On the heels of scoring a surprising seven Grammy nominations on Friday, Boygenius made its Saturday Night Live debut last night (Nov. 11) to perform “Not Strong Enough” and “Satanist” from its 2023 album The Record. The Beatles-style suit-clad group, which is comprised of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus, was welcomed by host Timothée Chalamet, who was promoting his upcoming film Wonka.
Boygenius earned Grammy nods for Album of the Year, Best Alternative Album, and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for The Record, Record of the Year, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Performance for “Not Strong Enough,” and Best Alternative Music Performance for “Cool About It.” Bridgers is also nominated in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category for her feature on SZA’s “Ghost in the Machine.”
The latter is no stranger to SNL drama, after having endured backlash for smashing her guitar during a solo appearance on the show in 2021. She described the incident as “just a bucket list thing” in a subsequent CNN interview, adding, “I’ve always wanted to do it, and when I mentioned it to the show, they built me this whole monitor that would look like it was exploding even if I wasn’t hitting it that hard.” The remnants of the black Danelectro Dano ’56 were later sold for $101,500 at a GLAAD Media Awards auction. Last night, Baker nodded to incident by tossing her own guitar at the end of “Satanist,” without destroying it.
Elsewhere in the episode, Chalamet joined Bridgers, Baker, and Dacus to play different versions of Troye Sivan in a sketch about sleep demons. The SNL performance capped a banner year for Boygenius, which included its debut appearances at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl. At the latter show on Halloween (Oct. 31), the trio was joined by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who played drums on “Satanist.”
