Willow shows Hard Rock Bona Fides on Saturday Night Live

The second episode in Season 48 of Saturday Night Live featured host Brendan Gleeson and musical guest Willow.

willow saturday night live

A game show parody cold open of “So You Think You Won’t Snap” made light of the global stress and anxiety felt by nearly everyone in the past few years, except a few lucky contestants. Bowen Yang stepped into the lead role and has established himself as one of the lead male repertory players, alongside seven year cast member Mikey Day.

Irish actor Gleeson reminded the crowd where they’d seen him – Braveheart and a few Harry Potter films – before grabbing a mandolin to play the first song he ever learned, “Barney McKenna” from the Dubliners, telling stories while tuning. The Banshees of Inisherin co-star Colin Farrell arrived on stage to sing a few bars with Gleeson, who then continued playing into the commercial break with the Saturday Night Live Band.

The first song from Willow was “curious/furious,” performed in front of stacks of Marshall speakers with her band amid purple lighting. Willow closed the song sharing guitar licks with guitarist Liso Lee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1kPDvRtCAc

Willow’s second song “ur a stranger” was miles heavier and had a wide range of Willow’s vocal ability, turning the corner into metal territory. To punctuate the Saturday Night Live performance, Willow smashed her guitar into a TV on stage, then kicking the microphone stand over. The hard rock from Willow shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that her mom, Jada Pinkett Smith, had her own rock band, Wicked Wisdom. Both songs are featured on her just released album <COPINGMECHANISM>.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdBQxCtTHaY

The two songs were not Willow’s first SNL appearance – she joined Camila Cabello in April, linking up for a performance of “Psychofreak.”

Saturday Night Live returns on October 15 with host and musical guest Megan Thee Stallion.

Comments are closed.