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.
- 1
Hip hop, Alternative hip hop, Pop2nd: 1) December 21, 2019; 2) April 16, 2022 [also host]
- 2
Rosalía
Flamenco popMarch 12, 2022
- 3Synthpop, New Wave, Pop music
3rd ep: 1) December 13, 2014; 2) December 18, 2021; 3) March 5, 2022
- 4Synthpop, Dance-punk, Electronic music
2nd ep: 1) May 6, 2017; 2) February 26, 2022
- 5Synthpop, Rock music, Electronic music
4th ep. 1) September 25, 2010; 2) October 12, 2013; 3) May 20 2017; 4) January 29, 2022
- 6Rap
January 15, 2022
- 7Art pop, Dark pop, Electropop
2nd ep: 1) September 28, 2019; 2) December 11, 2021 [also host]
- 8Hip hop
November 20, 2021
- 9Pop, Country
5th ep. 1) January 10, 2009; 2) November 7, 2009; 3) November 11, 2017; 4) October 5, 2019; 5) November 13, 2021
- 10Pop, Folk
3rd ep: 1) April 12, 2014; 2) February 11, 2017; 3) November 6, 2021
- 11Pop music, Folk music, Folk rock
October 23, 2021
October 16, 2021
- 13Electropop, Synthpop, Indie pop
4th ep: 1) January 13, 2018; 2) February 9, 2019 [also host]; 3) January 25, 2020; 4) October 9, 2021
- 14Country
2nd ep: 1) May 12, 2018; 2) October 2, 2021
- 15Pop rap, Hip hop, Country rap
May 22, 2021
- 16
May 15, 2021
- 17Pop, Country pop, Rock
6th ep. 1) October 5, 2013; 2) October 3, 2015; 3) November 4, 2017; 4) December 15, 2018 [with Mark Ronson]; 5) April 25, 2020; 6) May 8, 2021
- 18Hip hop music, Alternative hip hop, Trip hop
April 10, 2021
- 19Indie pop, Downtempo, Folk music
2nd ep: 1) May 17, 2014; 2) April 3, 2021
- 20Hip hop
March 27, 2021
- 21Teen pop, Pop rock
2nd ep: 1) April 16, 2016, 2) February 27, 2021 [also host]
February 20, 2021
- 23Soul, Gospel, Folk rock
February 13, 2021
- 24Indie rock, Folk rock, Em0
February 6, 2021
- 25Hip hop music, Gangsta rap
January 30, 2021
