‘Saturday Night Live’ music: Solange performs ‘Cranes in the Sky,’ ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’

We will admit that like with many other musical guests on “Saturday Night Live” these days, we didn’t come into this weekend’s show with an extensive amount of knowledge as to some of Solange’s music. We’d certainly heard of her, but outside of her appearances on other shows over time, we didn’t know a whole lot else about her.

What we did see and hear from her during her first performance was that this was someone looking to create real artistry and emotional resonance in her performance, and this was enough to have us entertained and appreciated. Her music was low-key, but at the same time still soulful. We enjoyed the live back and the background singers.

The song she started out her run with tonight is “Cranes in the Sky,” a recent track that also has a remix collaboration out there with Common. This direction is showing that she continues to make an effort to put out thoughtful, genre-bending music that isn’t exactly the direction that you would first expect from someone related to one of the biggest music stars on the planet. The fact that she does her own thing, and doesn’t even include her last name for attention, makes us respect her further.

Second song – Solange came out this time with a performance of “Don’t Touch My Hair,” a song that probably utilized her voice more than the first given that there was a very stripped-down musical accompaniment to it until the dance break / big ending. This song had more of a distinct R&B / soul vibe to it, but as someone who doesn’t listen to Solange’s music on a regular basis, we would say that it did not have the same degree of appeal to it.

Overall, Solange still brought a lot of artistry and intriguing music to “Saturday Night Live” this weekend. She’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but we’ll always prefer someone with a message and something to say over someone who fails to bring that same level of passion to the show.

Want to see our full review of tonight’s show? Then head over here to check that out now. (Photo: NBC.)