SNL

‘Saturday Night Live’ Is Kicking Off 2023 With Aubrey Plaza, Michael B. Jordan, Sam Smith, and Lil Baby

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Saturday Night Live returns from its winter break with two first-time hosts. Aubrey Plaza will host with musical guest Sam Smith on January 21st while Michael B. Jordan will take hosting duties alongside musical guest Lil Baby January 28th.

Plaza ended 2022 with a bang, luxuriating in Italy for White Lotus and playing a criminal named Emily in Emily the Criminal. Meanwhile, Jordan’s Creed III will hit theaters on March 3rd, so it’s a slam dunk that there will be at least one Rocky sketch on the program. The two couldn’t be more different stylistically — she’s so deadpan that she has fans wanting her to stand on their faces, and Jordan is a classic movie star with a trillion-dollar smile — so it’ll be a fun couple of weeks to see the show shake things up.

In a way, it’s strange that these two haven’t hosted SNL yet. Plaza has an Upright Citizens Brigade background and was even an NBC page. As she shifted from Parks and Rec to movies and weird anti-superhero roles, she would have an been an ideal pick as host. The same goes for Jordan for different reasons. He’s wildly versatile, dangerously charming, and he’s been a bona fide star for almost a decade.

All that to say: these are really fun picks. An excellent way to kickstart the second half of the comedy show’s 48th season.

Sam Smith And Lil Baby Will Perform On ‘Saturday Night Live’ This Month

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Saturday Night Live is making its return to our screens next weekend, and they’ve got some promising acts to kick off the midseason. Today, this month’s hosts and performers were revealed via SNL‘s social media accounts.

On the first episode of the month, set to air live on Saturday, January 21, is The White Lotus star Aubrey Plaza, who will host that evening’s episode. The musical guest of the night is Sam Smith, who will be performing a little less than a week before their fourth album Gloria drops.

In an interview with Billboard that took place last August, Smith said the music on Gloria will be centered around queer joy.

“I think joy for me, and for a lot of queer people, is quite a dangerous place,” Smith said. “We’re all masters of pain, and I think it’s actually a very courageous act to step into the queer joy of it all.”’

The following Saturday (January 28), Michael B. Jordan, who stars in Creed III set to premiere in March will host, and rapper Lil Baby will perform.

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. EST on NBC. The broadcast also streams live on Peacock.

Gloria is out 1/27 via Capitol. You can pre-save it here.

SZA Is So Amused By How Popular Her Silly ‘SNL’ Song ‘Big Boys’ Has Become On TikTok

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Not infrequently, Saturday Night Live comes out with a new song for a sketch. They aren’t really meant to be chart-topping hits, but just passable, relatively enjoyable bits of music that are mostly intended to be joke vehicles. A few weeks ago, though, SNL shared a sketch called “Big Boys,” which featured musical guest SZA singing a hook that’s catchier than most SNL tunes.

That and the funny premise of the song (big-bodied men are more desirable as romantic partners when it’s cold out) have vaulted the song to some notable success on TikTok: Pop Crave notes the song has been used as a sound in well over half a million TikTok videos. SZA has taken note of this and is delighted by the song’s reception, tweeting yesterday, “[The] way y’all blew up a spoof song from snl is KILLING ME [crying emojis].”

She also recently told Entertainment Weekly of the song, “That was [made in] 15 minutes at the end of a rehearsal. I just went in there and they were like, ‘This is our ‘Big Boys’ song. Would you be down to do this hook?’ And I was like, ‘Yes.’ I did it with my engineer, and he helped out with the song. It was cool.”

Revisit “Big Boys” above.

Lizzo Delivered A Powerful Cover Of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Someday At Christmas’ On ‘Saturday Night Live’

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In her second performance of the night, Lizzo took to the Saturday Night Live stage to deliver a cover of Stevie Wonder‘s “Someday At Christmas.”

Wrapped up in a festive, puffy, silver and gold dress, Lizzo expressed hope for a brighter future and a happy holiday season for all. Joined by a group of equally powerful background singers, the group sang in joyous harmony.

“Someday at Christmas there’ll be no wars / When we have learned what Christmas is for / When we have found what life’s really worth / There’ll be peace on earth,” Lizzo sang.

Lizzo released the studio version of her “Someday At Christmas” cover last month, as part of a series for Amazon Music. Though Wonder’s original version of the song was released over 50 years ago, Lizzo felt the song’s message still rings true today.

“I chose to cover ‘Someday at Christmas’ not just because it’s a classic, but because it’s a reminder to us that almost 60 years later, we are still fighting for peace, compassion, and equality,” said Lizzo in a statement. “A friendly reminder to spread love and kindness this holiday season.”

Check out the performance above.

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lizzo Twerked In Nightwear During A Performance Of ‘Break Up Twice’ On ‘Saturday Night Live’

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In the last Saturday Night Live episode of the year, Lizzo returned to the stage. In festive spirits, she performed her buzzy track, “Break Up Twice” from her critically-acclaimed sophomore album, Special.

During her performance, Lizzo is woken up by an alarm clock, then arises from a bed after hitting pressing the alarm off. Donned in white nightwear, Lizzo lets her man know that she’s willing to give their relationship another try, but she’s not giving him any more chances after this.

“Boy, you know you better / ooh, you know you better / Boy, you know you bettеr watch out / ‘Cause boy, you know me bettеr / you know me so much better / You know that I don’t break up twice,” she sings on the song’s chorus, which interpolates Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop (That Thing)”

As the song progresses, Lizzo is joined by a backing chorus, who sweetly supplement Lizzo’s soulful vocals. She also twerks by her mattress, in true Lizzo fashion.

This is Lizzo’s second time performing on SNL this year, her first being in April upon the release of her comeback single, “About Damn Time.”

Check out the performance of “Break Up Twice above.

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Cecily Strong Gives Lizzo And Austin Butler A Booming Christmas Gift In A New ‘SNL’ Promo

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This week’s Saturday Night Live has a promising set of guests. Hosting the night’s show is Elvis actor Austin Butler, who has garnered much buzz this year for playing Elvis Presley in his biopic. Lizzo, who released her critically-acclaimed sophomore album Special this year, is also having a great year. In fact, this is actually her second time performing on SNL this year. This past April, Lizzo served as both the musical guest and the host on an episode of SNL.

In a new promo for this week’s SNL, Lizzo and Butler appear alongside SNL actress Cecily Strong. Austin introduces himself and Lizzo, the latter of who proceeds to ask Strong, “Did you see the presents we left in your room, Cecily?”

Strong, taken by surprise, replies “You guys got me a present?,” to which Butler answers, “Yeah, you didn’t get anything for us?”

Strong then answers, “Yes, I did,” then proceeds to pull a boom microphone from offscreen. The two are elated upon receiving their new gadget.

“Santa came early, thank you Cecily!,” Lizzo exclaims.

“It’s just what we wanted,” says Butler.

Austin Butler and Lizzo’s episode of Saturday Night Live airs this Saturday, December 17, at 11:30 p.m. EST on NBC, and streams live on Peacock.

Check out the promo above.

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lizzo Will Perform On The Last ‘Saturday Night Live’ Episode Of The Year

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Lizzo is set to perform on Saturday Night Live next Saturday (December 17) in an episode hosted by Elvis actor Austin Butler. The news was announced last night during the SNL broadcast.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were originally set to perform, however, due to keyboardist Nick Zinner’s pneumonia, they have been forced to cancel their appearance.

The band issued a statement on social media saying:

“As many of our fans know Nick has had pneumonia over the past month and it’s been and up and down recovery process. The band’s top priority is supporting Nick through a full recovery, as a result, we had to pull out from our engagements of KROQ’s Acoustic Christmas and Saturday Night Live. YYYs have enjoyed the incredible highs of being supported on KROQ and the huge honor of being chosen to close out SNL‘s 2022. We are deeply thankful and expectedly heartbroken we cannot rise to these occasions.”

This marks Lizzo’s second time performing on SNL this year, and her third time overall.

“It’s an honor to fill in for the yeah yeah yeahs who unfortunately could not perform next week,” said Lizzo in a tweet.

Lizzo is a Warner Music Artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

SZA Thinks Drake ‘Has A Regina George Quality About Him,’ But Don’t Worry, They’re Still Cool

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On the heels of the release of her sophomore album, S.O.S., SZA sat down with Audacy’s Check-In podcast. The interview took place after last Saturday’s episode of Saturday Night Live, where she was the musical guest.

During the aforementioned Saturday Night Live episode, there was a sketch in which ex-flings of rapper Drake formed a union called “The United Tingz Of Aubrey.”

SZA herself was not in the sketch, however, the irony was not lost on fans. In a song called “Mr. Right Now” from 21 Savage & Metro Boomin’s 2020 mixtape Savage Mode II, Drake alludes to a past relationship, as he raps, “Yeah, said she wanna f*ck to some SZA, wait / ‘Cause I used to date SZA back in ’08.”

During her podcast episode, SZA noted that she wasn’t aware of the sketch until the episode’s airing.

“In a strange way, I was like, ‘Did they know?’” she said. “But they didn’t ask me to be in it. Nobody said anything. … I feel like Drake has a Regina George quality to him where it’s just kind of like, ‘Have you or anyone you know been personally victimized?’ He’s like a cool kid, you know. When you’re the popular kid in school, it’s entertaining. It’s entertaining, but you sometimes are taking losses in the midst of that entertainment. The honesty, I respect that. But I definitely laughed real hard…I cackled.”

Despite the comparison to the Mean Girls bully, SZA insists that it’s all love between her and Drizzy.

“We’re cool. And we’ve always been cool,” she said. “It’s never been weird. It didn’t come completely out of the blue when he let me know. I didn’t know it was a song with 21 [Savage] or anything like that. But anytime he’s ever mentioned me, it’s always been positive. He’s never said anything negative about me. I’m grateful for that. I think highly of him…He’s King Drake.”