Top 20 Worst SNL Musical Performances
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 20 Worst SNL Musical Performances. For this list, we’ll be looking at the poorest and strangest musical performances in the history of “Saturday Night Live.” We will not be including intentionally controversial moments like Sinéad O'Connor ripping up a photo of the Pope. Did you enjoy any of these performances? Let us know in the comments below!
#20: Backstreet Boys (1998)
March 14, 1998 was actually the last episode with Norm Macdonald as a regular cast member. He did not deserve to go out with this. The Backstreet Boys were everywhere in the late ‘90s, so it was only a matter of time before they made their way onto “SNL.” The boys performed their hit song “As Long as You Love Me” to a chorus of screaming fans. While there’s nothing really wrong with the performance, it’s just so, so corny. It represents the late ‘90s in all the silliest ways possible, with a hilarious choreographed dance, soulful harmonizing, and even a musical breakdown where the boys play with some chairs. Ah, it was a simpler time.
#19: Brian Wilson (1976)
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And speaking of time capsules, let’s head back to the mid-'70s. The night of November 27, 1976 saw a number of legends on the “SNL” stage, including host Jodie Foster and musical guest Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame. Wilson was in a bad place at the time. He had recently become a recluse, was suffering from drug and alcohol issues, and his wife was threatening to have him institutionalized. It resulted in a rather bizarre and borderline tragic appearance. Wilson’s voice was clearly strained, and he struggled to hit the notes that his younger and healthier self put on record. His energy was also clearly lacking, and the show ended with a weirdly subdued performance of “Good Vibrations” inside a sandbox.
#18: Eddie Money (1978)
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A successful singer from the ‘70s and ‘80s, Eddie Money is famous for a number of hit songs, including “Two Tickets to Paradise” and the Grammy-nominated “Take Me Home Tonight.” He appeared on “Saturday Night Live” on March 18, 1978, playing both “Two Tickets to Paradise” and “Baby Hold On.” Money was famous for his raspy voice, but this performance took that concept to the uncomfortable extreme. Money certainly had the energy, but his shot voice just wasn’t there. It seemed a little raspier than usual like he needed one good throat clearing before continuing on. Unfortunately, that throat-clearing never came.
#17: Red Hot Chili Peppers (1992)
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As of 2023, this iconic rock band has appeared twice on the show, once in 1992 and again in 2006. The former was significantly sloppier. The band does what they can, but there’s just no covering John Frusciante’s slipshod and out-of-tune guitar playing. Frusciante was going through some major personal problems - addicted to heroin, hating the fame, and isolating himself from the rest of the band. Just three months after their appearance on “SNL,” Frusciante would quit for the first time. This mini concert represents everything that was troubled within the band, with singer Anthony Kiedis believing that Frusciante intentionally sabotaged the performance just to mess with his friends. Whatever the reason, it was an unmitigated disaster.
#16: Greta Van Fleet (2019)
2019 was a great year for Michigan rock band Greta Van Fleet, as they broke out with their second EP From the Fires and won the Grammy for Best Rock Album. They were also the musical guests on the night of January 19, playing “Black Smoke Rising” and “You're the One.” The latter performance is now legendary, having been relentlessly mocked and parodied on TikTok. It reeks of the drug-fueled ‘70s, down to the outfits, rock, and roll sharing of the mic, ridiculous gesturing, and the zonked-out looks of the band members. It’s certainly unique, we’ll give it that!
#15: The Go-Go's (1981)
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This iconic all-female rock band was on top of the world in 1981. Their album Beauty and the Beat was a huge success, popularizing the new wave movement and spawning the singles “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat.” Both were performed on “SNL” on the night of November 14, but let’s just say that it wasn’t a good representation of the band’s talents. Singer Belinda Carlisle admitted that the performance was terrible in her autobiography, writing that the band was both drunk and coked up. Well, that much is obvious. They look completely lost on the stage, and each is their own little fuzzy world. The music itself was fine, but the women looked like half-asleep bar patrons on karaoke night.
#14: The Pogues (1990)
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This Celtic punk band, known far and wide for their Christmas song “Fairytale of New York,” performed on “SNL” on the night of March 17, 1990. Like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Pogues were in the midst of a turbulent period, with frontman Shane MacGowan often causing problems with his heavy drinking. The “SNL” stage sees MacGowan wearing sunglasses, smoking a cigarette, and slurring his words to the point of complete incomprehension. There was also a complete lack of energy - while the band goes hard on the instruments, MacGowan just stands behind the mic and sluggishly nods along. In the closing moments of the song, he picks up a drink and goes to sit by the drums. He was fired the next year.
#13: The Rolling Stones (1978)
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The band that needs no introduction has only performed once on “SNL,” on the night of October 7, 1978. They did three songs - “Shattered,” “Beast of Burden,” and “Respectable.” “Shattered” went off well, but the wheels started coming off with “Beast of Burden.” Mick Jagger tried to add some snap to the show with flamboyant movements and gestures, but they couldn’t mask his horrible voice. We don’t know what happened here, but his singing is ridiculously flat and raspy, like an untrained singer trying to do his best Mick Jagger impersonation. Maybe the cigarette that he is openly smoking on stage has something to do with it…
#12: DJ Khaled (2019)
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This DJ and rapper closed out the show’s 44th season on the night of May 18, 2019, and he did it in style. He performed five songs through two medlies and honored the late Nipsey Hussle, who was killed shortly before the episode aired. He was also joined by some modern hip-hop and R&B legends, including SZA, Lil Wayne, and fittingly, John Legend. But many fans believed this was a case of style over substance, like DJ Khaled was using his clout to mask his lack of activity. Indeed, DJ Khaled himself didn’t really do anything but bounce around and interject with the odd statement. He’s a hype man who’s awkwardly hanging around and letting his guests do all the actual work.
#11: MC Hammer (1991)
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Few artists represent the early ‘90s quite like MC Hammer. The superstar pulled double duty on December 7, 1991, both hosting the show and performing three songs. Unfortunately, none of them were any good, and weirdly enough, “U Can't Touch This” was completely absent from the setlist. Even worse, two of the three songs - “Addams Groove” and “This Is the Way We Roll” - were made specifically for the “Addams Family” movie. This represented the general shoulder-shrugging nature of the whole ordeal. Hammer’s star was fading, and this obvious advertisement of a show seemed like a last-ditch effort to stay relevant. We love the Addams Family, but come on, when you get MC Hammer, you have to do “U Can't Touch This”!
#10: Meat Loaf (1978)
1978 was a big year for Meat Loaf. The actor/rockstar was hitting dizzying heights thanks to the success of the “Bat Out of Hell” album. This was enough to land Meat an appearance on SNL, a platform that would catapult him to the masses, and a new level of fame. Introduced by veteran actor Christopher Lee (with a groan worthy joke), Meat Loaf and alternating company were poised for a great performance - until Mr. Loaf begins to sing, that is. Between rocky and shaky, his vocals never quite come together, notes both high and low go un-hit, and even his team of backup singers seem bored and frequently wander off key.
#9: Troye Sivan (2018)
When Troye Sivan appeared on SNL in 2018, his performance of “My, My, My!” split the room... or at least the Twitterverse. While Sivan won some new fans – or at least reaffirmed some old ones – others were not so kind. Commentary ranged from viewers not knowing or wanting to know who he was, to questioning exactly why he was so damn wet. But these were the kinder comments. Others took his dancing to be a lame attempt at being sexy, others deemed him an “Aaron Carter Wannabe”, and a “dancing & singing lizard boy”. Yikes.
#8: Iggy Azalea feat. MØ (2014)
Iggy nailed it here. If you're a fan of her music and brand, you were sure thrilled with her performance. The trouble here is MØ, a Danish singer with a long list of collaborators. This was MØ's first appearance on American TV... and, oh how it shows. From the moment she wanders out, the segment comes off like a scrapped sketch from an unfeatured player working through their two weeks notice. She would later cite microphone latency issues as the source of her troubles, but that hardly explains her off-dancing and sixth grader in a school play stage presence.
#7: Chris Gaines (1999)
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Who is Chris Gaines? He's the Australian-born, pre-emo late '90s rockstar of course. Or, in reality, a soul patch wearing Garth Brooks in a Beatles wig. There's a lot to unravel here. As an artist, “Gaines” did have a Billboard top 5 hit, making him a quasi-worthy guest. In the Gainesverse, however, he was huge. The trouble is while the character had a whole backstory – and was ultimately intended to lead a feature film (that film was never made) – the general public knew none of this, and were instead baffled by this strange game of dress-up from the decade's top country artist.
#6: Fear (1981)
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Think all it takes to be punk is a couple power chords and a Californianized British accent? Oh no, friend, punk is a way of life. At least it was for Fear. Formed by Lee Ving just a few years prior, the band caught the attention of John Belushi, who attempted to get them to soundtrack his film, “Neighbors”, only to see the idea shot down by studio brass. To make it up to them, Belushi petitioned to get them on SNL, despite no longer being a cast member. The result? A studio full of “slamdancers”, pumpkin guts, and $20,000 worth of damages.
#5: The Replacements (1986)
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Formally the Impediments, until the band's drunken rep caught up with them, the Replacements were known to like a song now and again between drinks. They once drunkenly played the worst set ever staged at CBGB, to an audience of talent scouts no less. But in 1986, fortune shone on the 'Mats, when the Pointer Sisters cancelled and musical director G.E. Smith invited them to SNL. Rehearsal went well... but the hours before the show were spent getting drunk with host Harry Dean Stanton, and their obvious state, clothes swapping, and an uncleared f-bomb were enough for Lorne Michaels to ban them then and there.
#4: Kesha (2010)
She's reinvented herself since, but in 2010 Kesha arguably set the SNL benchmark for awful. There are all kinds of bad floating around here, from her odd stage presence – which many speculated was due to drunkenness – and lame rapping. This was capped by Kesha asking, “does anyone ever stop to think that maybe we are the aliens?” But for “Your Love Is My Drug,” she doubled down on the weird and came out in glow paint. This, aside from being strange to look at, was objectively offensive to indigenous peoples. The singing was arguably a little better, but still incredibly pitchy.
#3: Kanye West (2008)
Kanye's known to commit a social faux pas now and again, but they rarely directly involve his music. On SNL in 2008, while promoting “808s & Heartbreak”, the Louis Vuitton Don launched into “Love Lockdown”, a track thought by many critics to be the highlight of the album, and a departure for West given that it featured him singing. But did it? For style rather than a lack of talent, West's “singing” voice for the song was processed via vocoder – a device that converts and musicalizes the human voice. Live however, this proved incredibly messy, with Kanye’s voice cracking, the vocal effect coming through inconsistently and the backups being cranked up sporadically to cover it. West grabbed people’s attention with another SNL performance a decade later when he began playing an extra song that had to be cut with a commercial break, all while wearing a MAGA hat and he capped things off with an unplanned (and unaired) speech about president Donald Trump.
#2: Lana Del Rey (2012)
We've all gotten used to Lana Del Rey, but 2012 was a different time. A few years prior, she was Lizzy Grant, a budding songwriter and up-and-comer. Taking on the name Lana Del Rey, she found her first round of fame in 2011 via YouTube and her star only climbed higher with her second album, “Born to Die”. However, that album was still weeks away when she appeared on SNL in January of 2012, an appearance that was instantly hated – perhaps due to a case of too much hype with too little proof and substance, or maybe because it was simply underwhelming.
#1: Ashlee Simpson (2004)
While it doesn't require as much talent as singing, lip-syncing is also an art. You have to .... well, you have to synchronize your lips to words mostly. But you also have to really sell it, y'know? These, friends, are the basics of lip-syncing. But, it also helps if you're mouthing the right song. On stage for her second song, “Autobiography”, Simpson's disembodied voice began to sing first song “Pieces of Me”, which prompted her band to switch tracks, and her to do a merry jig and bolt. Initially blaming her band, Ashlee later said she opted not to sing live due to her acid reflux.
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