant contact that Damon Albarn’s group led with its debut single from all the way in which again in 2001. “Clint Eastwood,” that includes rapper Del The Funky Homosapien, stays untouchable a quarter-century later, and it is all the time a pleasure to get reacquainted with the dynamic and charismatic Del. With Gorillaz’ cartoon alter egos projected on the again wall — that visible iconography is central to the group’s enduring attraction — “Clint Eastwood” was a stunning technique to kick off a set meant to advertise a brand new Gorillaz album, titled The Mountain.
The Mountain received its second in “The Moon Cave,” which packed the TV display screen with projected animation, an enormous band, a choir and three visitor stars: rapper Black Considered The Roots, Anoushka Shankar on sitar and 81-year-old Indian legend Asha Puthli. With that many sonic mouths to feed, the entire thing inevitably teetered getting ready to a shambles, with Puthli principally disappearing within the mushy combine. Nonetheless, as soon as Black Thought’s commanding verse kicked in, all was forgiven.
All in all, a welcome nostalgia journey, a visible feast and, most of all, a real occasion — greater than sufficient to justify the 25-year wait.
3. Olivia Rodrigo, “drop useless” and “begged” (5/2/26)
Olivia Rodrigo is simply 23 and she or he’s already been SNL‘s headlining musical visitor thrice — as soon as for every album in her catalog. And, in a testomony to her brief lifetime of preparation for the highlight, she’s 3-for-3 in smashing the gig out of the park.
Performing “drop useless” and “begged” in an early promotion for the June launch of you appear fairly unhappy for a lady so in love, Rodrigo and her staff gave every music an acceptable stage setting. For the bubbling “drop useless,” that meant situating O-Rod and her band in an underground lair, with Rodrigo’s gravestone overhead. For the somber “begged,” it meant giving her the “lonely lady sulking on a swing” remedy, as her background singers (together with Weyes Blood!) cooed softly behind her.
Taken collectively, the 2 songs displayed appreciable vary, as the previous discovered Rodrigo pogoing in time with copious cymbal-crashes and the latter centered on her plaintive, supple vocal. Fairly spectacular, on condition that the singer was working a double-shift as musical visitor and host.
2. Noah Kahan, “The Nice Divide” and “Doorways” (5/9/26)
Someplace alongside the way in which, Noah Kahan raised his recreation from straightforwardly anthemic folk-rock — a type of stomp-and-clap Bon Iver — to develop into considered one of rock and roll’s foremost Northern Males of Emotions. His new album, the epic chart-topper The Nice Divide, does an excellent job unpacking previous friendships and damaged relationships, with an unflinching emphasis on his personal position in how issues went sideways. And, as all the time, he dispenses these insights with a mastery of the anthemic, accompanied by a stellar band.
For his newest cease on SNL, Kahan invested each “The Nice Divide” and “Doorways” with second-encore vitality: wild-eyed, sweat-flinging, hooky, booming. The visuals labored, too, notably in “The Nice Divide,” which was set in a simulacrum of a lounge — full with the phantasm that the viewers was peering in by means of the entrance window. These songs are going to utterly crush it in a stadium setting, because the band will get much more time and room to sprawl out. However within the meantime, they had been unbelievable on the SNL stage, too.
1. Sabrina Carpenter, “Manchild” and “No one’s Son” (10/18/25)
Two seasons in the past, these rankings damned Sabrina Carpenter with faint reward, calling her “enjoyable” and “agreeable” whereas inserting her “Espresso”-led efficiency because the Fifteenth-best of SNL‘s 2023-24 season. Effectively, cue the Shaq meme, as a result of Carpenter’s recreation would shortly show way more versatile, theatrical, hooky and hilarious than (ahem) some informal observers might need anticipated.
Carpenter’s return to SNL as each musical visitor and host — not a shock, given her background as a comic book actor — was headlined by her irresistible hit “Manchild.” Dancing round a mock-bedroom in her underwear, singing right into a mic configured to resemble a hairbrush and shelling out each punchline with panache, she bought the music as a bit of stellar, sight-gag-rich musical theater.
“No one’s Son” proved a bit much less eventful: The music’s received a killer hook, and the efficiency was livened up with a little bit of martial-arts mishegoss, nevertheless it wasn’t as a lot of a standout — notably given the boomy, distant sound combine. Nonetheless, Carpenter had already greater than confirmed herself by that time. Invite her again each season, please.
