In a surprise announcement, Saturday Night Live confirmed that previously announced musical guest Yeah Yeah Yeahs will no longer perform on the show’s final episode of 2022. SNL has now announced that Lizzo will return to studio 8H as the musical guest in their absence. Lizzo is set to perform on the series with Elvis star Austin Butler acting as the host. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs released a statement about their absence from SNL after previously being announced to appear, confirming that guitarist Nick Zinner is still recovering from a bout with pneuomonia and is unable to perform.
“As many of our fans know Nick has had pneumonia over the past month and it’s been an up and down recovery process,” the band wrote in a statement on social media. “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. It’s been a rough week, and it’s been a tough year on the health front for us alongside so many artists who are committed to connecting with audiences amidst a pandemic. We send our love to our fans and supporters, thank you for your understanding and well wishes, it means the world to us. Wishing you a healthy and happy rest of 2022, we’re looking forward to a strong return in 2023.”
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The return of Lizzo as musical guest on SNL might be one of the quickest turnarounds for a performer to return to the series, having just acted as both host and musical guest in April of this year. Lizzo previously appeared just as the musical guest three years ago, closing out 2019 when Eddie Murphy returned to host the series. She made a splash with her two song performances but also for many sketch appearances, including a bizarre sketch where she broke character.
With her last appearance Lizzo joined a select group of people that have acted as both host and musical guest including the likes of Ray Charles, Debbie Harry, Olivia Newton-John, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, M. C. Hammer, Britney Spears (twice!), Jennifer Lopez (also twice!), Justin Timberlake (three times!), Taylor Swift, Elton John, and most recently, Billie Eilish. Paul Simon was the first to do this way back in 1976, appearing as both host and musical guest four times on the series.
