View Full Version : Several musical careers have come to an end on the Saturday Night Live stage...


TMC
06-26-2023, 06:14 AM
https://victor-li.com/katyperry/

Ashlee Simpson was never the same (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CreatorKiller/Music) after being caught lip-syncing (https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/ashlee-simpson-snl-lip-syncing-video-saturday-night-live/). Sinead O’Connor became music industry poison after ripping up a picture of then-Pope John Paul II (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/sinead-oconnor-snl-pope-memoir-1174191/) (although given the scandals (https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/937981411/vaticans-mccarrick-report-casts-a-dark-cloud-over-pope-john-paul-iis-legacy) that have engulfed the Catholic Church since then, maybe she deserves an apology).

And on May 20, 2017, during an episode hosted by ratings-magnet (https://fansided.com/2017/05/23/saturday-night-live-the-rock-pulls-highest-ratings-six-years/) Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Katy Perry (https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/search/?q=Katy%20Perry&restrict_sr=1) sang two songs off her upcoming album, Witness (https://youtu.be/OfoPiRzWnFY). As she is wont to do, her performances were pure spectacle: She laid down on a banquet table, danced with drag queens, featured a kid who went viral for popularizing “the floss dance (https://deadline.com/2017/05/russell-horning-katy-perry-snl-saturday-night-live-swish-swish-1202099384/)” that everyone started doing afterwards, and awkwardly shrugged while featured guest Migos started rapping, as if she had no idea what to do at that moment, before executing the worst dab known to mankind.

This time, instead of being provocative, titillating or even entertaining, she came across as awkward and cringe-inducing (https://www.bet.com/music/2017/05/24/katy-perry-migos-snl-performance-reactions.html) and was widely lampooned (https://www.buzzfeed.com/morganmurrell/katy-perry-migos-snl-performance-twitter-reactions) on social media. She had long been known as a savvy performer who, with a wink and a smile, skillfully exploited pop music and pop cultural tropes by yielding her confident sexuality, manufactured vapidity and whimsical superficiality to create a persona well-suited for mass popularity. In a few short moments, however, she went from being in-on-the-joke to the butt of it and we went from laughing with her to at her. And she hasn’t been the same since.

Her disastrous SNL turn also had the effect of undermining her album and her attempts to reinvent and modernize her sound and image. For her fourth album (fifth, if you include her Katy Hudson album), Perry made a big deal about wanting to be taken more seriously as an artist and pursuing what she called “purposeful pop (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/02/katy-perry-chained-to-the-rhythm-purposeful-pop/amp).” The days of singing exploitative songs like “I Kissed a Girl” or shooting fireworks or whipped cream out of her breasts were seemingly behind her. She even cut her trademark dark hair, going for a bleached blonde pixie cut instead. “I’ve seen behind the curtain and I can’t go back,” she told Vogue (https://www.vogue.com/article/katy-perry-interview-religion-childhood-may-vogue-cover) in April 2017, two months before Witness was released. “I used to be the queen of innuendo, everything done with a wink. Now I want to be the queen of subtext—which is a cousin to innuendo, but it’s got more purpose.”

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It’s not surprising that SNL celebrity guests get nervous before they perform on one of the premiere comedic establishments on television. There’s a lot of improvising and ad-libs that go on in these sketches, and a hosting or musical guest gig is also an indication that you have arrived as a star in showbiz. But even the most confident and seasoned performer can flub up on such a prestigious stage.

We’ve compiled a list of celebrities that completely destroyed their careers during SNL performances. Chalk it up to nerves, overconfidence, or a brain fart, these celebrity careers were never the same.


Sinead O'Connor (https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/search/?q=Sinead%20O%27Connor&restrict_sr=1) | 0:24
Ashlee Simpson (https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/search/?q=Ashlee%20Simpson&restrict_sr=1) | 1:22
Karmin (https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/search/?q=Karmin&restrict_sr=1) | 2:14
Lana Del Rey (https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/search/?q=Lana%20Del%20Rey&restrict_sr=1) | 2:54