From cringe-worthy lip-syncing fails to intoxicated performances, SNL's musical stage has seen some epic disasters. Join us as we count down the most awkward, off-key, and just plain terrible musical moments in Saturday Night Live history. Which artist crashed and burned the hardest on live television? These performances had viewers reaching for the mute button!
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most disappointing times an artist or band
00:12performed on the Saturday Night Live stage. Appearances marred by non-musical controversy,
00:18a la Sinead O'Connor, will be saved for another day.
00:30Number 25. The Rolling Stones. The band that needs no introduction has only performed
00:36once on SNL on the night of October 7th, 1978.
00:48They did three songs, Shattered, Beast of Burden, and Respectable. Shattered went off well,
00:54but the wheels started coming off with Beast of Burden.
00:57Mick Jagger tried to add some snap to the show with flamboyant movements and gestures,
01:03but they couldn't mask his horrible voice.
01:12We don't know what happened here, but his singing is ridiculously flat and raspy,
01:17like an untrained singer trying to do his best Mick Jagger impersonation.
01:21Maybe the cigarette that he is openly smoking on stage has something to do with it.
01:27Never, never, never, never, never be.
01:31Number 24. 21 Savage.
01:44Whoa, whoa, whoa.
01:46Fans of SNL are sort of used to high-energy performances from the show's storied list of musical guests.
01:52After all, if one doesn't want to be there,
01:55a dozen other aspiring artists are waiting in the wings for their opportunity.
02:00This is partially why this performance from 21 Savage was so depressing.
02:09The rapper barely seems awake during his sets,
02:11and the lower-tier vibes are clearly on display.
02:15We hesitate to use the word disappointing here,
02:18because 21 Savage holds an admittedly low bar.
02:21But yeah, this was bad.
02:23Trust me, I'm taking it easy.
02:25I really want to get deaky.
02:27You acting shy, but you freaky.
02:29I don't want a piece, no receipt.
02:30Number 23.
02:32Ice Spice.
02:33It's an old adage, but also one that rings true.
02:43Famous friends can only take a person so far, right?
02:46None other than Taylor Swift showed up on the SNL stage
02:49to help introduce her buddy Ice Spice's performance.
02:53This was probably the most memorable thing to report from this night,
02:56to be completely honest.
02:58There really isn't a lot to grab onto creatively
03:08when it comes to the music of Ice Spice in the first place,
03:11but the lackluster sound mix and coquettish choreography
03:14didn't do much to elevate things.
03:24Number 22.
03:26Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.
03:28The music of Captain Beefheart, both with and without the Magic Band,
03:41has been a lot of things over the decades.
03:44It served as outsider art at its best,
03:47and unlistenable trash at its worst.
03:49This performance from Saturday Night Live might have arguably been both,
03:54although you'd probably be hard-pressed to find any supportive audience reactions
03:57at the time.
04:14The thunderous silence that occurred when Captain Beefheart
04:17and the Magic Band mercifully brought their set to an end
04:21was an incredibly awkward SNL moment for the ages,
04:24although it possibly was not intended as such.
04:27number 21, Kanye West and Lil Pump.
04:46The infamous Kanye West will probably never set foot upon an SNL stage again,
05:00but at least we have these terrible performances by which to remember his yeeziness.
05:05West's public support for current U.S. President Donald Trump had him in hot water
05:10with a lot of different people over the years.
05:12His appearance alongside Lil Pump on this night was particularly infamous, however.
05:17Why you trying to act like you was making sparkly while you came out here?
05:20You're such a freaky, I'm a real freak, I need a real freak, yeah.
05:24On one hand, the performance was bad and featured some strange costumes.
05:28On the other hand, Kanye West also went on a conspiratorial rant after the fact,
05:34one which effectively made him a persona non grata.
05:37And the liberals bully you and tell you what you can and cannot wear.
05:43Actually, blacks weren't always Democrats.
05:45Number 20, Katy Perry.
05:49Swish, swish, bitch.
05:52Another one in the basket.
05:54Fans of a certain artist usually expect a performance on the SNL stage from that artist
05:59to, you know, actually highlight that artist.
06:02Katy Perry's 2017 gig on Saturday Night Live was instead more notable for the antics of
06:07her supporting backup dancers than the California Girls singer.
06:18It's meme-worthy, sure.
06:20There was certainly glitz and glamour all over the place.
06:23That said, there was actually very little in the way of anything that made Katy Perry the focus,
06:27and she instead played second and third fiddle to her own show.
06:31Number 19, Gunna.
06:48Who knows?
06:49Maybe there were far more important things going on in the mind of Gunna back when he
06:53appeared on the stage of SNL.
06:55Important things like, oh, we don't know.
06:57Maybe the fact that authorities were circling in and he was about to be arrested on racketeering
07:02charges?
07:11It doesn't really matter at the end of the day, since Gunna's performances here weren't
07:19very great anyway.
07:20His sets on SNL were short and not-so-sweet, the sort of blink-and-you'll-miss-it forgettability
07:25that basically underlined Gunna's existence as an artist extraneous to need.
07:31She banking on me on the bank.
07:33I snack her, she let it get spanked.
07:34I tackle her, let her wrestle.
07:36Young bachelor, we let her play.
07:38Number 18, Brian Wilson.
07:40The night of November 27, 1976, saw a number of legends on the SNL stage, including host Jodie
07:48Foster and musical guest Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame.
07:52Well, I've gone back this summer to Ohio.
07:57Wilson was in a bad place at the time.
07:59He had recently become a recluse, was suffering from substance use disorder, and his wife was
08:05threatening to have him institutionalized.
08:07It resulted in a rather bizarre and borderline tragic appearance.
08:12Love is a woman.
08:16Wilson's voice was clearly strained, and he struggled to hit the notes that his younger
08:21and healthier self put on record.
08:23His energy was also clearly lacking, and the show ended with a weirdly subdued performance
08:29of Good Vibrations inside a sandbox.
08:31I'm picking up good vibrations.
08:35She's giving me the excitations.
08:39Number 17, Carmen.
08:41The novelty of one-time pop duo Carmen definitely seemed to fall off after their appearance on
08:57Saturday Night Live back in 2012.
08:59There's little that green or unprepared acts can do when faced with that level of intimacy
09:04on such a small stage.
09:06You either have it or you don't at that point, and Carmen definitely seemed to falter.
09:26Reviews of the day remarked how Carmen felt polished and looked good, but ultimately lacked substance.
09:32The performance was criticized as being little more than an attempted career boost for a
09:37group whose career probably wasn't dusted for the long haul in the first place.
09:51Number 16, Red Hot Chili Peppers.
09:54As of writing, this iconic rock band has appeared twice on the show, once in 1992 and again in 2006.
10:03The former was significantly sloppier.
10:06Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner.
10:12The band does what they can, but there's just no covering John Frusciante's slipshod and
10:18out-of-tune guitar playing.
10:20Frusciante was going through some major personal problems.
10:23Suffering from substance use disorder, hating the fame, and isolating himself from the rest
10:28of the band.
10:35Just three months after their appearance on SNL, Frusciante would quit for the first time.
10:41This mini-concert represents everything that was troubled within the band, with singer Anthony
10:45Kiedis believing that Frusciante intentionally sabotaged the performance just to mess with his
10:51friends. Whatever the reason, it was an unmitigated disaster.
11:00Number 15, Greta Van Fleet.
11:032019 was a great year for Michigan rock band Greta Van Fleet, as they broke out with their
11:09second EP, From the Fires, and won the Grammy for Best Rock Album.
11:13They were also the musical guests on the night of January 19th, playing Black Smoke Rising
11:23and You're the One.
11:25The latter performance is now legendary, having been relentlessly mocked and parodied on TikTok.
11:30It reeks of the 70s, down to the outfits, rock and roll sharing of the mic, ridiculous gesturing,
11:44and the zonked-out looks of the band members. It's certainly unique, we'll give it that.
11:49Number 14, Marianne Faithfull.
12:09The 1991 biography of actress-slash-singer Marianne Faithfull, titled As Years Go By,
12:16contains an interesting recollection of her infamous SNL appearance from 1980.
12:21Author Mark Hodkinson writes in his book how Faithfull had gone missing three hours prior to
12:27her SNL performance. Rehearsals the day prior had gone well, but Faithfull was eventually found
12:33intoxicated and under the influence of a dental anesthetic called procaine.
12:38The resulting live gig saw Faithfull's voice completely wrecked, devoid of producing much
12:57more than a helpless croak. The SNL department did their best to fix the levels, but it was no good.
13:03This was a disaster.
13:08Number 13, Moonaskin.
13:24It isn't all too unusual for artists who have made it big on reality shows or talent competitions
13:32to try their hand at gaining some SNL glory. Italy's Moonaskin did just that, appearing on
13:38Saturday Night Live after achieving success on both The X Factor and the Eurovision Song Contest.
13:44And to be fair, Moonaskin did their neo-glam rock shtick with a conviction born perhaps of a
13:49complete lack of self-awareness.
13:59It ultimately comes down to whether or not one digs the fact that Moonaskin did one of their own tunes
14:04and a cover of The Four Seasons. Was it enough of an introduction to the largely unaware SNL audience
14:11or a cringy performance from a group that should have just gone away?
14:14Number 12, DJ Khaled. This DJ and rapper closed out the show's 44th season on the night of May 18th, 2019,
14:38and he did it in style. He performed five songs through two medleys and honored the late Nipsey Hussle,
14:47who was killed shortly before the episode aired. He was also joined by some modern hip-hop and R&B
14:53legends, including SZA, Lil Wayne, and fittingly, John Legend. But many fans believed this was a case
15:00of style over substance, like DJ Khaled was using his clout to mask his lack of activity.
15:09Indeed, DJ Khaled himself didn't really do anything but bounce around and interject with the odd
15:15statement. He's a hype man who's awkwardly hanging around and letting his guests do all the actual work.
15:21Number 11, M.C. Hammer. Few artists represent the early 90s quite like M.C. Hammer. The superstar pulled
15:33Double Duty on December 7th, 1991, both hosting the show and performing three songs.
15:39I got a sweat running all over my chest. I don't know. I just breathed harder than I ever did before.
15:45Unfortunately, none of them were any good. And weirdly enough, You Can't Touch This was completely
15:50absent from the set list. Even worse, two of the three songs, Adam's Groove and This Is The Way We
15:57Roll, were made specifically for the Adam's Family movie. This represented the general shoulder-shrugging
16:03nature of the whole ordeal. Hammer's star was fading, and this obvious advertisement of a show
16:13seemed like a last-ditch effort to stay relevant. We love the Adam's Family, but come on, when you get
16:19M.C. Hammer, you have to do You Can't Touch This.
16:29Number 10, Deion Sanders.
16:41We know what you might be thinking. Deion Sanders? The football player? He performed on SNL.
16:47Indeed. Neon Deion served as a host back in 1995, with Bon Jovi as the musical guest. Yet, Sanders
16:55seemed to think this was also an appropriate place to showcase a couple of his own tunes,
17:00including one titled, Must Be The Money.
17:02The end results were about as successful as one might expect from an athlete guest host fresh off of
17:17winning the Super Bowl. Sanders was shooting a shot, which we can't knock. But we bet that you've never
17:22seen his rap album anywhere other than the cut-out been, right?
17:33Number 9, Troye Sivan.
17:35When Troye Sivan appeared on SNL in 2018, his performance of My My My Split The Room,
17:41or at least the Twitterverse. While Sivan won some new fans, or at least reaffirmed some old ones,
17:54others were not so kind. Commentary ranged from viewers not knowing or wanting to know who he was
17:59to questioning exactly why he was so damn wet. But these were the kinder comments. Others took
18:11his dancing to be a lame attempt at being sexy, others deemed him an Aaron Carter wannabe,
18:15and a dancing and singing lizard boy. Yikes.
18:26Number 8, Iggy Azalea featuring Mu.
18:29Iggy nailed it here. If you're a fan of her music and brand, you were sure thrilled with her performance.
18:38The trouble here is Mu, a Danish singer with a long list of collaborators. This was Mu's first
18:43appearance on American TV. And, oh, how it shows.
18:53From the moment she wanders out, the segment comes off like a scrapped sketch from an
18:56unfeatured player working through their two weeks' notice. She would later cite microphone
19:01latency issues as the source of her troubles, but that hardly explains her off-dancing and
19:05sixth-grader-in-a-school-place stage presence.
19:13Number 7, Chris Gaines. Who's Chris Gaines? He's the Australian-born, pre-emo, late-90s rock star,
19:23of course. Or, in reality, a soul patch wearing Garth Brooks in a Beatles wig.
19:27There's a lot to unravel here. As an artist, Gaines did have a Billboard Top 5 hit,
19:40making him a quasi-worthy guest. In the Gaines-verse, however, he was huge.
19:45The trouble is while the character had a whole backstory, and was ultimately intended to lead a
19:54feature film, that film was never made. The general public knew none of this, and were instead baffled
20:00by a strange game of dress-up from the decade's top country artist.
20:03Number 6, Fear. Think all it takes to be punk is a couple of power chords and a Californianized
20:13British accent? Oh no, friend, punk is a way of life.
20:22At least it was for Fear. Formed by Lee Ving just a few years prior, the band caught the attention of
20:30John Belushi, who attempted to get them to soundtrack his film Neighbors, only to see the idea shot down
20:35by studio brass.
20:44To make it up to them, Belushi petitioned to get them on SNL, despite no longer being a cast member.
20:49The result? A studio full of slam dancers, pumpkin guts, and $20,000 worth of damages.
20:57Number 5, The Replacements.
20:58Formally, The Impediments, until the band's rep caught up with them, the replacements were known
21:04to like a song now and again between drinks.
21:07What a blast of your life.
21:11While under the influence, they once played the worst set ever staged at CBGB, to an audience
21:18of talent scouts no less.
21:20But in 1986, fortune shone on the mats, when the Pointer Sisters cancelled and musical director
21:26G.E. Smith invited them to SNL.
21:28We are the sons of no one.
21:31Rehearsal went well, but the hours before the show were spent getting drunk with host Harry
21:36Dean Stanton.
21:37And their obvious state, clothes swapping, and an uncleared F-bomb were enough for Lorne
21:42Michaels to ban them then and there.
21:44Number 4, Kesha.
21:46She's reinvented herself since, but in 2010, Kesha arguably set the SNL benchmark for awful.
21:53I'm talking penis on my toes, so try not not my clothes.
21:57There are all kinds of bad floating around here, from her odd stage presence, which many
22:03speculated was due to alcohol use, and lame rapping.
22:07This was capped by Kesha asking,
22:09Did anyone ever stop to think, maybe we aren't the aliens?
22:15But for Your Love Is My Drug, she doubled down on the weird and came out in glow paint.
22:20This, aside from being strange to look at, was objectively offensive to indigenous peoples.
22:25The singing was arguably a little better, but still off-pitch at times.
22:29Said your love, your love, your love is my drug, your love, your love, your love.
22:36Number 3, Kanye West.
22:38Had a run from you, I'm in love with you, but the vibe is wrong, and I haunted me.
22:46On SNL, while promoting 808s and Heartbreak, the Louis Vuitton Don launched Into Love Lockdown,
22:51a track thought by many critics to be the highlight of the album, and a departure for West given
22:56that it featured him singing.
22:57But did it?
22:58I'm not loving you, the way I want it to, say I want to move, but can't escape from you.
23:06For style rather than a lack of talent, West's singing voice for the song was processed via
23:11vocoder, a device that converts and musicalizes the human voice.
23:14Somewhere far from home, in the danger zone, how many times did I dare you for, it finally
23:22got through, you lose, yeah you lose.
23:26Live, however, this proved incredibly messy, with Kanye's voice cracking, the vocal effect
23:32coming through inconsistently, and the backups being cranked up sporadically to cover it.
23:36Number 2, Lana Del Rey.
23:38We've all gotten used to Lana Del Rey, but 2012 was a different time.
23:42A few years prior, she was Lizzie Grant, a budding songwriter and up-and-comer.
23:46I was like, no please, stay here.
23:51We don't need no money, we can make it all work.
23:55Taking on the name Lana Del Rey, she found her first round of fame in 2011 via YouTube,
24:00and her star only climbed higher with her second album, Born to Die.
24:03However, that album was still weeks away when she appeared on SNL in January of 2012, an
24:16appearance that was instantly hated, perhaps due to a case of too much hype with too little
24:20proof and substance, or maybe because it was simply underwhelming.
24:23Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
24:36about our latest videos.
24:38You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
24:42If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
24:47Number 1, Ashley Simpson.
24:49While it doesn't require as much talent as singing, lip-syncing is also an art.
24:54You have to, well, you have to synchronize your lips to the words mostly, but you also
24:58have to really sell it, you know?
25:06These friends are the basics of lip-syncing, but it also helps if you're mouthing the right
25:11song.
25:12On stage for her second song, Autobiography, Simpson's disembodied voice began to sing first
25:17song, Pieces of Me, which prompted her band to switch tracks, and her to do a merry jig
25:22and bolt.
25:23I feel so bad my band started playing the wrong song, and I know what to do, so I thought
25:26I'd do a hoedown.
25:27Initially blaming her band, Ashley later said she opted not to sing due to her acid reflux.
25:33Is there an SNL musical performance that was so bad it felt good?
25:37Let us know in the comments.
25:39Check out these other clips from WatchMojo, and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to
25:44be notified about our latest videos.
25:47Let us know in the comments.
25:48Let us know in the comments.
25:49Let us know in the comments.
25:50Let us know in the comments.
25:51Let us know in the comments.
25:52Let us know in the comments.
25:53Let us know in the comments.
25:54Let us know in the comments.
25:55Let us know in the comments.
25:56Let us know in the comments.
25:57Let us know in the comments.
25:58Let us know in the comments.
25:59Let us know in the comments.
26:00Let us know in the comments.
26:01Let us know in the comments.
26:02Let us know in the comments.
26:03Let us know in the comments.
26:04Let us know in the comments.
26:05Let us know in the comments.
26:06Let us know in the comments.
26:07Let us know in the comments.
26:08Let us know in the comments.
26:09Let us know in the comments.
26:10Let us know in the comments.