In a surprise announcement, Lizzo will be the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” next week, on December 17, which will feature “Elvis” star Austin Butler as host.
It was originally announced that the musical The Yeah Yeah Yeahs had to cancel its appearance on the show due to guitarist Nick Zimmer’s battle with pneumonia.
“As many of our fans know, Nick developed pneumonia last month and his recovery has been patchy,” the group wrote on Instagram. “The band’s top priority is to support Nick through a full recovery. As a result, we have had to pull out of our Acoustic Christmas and Saturday Night Live at KROQ engagements.”
Fresh off a triumphant performance at Madison Square Garden at the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Z100, Lizzo dressed like the Grinch for a set that included the songs “Good as Hell” and “About Damn Time.” She shared a photo of herself on Instagram with the caption, “100% That Grinch.”
“About That Time” was recently honored as Variety’s record of the year.
“It’s a dance song with super sentimental lyrics, where you can tell this guy’s been through some shit,” Lizzo told Variety in an interview about her new documentary, “Love, Lizzo.” As the classically trained flutist expertly breaks down the song’s components (“There’s a lot of tension” in a chord “somewhere between major and minor,” she explains), she pauses to consider the bigger picture.
“That’s the power of understanding music theory and understanding songwriting the way I do,” she says. “Not everything can be happy and not everything can be sad. You have to give the listener a real human experience when they listen to the song, which is a mixture of pleasure, pain, joy, sadness, fear and release.”
The upbeat and disco anthem reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as Adult Top 40, Dance/Mix Show Airplay, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Mainstream Top 40, and Rhythmic Airplay. After its release in April, the song has been steadily gaining traction on TikTok, thanks to a sassy dance performance by creator Jaeden Gomez. “About Damn Time” grabbed the number one spot in July.
“It was a great song at first, but I really think the TikTok moment and the dance that went viral definitely helped it take hold,” says Theron Thomas, who helped chart the track.
Slatkin agrees, saying the song was inspired by getting out of quarantine—in other words, it’s time to dance. “We wanted to make something that instantly brings you to the dance floor the moment you hear it,” he says. “I love that it started with the TikTok dance trend, because that’s exactly what we wanted — to see everyone happy and dancing.”
Slatkin cites Lizzo’s strict standards as a large part of the reason “About Damn Time” did so well. “It was four months of almost every day in the studio that made this song perfect,” he says.
Reed adds: “The song is happy and positive and confident, but I think it also says, ‘Look, we’ve been through it, we’re still going through it. ‘” “There are a lot of challenges here now.”
“That’s the power of understanding music theory and understanding songwriting the way I do,” she says. “Not everything can be happy and not everything can be sad. You have to give the listener a real human experience when they listen to the song, which is a mixture of pleasure, pain, joy, sadness, fear and release.”
YEAH YEAH YEAHS on Instagram: “💔nbcsnl & @kroq 🖤💪little_vampire”
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