Every Band & Musician Who Has Performed on Saturday Night Live
Live from the main stage at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, this is a list of every band, musician, and singer who has performed on Saturday Night Live. Since its premiere in 1975, SNL has had more than 600 unique musical guests. It's a dream gig: familiar stage, intimate crowd, audience of millions - many of whom are hearing you for the very first time. The acts on this list run the gamut in every genre of music, from Chuck Berry to Devo to Peter Tosh to Skid Row to MC Hammer to Crash Test Dummies to Garth Brooks to The Backstreet Boys to Lorde. The bands are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent listed first. It includes the date of the appearance - or dates, for those of us lucky enough to be invited to perform more than once.
Because of the show's longevity, Saturday Night Live musical guests are a Who's Who of the most popular musicians of each time period. A look back at the early years of the sketch show reveals frequent repeat appearances from soft rock, folksy kinds of artists like James Taylor, Carly Simon, and Anne Murray. In the 1980s, new wave acts like Men at Work and The Cars stopped by a couple times each. In the 21st Century, it's all hip hop and pop made for clubbing, all Kanye this and Drake that, with only an occasional appearance by a singer-songwriter like Father John Misty or Adele.
For more about SNL guests, check out these lists of all Saturday Night Live hosts and the worst SNL hosts of all time.
6th ep: 1) April 7, 2001; 2) May 21, 2005; 3) October 25, 2008; 4) November 12, 2011; 5) May 3, 2014; 6) November 2, 2019

3rd ep: 1) December 12, 2015; 2) December 17, 2016; 3) October 26, 2019 [also host]

4th ep. 1) January 10, 2009; 2) November 7, 2009; 3) November 11, 2017; 4) October 5, 2019

4th ep. 1) October 5, 2013; 2) October 3, 2015; 3) November 4, 2017; 4) December 15, 2018 [with Mark Ronson]

3rd ep: 1) September 22, 2012; 2) April 11, 2015; 3) December 8, 2018

3rd ep: 1) September 13, 2008; 2) December 18, 2010; 3) November 10, 2018
