‘Saturday Night Live’ music: Ariana Grande performs ‘Break Free’
We’re starting something a little different at CarterMatt this year with our “Saturday Night Live” coverage. Since many of the people who watch the show for comedy could really care less about the music, and vice versa, we’re separating them into two separate articles. This gives each one of them a better chance to shine.
So for today’s music article, we’re focusing primarily on the tunes of Ariana Grande, who made her musical guest debut during the premiere. It’s no surprise that this was the timing of her first appearance; she’s had a huge summer with multiple singles, and has appeared on the MTV Video Music Awards and set many chart records.
We’re going to update Grande’s set list as the night progresses.
“Break Free” – “Problem” has been out for too long for this to be her main single. Instead, she went with her second track, and we have to give her some credit for starting out with a stripped-down version at the piano that really showed off her singing voice. We almost wish that she kept it there rather than the typical awards-show performance. The “SNL” stage is really too small to incorporate a ton of dancing.
“Love Me Harder” – For her second performance, Ariana was joined by the oddly-spelled group The Weeknd, which was a different change of pace from the first song. Like we said, we had a feeling that Grande was not going to go up and perform “Problem,” and the second performance is typically a chance to show off a different song that maybe has not had a whole lot of play just yet.
Overall, we feel like Ariana’s performances were solid on the night for her; she may have impressed some non-supporters with her vocal range, but we also wonder if there was anything that she really did that stood out enough to have anyone new buy her music.
Which performance was your favorite? Share in the comments below, and head over here to see the rest of our “Saturday Night Live” coverage right now. Also, sign up to get more updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Photo: NBC