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To best understand the last 50 years of popular music in America, you can either a) study the Billboard Hot 100 chart, or b) look up the musical guests on Saturday Night Live. Of the two, I prefer the latter; it’s a better representation of genres, and an interesting look at the shifting idea of what was considered “cool” at the time. Which is to say, way more Debbie Harry.

Ahead of SNL’s 50th anniversary special, I dug deep on Peacock, YouTube, and other, uh, less legal websites to find the best musical performance for all 50 seasons. Not the 50 best performances, necessarily, but one for every season.

A few notes:

-Bands and artists are only eligible once, otherwise David Bowie would dominate multiple seasons

-I only included official musical guests, not music-based sketches, with one or two necessary exceptions

-Not every clip is embeddable, so if you don’t see a video, it’s hyperlinked to the title of the song

With that out of the way: ladies and gentlemen… it’s the best musical performance from all 50 seasons of SNL.

Season 1: “Nothing From Nothing” by Billy Preston (October 11, 1975)

SNL nabbed a murderer’s row of musical talent for a show in its infancy. Episode 3 featured not only a Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel reunion, but also Randy Newman and Phoebe Snow. Later in season 1, you have Patti Smith, Martha Reeves, Leon Redbone, and ABBA (in an intentionally lip-synced performance of “Waterloo”). But it would be disingenuous to not go with the first musical guest in SNL history: Billy Preston performing the supremely funky “Nothing From Nothing.” The second song in SNL history? Technically, it’s Andy Kaufman doing the Mighty Mouse theme. Slightly less funky.

Season 2: “Feeling Alright” by Joe Cocker (October 2, 1976)

What do Rob Reiner, Sigourney Weaver, and Paul Rudd have in common? They all hosted SNL episodes with no musical guests. The first time it happened, in the show’s third-ever episode, John Belushi filled in by debuting his twitchy Joe Cocker impression for a cover of The Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends.” A year later, a very game Cocker performed “Feeling Alright” alongside Belushi. “I always found it quite amusing,” Cocker said about the impersonation. “I thought vocally, he did quite a clever job with it. It put a print on me that kind of stuck to this day.”

Season 3: “Radio, Radio” by Elvis Costello (December 17, 1977)

Lorne Michaels recently claimed that he’s “never banned anyone” from SNL. Elvis Costello would like a word. The bespectacled singer abruptly cut short his performance of “Less Than Zero” to instead play a fired-up version of “Radio Radio,” a harsh critique of censorship on the radio. “I just wanted them to remember us. I didn’t really have anything against the show,” Costello explained in 2021. “I was more pissed off at being told what to play by the record company than I was NBC, truthfully.” Costello deserves praise for his Jimi Hendrix-inspired stunt, but also give credit to his backing band, The Attractions, for how quickly they lock into “Radio, Radio”’s jittery energy.

Season 4: “The Man With The Child In His Eyes” by Kate Bush (December 9, 1978)

“This is her first time on American television, she’s very wonderful.” That’s how Monty Python’s Eric Idle introduced Kate Bush in a 1978 episode, eight years before she became Max Mayfield’s favorite artist. Even before the camera pulled back during “The Man With The Child In His Eyes” to reveal her theatricality sitting on a piano (played by Paul Shaffer!) while wearing a sparkling gold jumpsuit, Bush made an immediate impression with her expressive voice. This was not only her American debut — it’s, to date, her only public performance in the U.S. How do you top perfection?

Season 5: “The Man Who Sold The World” by David Bowie (December 15, 1979)

Why did David Bowie choose to perform “The Man Who Sold The World,” the title track from his overlooked third album, nine years after the song first came out? Who knows! It made as much sense as Bowie being escorted to the microphone by New York City performance artists Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias because he couldn’t move in his Bauhaus-inspired outfit. Which is to say, it made perfect sense because Bowie, the magnetic showman that he was, knew how to put on a good show. “We didn’t have to do anything but be ourselves that night,” Arias later recalled. There’s a reason Rolling Stone named this the best performance in SNL history.

Season 6: “Can’t Turn You Loose” by Aretha Franklin (December 6, 1980)

Maybe you had to be there. I wasn’t, so I don’t “get” The Blues Brothers. Both the characters played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, and the too-long, self-indulgent movie, which works better as a supercut of performances than it does as a film. The Aretha Franklin scene, in particular, is a show-stopper, as is her vigorous cover of Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose” (Aretha dropped the “I”) on SNL. She takes the Blues Brothers theme back from them.

Season 7: “Beef Bologna” by Fear (October 31, 1981)

It’s not often SNL descends into chaos, but it did on Halloween night 1981. Los Angeles-based punk band Fear were booked on the urging of John Belushi. To make the performance feel authentic, the comedian called up some of his punk-rock buddies in Washington D.C. and asked them to be in the audience. “He wanted 15 to 20 people,” Fear frontman Lee Ving explained, “but they stopped in Baltimore and Philly before they got to New York and arrived with 35, 40 people.” SNL’s first and only moshpit — and sing-along to the words “beef” and “bologna” — was a “Velvet Underground album”-level experience for the young punks watching at home. As Jack White shared in the Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years Of SNL Music special, “We’re still talking about that moment right now and there’s been 1,000 bands on other TV shows that we’re not talking about. That meant something.”

Season 8: “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen (September 25, 1982)

To be honest, this isn’t Freddie Mercury at his technical best. The night before appearing on SNL, he “screamed himself hoarse” during an argument with his boyfriend Bill Reid. That, coupled with Queen having recently wrapped up a lengthy U.S. tour left Mercury’s voice a little ragged. But he more than made up for his vocal limitations with sheer superstar charisma. Not-so-fun fact: this was Queen’s final performance in North America with Mercury ever.

Season 9: “Magic” by The Cars (May 12, 1984)

There’s a reason most musical guests are introduced with a simple “ladies and gentlemen.” Otherwise, we would be stuck with introductions like the one then-New York City mayor Ed Koch gave to The Cars: “You know, as mayor of New York, traffic is one of my biggest problems. But tonight, I think I’ve solved the problem: replace all the automobiles in the city with the fabulous Cars.” Where’s the tense Saturday Night-style movie about who signed off on that? Great performance, though.

Season 10: “Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)” by Billy Ocean (January 19, 1985)

This was a weird season for SNL. It was the end of the Dick Ebersol-era (Lorne Michaels would return to run the show in fall 1985, and ever since), and a group of established comedians, including Billy Crystal, Martin Short, and Christopher Guest, were brought in to juice ratings following the departure of Eddie Murphy. It was a transitional, at times rocky season, but Billy Ocean kept things smooth with “Caribbean Queen.”

Season 11: “Bastards Of Young” by The Replacements (January 18, 1986)

In 1986, The Replacements, the most self-destructive rock band of the era, were booked on SNL as a last-minute, ahem, replacement for The Pointer Sisters. As they waited to take the stage, the ‘Mats soothed their nerves by getting inebriated. Very inebriated. When the time came for them to perform “Bastards Of Young,” they had “secretly turned up their amps,” author Bob Mehr wrote in his essential book, Trouble Boys. “It took a few seconds for the engineers to turn the sound down.” They were out of tune, piss drunk, and at one point, singer Paul Westerberg can be heard yelling “come on, f*cker” at guitarist Bob Stinson. “Rock and roll doesn’t always make for great television,” Westerberg later said. “But we were trying to do whatever possible to make sure that was a memorable evening.” It was a disaster, and it was beautiful.

Season 12: “Walk This Way” by Run-DMC (October 18, 1986)

Funky 4 + 1 were the first hip-hop group to play SNL in 1981. It took another five years for the second. Run-DMC were introduced by Spike Lee in character as Mars Blackmon, who parodied the media’s insistence that rap incites violence. “They’re not violent, never have been, never will be,” he said, as the Queens legends can be seen backstage choking Lorne Michaels. Remember: this was a decade before the Grammys even had a Best Rap Album category; it was subversive for the time to have a hip-hop group on national TV. It helped that “Walk That Way” was undeniable, even (especially?) without Aerosmith.

Season 13: “Under African Skies” by Linda Ronstadt and Paul Simon (December 19, 1987)

Many of the entries on this list are big and flashy, with choreography, guitar solos, and elaborate set designs. But there’s room for smaller performances, too. Sometimes all you need is two incredible and well-matched voices (Paul Simon and Linda Ronstadt) singing a lovely song (“Under African Skies”) from a classic album (Graceland).

Season 14: “Birthday” by The Sugarcubes (October 15, 1988)

SNL’s history with Björk runs surprisingly deep. There’s, of course, Winona Ryder’s impression of her on “Celebrity Jeopardy” (prompting Will Ferrell’s Alex Trebek to ask, in a regrettable joke, if she’s Icelandic or the r-slur). But the real Björk has been on three times, a high number for an artist as idiosyncratic as she is. The most impactful of the performances is the time that Matthew Broderick introduced her pre-solo band, The Sugarcubes, as being “all the way from Iceland, our NATO allies.” Björk makes quite the statement on “Birthday” with her curiously pleasing shriek and howls. Nearly 40 years later, she remains a unique fascination.

Season 15: “Rockin’ In The Free World” by Neil Young (September 30, 1989)

SNL has a reputation for having a terrible sound mix, often deservedly so. But credit where credit is due: Neil Young sounds f*cking terrific playing “Rockin’ In The Free World.” “It was transcendent and punched through the television,” Conan O’Brien, a writer on the show at the time, told Young about his set during a 2023 interview. “I’m on the floor at 8-H. I’m a kid; I’m in my twenties; I’m watching you do that. The place, you just melted it… It’s never been quite repaired.” The best guitar solo in SNL history did much of the damage.

Season 16: “I’m Your Baby Tonight” by Whitney Houston (February 23, 1991)

There’s a common, perhaps apocryphal, story surrounding “I’m Your Baby Tonight.” The legend goes that L.A. Reid and Babyface wrote it as a technical challenge for Whitney Houston; would she be able to pull off such a complex vocal arrangement? To answer with a very it-was-the-style-at-the-time word: Duh. Of course she would. Houston apparently recorded the new jack swing-influenced, future No. 1 hit in one take so she could make it to the mall before it closed. She was in no such rush on SNL — Houston struts the stage with the confidence of someone who knows she’s the best singer in the room.

Season 17: “Bring The Noise” by Public Enemy (September 28, 1991) and “Territorial Pissings” by Nirvana (January 11, 1992)

Two legendary performances from two legendary groups. On one hand, you have host Michael Jordan and guest Spike Lee introducing Public Enemy, who dedicated “Bring The Noise,” a monumental track from one of the greatest rap albums of all-time, to Miles Daves. On the other, there’s red-haired Kurt Cobain in a Flipper shirt, Krist Novoselic moving his 6’7” frame like he’s made of rubber, and Dave Grohl going beast mode on the drums before the three of them collectively destroy their instruments. You try to choose between the two.

Season 18: “War” by Sinéad O’Connor

What else could it be?

Season 19: “Round Here” by Counting Crows (January 15, 1994)

There’s a big disconnect between how Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz looked vs. sounded while performing “Round Here” on SNL circa 1994. He wore the outfit of a hacky sack hippie, the kind of guy you avoid while walking across a college campus. Plus, the dreads. But my god, that voice. It’s so expressive and vulnerable. Between Counting Crows and host Sara Gilbert, this was a defining moment for ‘90s angst.

Season 20: “Violet” by Hole (December 17, 1994)

No fuss, no theatrics, just a kick-ass band playing a kick-ass song. Hole were surrounded by baby dolls and a framed photo of Tom Selleck when they tore their way through “Violet” with a feedback-drenched outro of “He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)” by The Crystals. During the closing credits, Courtney Love jumped on host George Foreman and gave a long, passionate kiss to drummer ​​Patty Schemel that ended with them rolling around on the floor. It was a rare cause for celebration during a (put it lightly) tumultuous time in Love’s life.

Season 21: “Bulls On Parade” by Rage Against The Machine (April 13, 1996)

Whoever booked mega-wealthy Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes and the fiercely political Rage Against The Machine for the same episode was asking for trouble. And trouble they got. Rage hung upside down American flags on their amps “to stand in sharp juxtaposition to a billionaire telling jokes and promoting his flat tax by making our own statement,” as Tom Morello explained. Although the flags were removed at the last second by stagehands, Rage played “Bulls On Parade” like a band possessed — but before they could return for a second song, they were ordered to leave the building. “You might notice Rage is not in the farewells on that particular show,” Morello said. “I still went to the after party.”

Season 22: “Proud Mary” by Tina Turner (February 22, 1997)

Everyone knows Tina Turner’s cover of “Proud Mary” is great. It’s one of the most unstoppably energetic songs ever recorded, and at 58 years old, like she was here, the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll had better moves than dancers half her age. But I would like to take a moment to appreciate this performance’s runner-up MVP: the extremely jacked harmonica and saxophone player in the background. Yes, it’s the sax man from The Lost Boys, who toured with Turner for years. A greasy legend.

Season 23: “Acquiesce” by Oasis (October 4, 1997)

Years before Liam Gallagher called out the show for an “excruciating” sketch about his feud with brother Noel, Oasis appeared on SNL during the Be Here Now era. Do they remember it? Probably not, considering what we know about the recording of that album, but luckily, there’s video footage to prove it happened. There’s not a lot Liam and Noel see eye to eye on, but at least they had the sense to agree to play “Acquiesce,” a B-side better than most band’s best songs. Their differences showed up again in the closing credits: Liam blew kisses to the crowd, while Noel scratched his balls.

Season 24: “Waltz #2” by Elliott Smith (October 17, 1998)

What are the five greatest words in the English language? Lucy Lawless saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, Elliott Smith.” Seeing Smith play the haunting “Waltz #2” on national television was a pinch-me moment for fans of the impactful songwriter, and a dream come true for Smith himself. He wrote “Between The Bars” while watching Xena: Warrior Princess, the syndicated fantasy series starring… Lucy Lawless! “I had a secret crush on Xena,” he said during a concert. “It was a secret to me, too.” He looked adorably awkward when Lawless referred to him as “my friend Elliott Smith” (the four greatest words in the English language) during the goodnights.

Season 25: “Party Up (Up In Here)” by DMX (February 12, 2000)

DMX was on an incredible run at this time. 1998 saw the release of both It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot and Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood, followed by …And Then There Was X in 1999. That album gave the rapper born Earl Simmons his best-known song, “Party Up (Up In Here),” which he performed on SNL while roaming the stage like a caged tiger. “It’s a ride, baby,” DMX told Spin in 2000 about a day in his life. “A real ride.” For one night on SNL, he took us on a ride with him, and it was thrilling.

Season 26: “The National Anthem” by Radiohead (October 14, 2000)

This was around the time I started watching SNL, and I distinctly remember being some combination of confused and awed by Radiohead’s performance. I hadn’t heard anything like “The National Anthem” before, but I knew I wanted more of it. That holiday season, I asked my aunt to buy Kid A for me, which she did. I’m not going to claim I immediately fell in love with the album (I was too deep in my DMB phase to process a song like “Treefingers”) but eventually, it would become a favorite. Radiohead playing “The National Anthem” on SNL was the first step there.

Season 27: “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” by Kylie Minogue (March 16, 2002)

Kylie Minogue gets the nod here over Alicia Keys’s emotional rendition of “Fallin’” in the first post-9/11 episode, Andrew W.K.’s head banging to “Party Hard,” and Killer Mike joining Outkast on “The Whole World” for pulling off an SNL first. As she performed “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head,” Ian McKellen can be seen sitting on the side of the stage, enjoying the show. I’ve never seen the host take a seat and watch the musical guest before, at least not on camera. Gandalf must be rooting for Kylie to get a Better Man-style biopic.

Season 28: “46 Days” by Phish (December 14, 2002)

Even crazier than Phish being on SNL the same season as The Donnas, Zwan, and Good Charlotte is Phish playing “46 Days” and it’s only four minutes long, not the typical eight minutes or 16 minutes or 38 (!) minutes. Yet Trey Anastasio, fresh off a hiatus, still found time for two sweltering solos.

Season 29: “Everytime” by Britney Spears (October 18, 2003)

This song hits differently in 2025. Britney Spears was on SNL the week after her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake performed his self-pity anthem “Cry Me A River.” She channeled all her emotions and experiences — the abortion, the two-word breakup text, her controlling father — and sang the hell out of the lullaby-like “Everytime.” Spears is a better vocalist than she gets credit for, and you can really hear her shine here.

Season 30: “I Will Follow” by U2 (November 20, 2004)

If you’re a U2 fan, their circa-2004 SNL set is everything you love about them. They’re playing with the passion of a band that still has everything to prove, not one of the canonized rock groups of all-time. But if you hate U2, you probably stopped watching after Bono repeated “live” into the microphone during “Vertigo,” a reference to the Ashlee Simpson “scandal” the prior month, or his constant mugging for the camera. As a lover and a hater, I’m choosing to love U2 playing “I Will Follow,” from their debut album, as a surprise third song during the closing credits. Just don’t think about the lap dance at the end.

Season 31: “Fury” by Prince (February 4, 2006)

Prince went the eternity of the peak 1999 / Purple Rain / Around The World In A Day / Parade / Sign O’ The Times era without an SNL appearance. His first time on the show was a split slot with Todd Rundgren in 1981 before he returned in 2006, which at the time was the longest gap between appearances (it’s since been broken by Elton John). Rather than break out one of his old hits to make up for lost time, the ever-mercurial played a blistering version of “Fury,” from his then-new album 3121. If not for the Super Bowl and the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, this might be his greatest televised guitar solo.

Season 32: “Dick In A Box” by The Lonely Island and Justin Timberlake (December 16, 2006)

There really wasn’t a standout performance this season (poor AFI suffered most of all), but there was “Dick In A Box.” The digital short from The Lonely Island and Justin Timberlake was a viral sensation; it even won an Emmy for Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics (“Everything Comes Down To Poo” didn’t stand a chance). A strong case can be made that it’s The Lonely Island’s signature song — but is it also the most famous “original” song in SNL history? It’s gotta be up there with “Lazy Sunday” and “The Chanukah Song” and “I’m On A Boat.” So, something involving the stars of That’s My Boy.

Season 33: “The Pretender” by Foo Fighters (October 13, 2007)

No list of the best SNL music moments is complete without Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl, specifically, holds the record for the most musical appearances on the show with 15. One of those times was in SNL’s writers-strike-shortened season, where the Foos tore through “The Pretender.” When I close my eyes and picture the band, this performance is what I see: Grohl in a black shirt with wild hair over his eyes; the late Taylor Hawkins bashing away on the drums.

Season 34: “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” by Beyoncé (November 15, 2008)

Everyone remembers the “Single Ladies” sketch with Andy Samberg, Justin Timberlake, and Bobby Moynihan. But what might be forgotten is that Beyoncé performed the I Am… Sasha Fierce anthem again, with her band and locked-in backup dancers (including Brittany from Glee), less than 10 minutes later. That had to be an SNL first. If you like it then you should hear it again and again.

Season 35: “Public Service Announcement” / “On To The Next One” / “99 Problems” / “03 Bonnie & Clyde” / “Empire State Of Mind” by Jay-Z (May 8, 2010)

There’s a reason most rap songs — or songs with lyrics in any genre, really — aren’t eight-plus minutes long. Jay-Z sounds a little winded by the end of his mini-concert of hits (understandable!), but he remained locked in the entire time. So is the studio audience; just listen to the way they erupt for “Empire State Of Mind.” This is actually one of the most-watched SNL episodes ever thanks to a campaign to get 88-year-old Betty White to host the show. During his second set, Jay-Z dedicated “Young Forever” to The Golden Girls star.

Season 36: “The Edge Of Glory” / “Judas” by Lady Gaga (May 21, 2011)

As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations, Peacock is streaming SNL50: The Homecoming Concert, a live, three-hour concert special from Radio City Music Hall. The lineup is all performers who have been on the show before, including Miley Cyrus, Dave Grohl (of course), and Lady Gaga. Mother Monster has actually been the musical guest four times (five, if you include “Why Did You Do That”), with the highlight being her flawless transition from a piano ballad version of “The Edge Of Glory” to the highly choreographed electro-pop of “Judas.” Ally Maine would be proud.

Season 37: “Dancing On My Own” by Robyn (December 10, 2011)

Katy Perry was still riding high off the success of Teenage Dream when she hosted SNL in 2011. It was her second time on the show after appearing as a musical guest a year prior to perform “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream.” Those are two great songs, but they’re not a perfect song like “Dancing On My Way,” one of two ideal-world No. 1 hits that Robyn played during the Perry-hosted episode (the other being “Call Your Girlfriend”). It’s as good as pop gets.

Season 38: “Black Skinhead” by Kanye West (May 18, 2013)

On my wedding day, as me and my groomsmen were driving from an errand to the venue, we put on Yeezus. The album came out two months earlier, but it was still a constant presence in our minds. That’s the power Kanye West had over the culture — including four Brooklyintes and one very nervous groom — in 2013. His performance on SNL, where he debuted “Black Skinhead” and “New Slaves,” was a big reason why: this was a mad-genius reinventing himself with his angriest, most apocalyptic album yet. What we didn’t know at the time was that the “mad” would soon overtake the “genius.”

Season 39: “I Need My Girl” by The National (March 8, 2014)

The National’s most-streamed song on Spotify is what you think it is: the one with Taylor Swift. In second place, however, is “I Need My Girl,” the “most direct [and] earnest” love song in the band’s discography. The version on Trouble Will Find Me is gorgeous, but on SNL, The National made the first-dance soundtrack to a thousand weddings sound bigger without losing any of the intimacy. Bryce Dessner’s warm guitar riff paired especially well with the added horn section.

Season 40: “i” by Kendrick Lamar (November 15, 2014)

“This whole thing smacks of effort, man” was used as an insult on The Simpsons, but it’s a compliment when describing Kendrick Lamar’s second appearance on SNL. Backed by an in-the-pocket live band, you can see the sweaty passion he puts into the Isley Brothers-approved To Pimp A Butterfly single — which doubled as a sign of respect for Method Man and a tribute the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard. “I love myself.” He should.

Season 41: “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party” by Courtney Barnett (May 21, 2016)

One group that I feel bad I consistently left off this list is Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. Yet, somehow this feels appropriate: they’re an easy band to take for granted when they churned out one classic radio hit after another. So, instead, season 41 — the last normal season before the “Hallelujah” cold open — goes to “the new Tom Petty”: Courtney Barnett. If it’s been awhile since you last listened to the Australian singer-songwriter (her most recent album was four years ago), remind yourself why she became an indie sensation with witty, conversational, and, most of all, catchy songs like “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To the Party.”

Season 42: “We The People…” by A Tribe Called Quest (November 12, 2016)

A few months after the death of Phife Dawg, the surviving members of A Tribe Called Quest honored the hip-hop great with a rare live performance. Q-Tip and Jarobi White (wearing a shirt reading “PHIFE”) channeled the youthful vigor and charm of The Low End Theory on “We The People…” a standout track from that year’s We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service. When it came time for Phife’s verse, a banner with his face on it descended from the ceiling. A worthy tribute to the Five-Foot Assassin.

Season 43: “This Is America” by Childish Gambino (May 5, 2018)

There are a few worthy options this season: Kacey Musgraves’ heavenly “High Horse,” Cardi B’s grooving “Be Careful” (which included a baby bump reveal), Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson’s “Midnight Train To Memphis.” But “This Is America” gets the nod for two reasons: 1) this was America’s introduction to “This Is America” (the era-defining Hiro Murai-directed video was released simultaneously), and 2) Donald Glover’s uncanny ability to command the stage, whether as himself or as Childish Gambino.

Season 44: “Chris Farley Song” by Adam Sandler (May 4, 2019)

Technically, Adam Sandler wasn’t the musical guest for this episode. Shawn Mendes was. Sandler was on host duties to promote Murder Mystery, but — if you’ll allow the slight cheat — he provided one of the most emotionally devastating performances in SNL history. How long did you make it into his tribute to former castmate Chris Farley before you started crying? For me, it was, “We’d tell him, ‘Slow down, you’ll end up like Belushi and Candy’ / He said, ‘Those guys are my heroes, that’s all fine and dandy.’”

Season 45: “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd (March 7, 2020)

“Ladies and gentlemen… The Weeknd.” With those words, spoken by Daniel Craig with an enlivened shrug, a meme was born. “It’s a silly four-second video, I don’t think it’s anything bigger than that,” the then-teenager behind the @CraigWeekend account told The Los Angeles Times. There are few songs bigger than “Blinding Lights,” however. By the time The Weeknd was introduced by James Bond, the first single from After Hours was on its way to becoming the most streamed song of all-time on Spotify. If there was anyone who wasn’t familiar with The Weeknd by the time he made his SNL debut, ladies and gentlemen… The Weeknd.

Season 46: “Don’t Hurt Yourself” / “Ball Biscuit” / “Jesus Is Coming Soon” by Jack White (October 10, 2020)

Jack White’s COVID-era set began quietly. “When you hurt me, you hurt yourself,” he sang in a whisper over a funky groove. Before long, however, the guitar virtuoso and his two-piece band make “Don’t Hurt Yourself” sound as massive as a “Seven Nation Army” stadium sing-along — an impressive achievement without the presence of Beyoncé. White turns the Lemonade cut into a scorching medley with “Ball And Biscuit,” a fierce highlight from his White Stripes day, and a slick cover of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Jesus Is Coming Soon.”

Season 47: “All Too Well (10-Minute Version)” by Taylor Swift (November 13, 2021)

I stand by this being the definitive version of Taylor Swift’s best song. Never before has “YOU, that’s what happened you” sounded so scornful.

Season 48: “Anxiety” by Megan Thee Stallion (October 15, 2022)

Megan Thee Stallion is in rare company: she’s one of only eight rappers to do double duty as host and musical guest. The others: MC Hammer, Queen Latifah, Ludacris, Drake, Donald Glover, Chance The Rapper, and Timothée Chalamet (Lil’ Timmy Tim absolutely counts). The rarity of the situation was not lost on Meg, who appeared to tear up during “Anxiety,” a vulnerable ode to mental health struggles and the death of her mother. “Bad bitches have bad days, too,” she rapped while dressed in a pageant gown. It’s a powerful performance from a fearless performer.

Season 49: “All-American Bitch” by Olivia Rodrigo (December 9, 2023)

A common SNL trope is an artist/band playing their “bigger,” more theatrical song first, then a slower ballad for song #2. Olivia Rodrigo switched up the traditional order by starting with a lovely piano rendition of “Vampire” before jumping up on a table during follow-up song, “All-American Bitch.” She channeled her inner M3GAN while brandishing a knife and squeezing a glass so hard that it smashed into pieces. It was brat before the summer of Brat.

Season 50: “The Giver” by Chappell Roan (November 2, 2024)

So far, the most-watched episode of SNL in its 50th anniversary season is the one hosted by John Mulaney. Were the high ratings because he’s a beloved host and one of the best stand-up comedians of his generation? Perhaps. Or maybe it had something to do with the election? Also possible. But I like to think over six million people tuned in to see what Chappell Roan had in store for her SNL debut. She did not disappoint, first with “Pink Pony Club” then the debut of lesbian country song “The Giver.” SNL wasn’t one of Roan’s 10 “most iconic looks” of 2024, but it’s an iconic performance nonetheless.

Now in his seventh season in the league, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has established himself as not only one of the NBA’s best point guards, but is one of the game’s elite players overall. He is in a two-man race for MVP this season with Nikola Jokic and is on pace to average more than 30 points per game for the third consecutive season.

He is the leader of the best team in the West at the All-Star break, as the Oklahoma City Thunder are 44-10 on the season, tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the best record in the league. The 26-year-old Canadian will play in his third All-Star Game this weekend, and as All-Star Weekend got started, he and Converse unveiled his first signature sneaker: the SHAI 001.

Gilgeous-Alexander has been considered one of the most fashionable NBA stars, so it’s fitting that he would go in a unique direction with his first signature shoe. It is a welcome sight to have something this fresh in terms of design in a sneaker world that has become a lot of variations on the same thing. For Gilgeous-Alexander, it was important to create a shoe that would be not just an on-court performance sneaker, but something that could appeal to people who don’t play basketball at all.

“I poured my heart and soul into the SHAI 001, and I’m proud to share it with the world,” says Gilgeous-Alexander in a release. “From performance to design, every aspect of this shoe reflects my passion for the game and my commitment to pushing its boundaries. We made the SHAI 001 a versatile shoe for everyone — from the athlete who’s in the gym three times a day to the kids who just want to express themselves on or off the court.”

“I hope my signature sneaker can inspire everybody to explore the beauty in being different,” Gilgeous-Alexander told Nick DePaula. “I miss the era of when signature basketball sneakers were performative enough to be played in, but fashionable enough to be worn. I want to restore that feeling.”

It’s been awhile since we had a signature sneaker with a full zipper over the laces — Paul George’s PG4 is the last one I remember — but the SHAI 001 harkens back more to the Answer IV. Even then, its design on the upper as the aesthetics of a luxury sneaker, fitting into Shai’s desire to have it be wearable off the court as much as on it. From a performance perspective, the upper is a bootie construction (under the outer zipper layer) to provide containment, while there is a Zoom Air unit in the forefoot for extra cushioning and bounce.

Gilgeous-Alexander will debut the SHAI 001 on-court at All-Star Weekend in the Butter colorway, and the sneaker will hit select retailers this fall.

The average cheeseburger combo meal at a fast food restaurant is going to cost you around $15. Which begs the question, why are we paying restaurant prices for drive-thru cheeseburgers when we could just go to a restaurant and receive way better quality food and better service for the same amount of money?

So… let’s do that! It’s time to leave drive-thru burgers behind and trade them in for the premium restaurant offerings.

To help guide you to the very best of the best, we ordered cheeseburgers from 10 popular chain restaurants and ranked them from good to great. Restaurants are full of all sorts of interesting builds, and eventually, we’ll get to some of the more imaginative builds. But for this first ranking, we’re going to focus specifically on the traditional cheeseburger build. That means meat, cheese, sauce, and minimal produce like onions, tomatoes, and lettuce. We found that this was the easiest way to level the playing field.

Okay, without further ado, let’s jump into the best cheeseburgers from chain restaurants, ranked from good to great.

10. Denny’s — Double Cheeseburger

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Denny’s Double Cheeseburger tastes like a typical diner burger. It has a strikingly similar quality to Wendy’s, but with a meatier bite and a bigger build. The build here is pretty standard stuff, your choice of cheese (American, Swiss or aged white cheddar, we say go American) lettuce, tomato, red onions and pickles on a soft buttery brioche bun.

The meat is heavily seasoned with salt, as if it’s hiding something. Most of the flavor is being brought by the crisp red onions, which bring a sweet and savory quality to the burger, and the pickles, which are earthy, briney, and have a sharp tang to them.

The Bottom Line:

Not a huge leap up from higher-end fresh beef fast food restaurants.

9. Islands — Big Wave with Cheese

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Considering Islands has a variety of different burger builds I expected more out of the basic Big Wave with Cheese. I was imagining an elevated experience, but instead this tastes like a standard flat-top grilled burger. The build consists of cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, and mustard. You don’t have access to American cheese unfortunately, so your best bet here is cheddar or Monterey Jack.

There is a certain blandness to the meat. I think Islands relies too heavily on its more adventurous burger builds, which have additional ingredients to keep your interest. This burger is the foundation that all the other burgers on the menu are built upon, but it’s not a great starting point.

The Bottom Line:

For a burger from a chain with a menu devoted entirely to burgers, we’d expect more flavor here. But Islands Big Wave with Cheese is pretty bland overall.

8. TGI Fridays — Cheeseburger

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

TGI Friday’s meat patty is way too densely packed, resulting in a burger that comes across as chewy rather than melt-in-your-mouth delicious. It tastes a little bit like a bad homemade burger made from that weird meat in a tube.

The build consists of a thick quarter-pound meat patty cooked medium well topped with a thin layer of American cheese, and sitting on a bed of lettuce, tomato, red onions, and pickles.

This burger is a bit on the dry side, so consider ordering it medium to retain some juiciness.

The Bottom Line:

The meat here is a bit tougher and more chewy than we’d like.

7. Yardhouse — Classic Cheese

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

At $17.49, Yardhouse’s Classic Cheeseburger is by far the most expensive burger on this list and you wouldn’t know it from looking at it or, frankly, tasting it. While this burger might look meaty and indulgent, the flavor is incredibly bland.

It’s topped with two layers of cheddar cheese and a slice of White American, giving it a salty, mild, and nutty flavor. The burger is served on a dense and bready bun and lacks any produce whatsoever. Yardhouse claims it uses a USDA prime blend of meat, but they completely underseason it thinking the meat will bring enough flavor to the table. It doesn’t.

While this wasn’t the worst-tasting burger we had, this is probably the last one I’d willingly spend money on again.

The Bottom Line:

Yardhouse’s burgers sound luxurious, but this is just an overpriced homemade burger. You’re better off buying some meat yourself and making your own. Even if you don’t know how to cook, you’ll probably do a better job seasoning it than Yardhouse.

6. IHOP — The Classic

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

I know I spent the first half of this ranking dunking on some pretty bad burgers, so I’m happy to say that IHOP’s simply titled, The Classic, is a significant step up from the burgers ranked lower. This burger has no business being this good, and I was shocked to find such a great-tasting burger at a restaurant primarily known for breakfast food.

The meat patty here has a nice lightly charred flavor and is well seasoned with salt and pepper. The build features American cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles, and IHOP’s custom burger sauce, which has a bit of tang, and a nice savory finish that elevates the meat patty.

The Bottom Line:

Way better than you’d expect. Don’t sleep on IHOP’s Classic.

5. Buffalo Wild Wings — All-American Cheeseburger

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

If you like your burgers a bit decadent and indulgent, B-dubs All-American delivers! You get two hand-smashed meat patties that taste wonderfully beefy, heavy on salt, and incredibly greasy. It’s the type of burger that will have juices all over your hands once you bite into it, so if you don’t like a messy burger, look elsewhere.

The full build features American cheese, pickles, lettuce, mustard, tomato, and mayo on a soft and eggy challah-style bun. The mustard brings a nice tangy mild heat to this mountain of beefy meat.

The Bottom Line:

Beefy, indulgent, and ultra greasy. This is the type of burger that’ll instantly knock you into a food coma.

4. Applebee’s — Neighborhood Burger

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Applebee’s Neighborhood Burger is ultra beefy with two tender burger patties that melt in your mouth. Topping the burger are two slices of American cheese, mayo, lettuce, and pickles on a buttery brioche bun. I’m tasting a heavy dose of garlic in every bite, probably from the mayo, which ups the savory quality of this burger.

The patties have a nice sear to them, with caramelized edges which bring a subtle sweetness and crunch to every bite.

The Bottom Line:

A simple but deliciously meaty burger with a slight garlic twist.

3. Red’s Double

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Red’s Double in both build, look, and size, comes across like an elevated version of In-N-Out’s Double Double. It’s part of Red Robin’s Tavern line, which is a bit smaller than its standard burger, but it makes crushing a double pretty easy, allowing you to enjoy your entire burger without having to tap out.

The burger features Red’s Secret Tavern Sauce, two slices of American cheese, lettuce, and tomato served on a sesame seed-loaded brioche bun. The meat-to-bread ratio here is perfect. Biting into it you’ll be greeted with a sweet tang that gently hovers over beefy flavor with a pleasing slightly acidic aftertaste.

The meat patty is generously seasoned with salt and pepper.

The Bottom Line:

Like an elevated version of the In-N-Out Double Double. As a SoCal native, I can’t help but love this one.

2. Chili’s — Double Oldtimer With Cheese

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Wow, this burger is melt-in-your-mouth delicious. This is for true beef lovers, the Double Oldtimes gives you two 1/4 pound beef patties, two layers of sharp cheddar cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, shredded lettuce, and mustard.

The burger is sumptuous, beefy, and a bit nutty, heavily seasoned with salt and fresh cracked pepper, which give a floral heat to every bite. This is truly an elevated burger experience and dunks on just about everything in fast food.

The Bottom Line:

A perfectly charred meat bomb of sumptuous beefy flavor.

1. Cheesecake Factory — Roadside Sliders

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Here it is, folks, or pick for the best restaurant cheeseburger, Cheesecake Factory’s Roadside Sliders. This is a controversial pick, but hear us out. This is by far the smallest burger on this list (you can kill a whole slider in about three-four bites), which might seem boring, or lacking, but what you get here are three delicious, perfectly cooked burgers. I’d order this over one of Cheesecake Factory’s full-sized Glam-Burgers any day.

The small size of the sliders isn’t a weakness, it is a strength, resulting in the perfect meat-to-bread ratio. The patties have caramelized lacy edges and are cooked smash-style. They’re beefy, salty, and melt in your mouth, and topped with a housemade burger sauce that brings in some tang and ups the savory quality. This is sumptuous beefiness at its finest.

Once you have one of these things, you’re going to find yourself rushing through the other two.

The Bottom Line:

It’s a bare-bones burger, but you’re not going to find a better meat-to-bread ratio or better-tasting patties than what Cheesecake Factory offers. This is hands down our pick for the absolute best cheeseburger from any restaurant chain.

If you don’t like the small form factor, feel free to get one of Cheesecake Factory’s full-sized burgers. But give this one a try first, more is truly more here.

Journey Montana is a name, or at least a face, that you’ve seen before. The young Los Angeles-born and Harlem-raised singer first made a splash as an actor on All American, playing the role of Jenn in the show’s fourth season. Music always came first for Montana despite that acting role, and her music career has taken off in the years that followed. She released her debut EP In & Out in 2021 before returning with the Stargirl EP in 2024. The latter put Montana in prime position to have the coming out party she displays on her debut album Lucky Girl Syndrome.

Don’t be mistaken, despite the album title of Lucky Girl Syndrome, Journey Montana’s position in the music world is a well-earned one. Lucky Girl Syndrome delivers a contemporary blend of pop and R&B, with Montana effortlessly operating in either genre to deliver her story of a young woman stepping fully into her own power. Themes of self-worth, love, and destiny drive Lucky Girl Syndrome as Montana boasts about the opportunity to have her talent and hard work pay off so that she can share her story and voice with the world.

In a press release, Montana called the album, “A labor of self love and self empowerment… During the making of this project, I was inspired by the power of my words. Speaking love and light into myself is so important to me at this time in my life because if you don’t pour into yourself and believe in yourself why would anyone else? Lucky Girl Syndrome is a collection of real stories of womanhood and feelings that I hope everyone can understand and enjoy.”

Just a couple of weeks removed from the release of Lucky Girl Syndrome, Journey Montana stepped under the Uproxx Music 20 spotlight to share her influences, inspirations, and aspirations for this week’s column. Scroll down to check them out and here highlight records from Lucky Girl Syndrome.

• Jordyn Simone Captures Two Sides Of The Same Coin On The Intricate ‘Remember When’
• Qing Madi Settles Into Spiritual Solitude On The Radiant ‘I Am The Blueprint’
• Pa Salieu’s ‘Afrikan Alien’ Is Driven By Intention And Fueled By Heritage
• Winny Finds The Beauty In Fleeting Moments Of Love On The Sizzling ‘Commercial Break’
• Hurricane Wisdom Is On His Way To Becoming Rap’s Next Breakout Act

What is your earliest memory of music?

My earliest memory of music would have to be riding in the car as a little girl with my mom listening to Mary Mary’s “Heaven”. There was also some Kirk Franklin and Beyoncé mixed in there, but that song stood out the most to me, I still get nostalgia when I listen to it.

Who or what inspired you to take music seriously?

As a little girl growing up, I was always singing in the church and at talent shows, but I feel like I really started taking it seriously when I made my first Instagram account. My first post was a video of me singing just for fun and I just started posting covers more and more consistently.

Do you know how to play an instrument? If so, which one? If not, which instrument do you want to learn how to play?

I can play piano by ear. I’ve taught myself a few songs, but nothing too crazy. I’d really love to learn the bass.

What was your first job?

My first job was a cashier at Chick-fil-A! That was in 10th grade.

What is your most prized possession?

My most prized possession is probably my grandmother’s wedding dress. She just recently gave it to me and I just admire her and my grandfather’s marriage. I feel like it’s a good reminder of their love and how it created the whole family.

What is your biggest fear?

Being dropped in the middle of the ocean.

Who is on your music Mt. Rushmore?

Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Whitney Houston, and Drake.

You get 24 hours to yourself to do anything you want, with unlimited resources: What are you doing? And spare no details!

Make the greatest film/music video of all time!

What are your three most used emojis?

, , and .

What’s a feature you need to secure before you die?

Drake!!

If you could appear in a future season of a current TV show, which one would it be and why?

Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I love that show, I’ve watched it since I was 8 years old and I still watch it now. I feel like a lot of my humor and personality come from that show.

Which celebrity do you admire or respect for their personality and why?

SZA. I think she’s real in a way that a lot of people don’t understand but that I deeply relate to.

Share your opinion on something no one could ever change your mind about.

Drake is an R&B artist.

What is the best song you’ve ever heard in your life and what do you love about it?

That’s a really hard question, but one of the best in my opinion is “I Look To You” by Whitney Houston. Gospel music holds a special place in my heart and that song fills me with so much hope and good feelings.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform, and what’s a city you’re excited to perform in for the first time?

My favorite city that I’ve performed in would have to be a tie between Nashville and London! I’m really looking forward to performing somewhere in Asia in the future.

You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you and the location where it would be held.

I’d have it in New York during the summertime with SZA, Drake, Kehlani, Beyoncé & Cash Cobain on the lineup.

What would you be doing now if it weren’t for music?

Probably dancing, or Broadway, or acting full-time. Something performance-driven for sure though.

If you could see five years into the future or go five years into the past, which one would you pick and why?

Neither. Honestly, I’d prefer to live in the present. Be grateful for the past and look forward to the future.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Not advice, but maybe some hope and kindness — a hug maybe — and tell her she’s beautiful and things will get better.

It’s 2050. The world hasn’t ended, and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

I’d like everyone to take away something different from my music. Some people to just feel good, some feel seen, some feel inspired. Overall just touching people in a real way.

Lucky Girl Syndrome is out now via 10K Projects. Find out more information here.

In December, I wrote a column defending music websites and publications that publish year-end lists before the end of the year. I justified this for three reasons: 1) December is mostly bereft of notable new releases; 2) Readers check out by mid-December; 3) Nobody remembers what goes on year-end lists anyway.

I still stand by the second and third justifications. But as it pertains to 2024, I can no longer vouch for the first justification. New evidence has come to light. What’s worse is that when I wrote that column, the album that nullified my reasoning had already been out for a week.

I refer to Heavy Metal, the debut solo LP by a prodigiously talented 22-year-old singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist named Cameron Winter. The record dropped the same day as my year-end list for 2024, which of course at this point is just irrelevant trivia. A decade from now, when I look back on my favorite albums of that year, I suspect that Heavy Metal will be among the standouts. For these past few frigid and tumultuous months, Winter’s songs — grand, idiosyncratic, funny, disturbing, densely wordy, and deeply moving – have remained lodged in my cranium. It feels like a major statement by an emerging artist, and there’s also reason to think that he will never make an album like it ever again. But for now, it sounds new and fresh and feels ancient and profound. Heavy Metal is special, and if you’re not yet on board, I heartily recommend making early 2025 a Cameron Winter winter.

Before Heavy Metal, I knew Winter as the frontman of Geese, a Brooklyn post-punk band that initially garnered critical raves for their 2021 debut Projector, made when Winter was still in his teens. Admittedly, I was skeptical at first — Projector sounded, superficially at least, like an on-the-nose pastiche of the sort of “Brooklyn post-punk band” music that always attracts positive press from Brooklyn-based music writers. But setting aside the hometown hype, it felt a little generic. I tended to agreewith my colleague Ian Cohen’s assessment in Pitchfork: “If Geese were in the middle of a four-band bill at the Mercury Lounge in 2002, would we remember them now?” The answer to that rhetorical question was self-evident.

Or was it? The next Geese record, 2023’s 3D Country, marked a dramatic shift. This band of baby-faced urbanites left the city for the desert (metaphorically speaking) where they ingested loads of psychedelic drugs (perhaps not metaphorically speaking) and produced one of the wildest and most exhilarating rock records of the 2020s. It’s hard to describe 3D Country without devolving into a word salad of hackneyed classic-rock references. It’s like Can’t Buy A Thrill if it was more like Goats Head Soup! It’s like Black Sabbath’s Vol. 4 if it were covered by Phish on Halloween in 1997! Each song explodes out of the speakers with a barrage of heavy riffs, noodly guitar solos, drum-circle breakdowns, and wailing gospel backing vocals. At the center was Winter, whose love-it-or-hate-it vocals — a combination of Julian Casablancas at his drunkest, Jeff Mangum at his most messianic, and Nick Cave in undead sex-goth crooner mode — imbued everything with larger-than-life, charismatic swagger.

Sometime after making 3D Country, Winter started on Heavy Metal, which he claims took him a year and a half. Not that we should take this at face value. The pranksterish playfulness that manifested on the Geese record carried over to the press materials for Winter’s solo LP, which he says was recorded “in a series of Guitar Centers across the New York tri-state area” with a supporting cast the includes a five-year-old bassist and a distant (and disowned) relative of John Lennon.

More credible is Winter’s assertion that these songs came out of a period when he was obsessed with Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, as well as a literary phase centered on Jack Kerouac, various Beat poets, James Joyce and Rimbaud. As he put it in a recent interview, “I went to the pretentious stuff really fast.” And that plays to the benefit of Heavy Metal, which is loaded with surreal lyrics that at turns are grotesque and comic. On the opening track “The Rolling Stones,” he sings about how he “will keep breaking cups until my left hand looks wrong,” the first act on an ongoing spiritual journey he likens to the twisted paths taken by doomed seekers such as Brian Jones and John Hinckley. (Later in the song, he makes a deep cut allusion to Interpol’s Turn On The Bright Lights — you can’t take the Brooklyn out of the boy, after all.)

“Cancer Of The Skull” is even more striking. Like much of Heavy Metal, it’s a dirge played on acoustic guitar and piano, with a twanging jaw harp and punch-drunk horn section arriving in the back half for extra flavor. It sounds like something that Robert Altman could have played over the image of Warren Beatty’s frozen corpse at the end of McCabe And Mrs. Miller. “I can’t reach cancer of the 80s / I was beat with ukuleles,” he drawls. “Oh, songs are a hundred ugly babies / I can’t feed.”

The old-school singer-songwriters trapping might suggest a stripped-down, folkie effort. But while Heavy Metal doesn’t have the instrumental firepower of Winter’s work with Geese, it actually packs a much heavier emotional wallop. Whereas 3D Country occasionally has a goofy edge, there’s an unwavering intensity on Heavy Metal that builds to a series of near-unbearable crescendos of feeling and catharsis. Three songs are particularly powerful: “Drinking Age,” a piano ballad with a pained, soaring vocal in which Winter pointedly wails, “Today I met who I’m gonna be from now / And he’s a piece of shit, yeah”; “Try As I May,” a surprisingly straight-forward and earnest love song with a repetitive organ riff reminiscent of Harry Nilsson’s “One”; and “$0,” a beautiful neo-classical number that climaxes with a remarkable rant insisting that “God is real / God is real / I’m not kidding, God is actually real.”

That part of the song ends with Winter reiterating, “I’m not kidding this time.” And I believe him. If 3D Country was Winter’s “wander the desert on acid” record, Heavy Metal is what happens the day after, when you preach your wild-eyed personal truth to the world. And let me tell you: This kid has a lot — wisdom and otherwise — to share.

The NBA has spent the last decade trying desperately to come up with an All-Star Game format that will get players more engaged and produce a better basketball game than what the All-Star Game has become. They’ve tried setting a target score for the fourth quarter, having team captains draft teams, putting money for charity on the line, and this year, will go to a mini-tournament format with teams of 8 playing shorter burst games to 40.

The truth is, the stakes of the game just aren’t high enough to get guys locked in and there’s probably not much of a way to change that so long as it’s still a team game. One of the ideas that’s been thrown out by fans and media members over the years is a 1-on-1 tournament, but that’s never seemingly gotten close to being really considered. Not every player is keen on the potential to get embarrassed in a 1-on-1 game — and, truth be told, not every All-Star is built to thrive in 1-on-1 hoops. That said, it would be far more entertaining than what currently exists, and I think most of the players would be way more engaged if they were going head-to-head with a friend or rival. Put a little bread on the line — and maybe encourage players to do their own side bets, too — and you might just get something great.

Given how often it’s been dismissed, most fans have given up on the idea. But with the new women’s basketball league Unrivaled successfully getting much of their league signed up for a 1-on-1 tournament that is happening this week (with $200,000 going to the winner), there’s some newfound optimism that, perhaps, the NBA might see that as a viable possibility in the future. With that in mind, we wanted to take a look at what a 24-player NBA All-Star 1-on-1 Tournament bracket might look like for 2025.

For the format, we’d go with one similar to Unrivaled’s. We like the 7-second shot clock as it keeps things moving, with a 10-minute time limit on games in case they don’t get to the target score. We’d still go by 2’s and 3’s to limit the advantage of shooters some compared to 1’s and 2’s, but instead of 11, I’d have the All-Stars play to 15. We’d also stick with the 1-shot free throws, again, to keep it rolling.

Unrivaled let fans seed the player pool, and the NBA could certainly do that to boost fan engagement in the event. Here, we took the time to seed the 24 All-Stars currently on the rosters (meaning no Giannis Antetokounmpo, who would probably be a 1-seed, or Anthony Davis) and look at some of the incredible matchups we could have if this became a reality.

SEEDS

1-Seeds: LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic

Until proven otherwise, we have to have LeBron and KD on the 1-seed line in a 1-on-1 tournament (and seeing guys try to dethrone them would be awesome to watch). They are just matchup nightmares, have the size to battle on both ends with anyone, and are elite tough shotmakers. From there, SGA is arguably the best two-way player in the NBA right now and would be a lock for a top seed.

The fourth spot is what I had the hardest time figuring out. In terms of who is the best player in the world, Jokic is a top-seed without question. However, if Jokic plays with the effort level we see typically from him at All-Star Weekend, he should probably be a 6-seed. Beyond that, part of Jokic’s superpower is his passing, and that’s taken away. But he is also an insane shotmaker, is shooting it at a preposterous clip this year, and no one is better at getting to their spot and getting a bucket. If he’s at all engaged, he might just never give the other guy the ball, especially if he’s bullying guards non-stop. Defense could be an adventure, but it feels disrespectful not to have the best player in the world on the 1-seed line, even though he is the guy that feels most vulnerable to an upset.

2-Seeds: Victor Wembanyama, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, Stephen Curry

Wemby would be a lot of folks pick to win, as he might just be impossible to score on. If he can hit any jumpers, it’s not clear how you successfully defend him. Tatum and Ant also feel like locks to be on the 2-seed line, and would also be favorites of some to win the whole thing with their two-way skills. The last spot here was, again, the hardest one to figure out. We debated between Steph and Kyrie and wouldn’t begrudge anyone that would flip those (Kyrie is an insane shot-creator and scorer in isolation). In this case, we gave Steph the nod at the 2-seed because it’s in San Francisco, so he gets the home team bump, and he’s an all-time great.

3-Seeds: Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, Cade Cunningham, James Harden

Kyrie maybe should be a 1-seed? We had that discussion in Slack, and while he was literally the last man into the field as an injury replacement, admittedly this feels low for his skills. Because what matters most is whether you are a top-2 seed or not because of the bye, we lumped the best 1-on-1 guards into the 3-seed group and put the best remaining bigs and wings in the 4-seed group. For me right now, that’s Mitchell, Cunningham, and Harden — all bigger, stronger guards. We would love to see this tournament in action for the chance to be proven wrong by some of the other guards who we are maybe undervaluing for their size.

4-Seeds: Jaren Jackson Jr., Evan Mobley, Pascal Siakam, Jalen Williams

The aforementioned bigs and wing group. If any of these guys got hot with their jumper, they’re all good enough defensively to put opponents in hell and make a real run. The challenge with the short clock as a wing or a big is being able to face-up and attack quickly, and all of these guys can do that. It’d be a matter of whether they can get those pull-up jumpers/midrange floaters to fall when they can’t get all the way to the rim.

5-Seeds: Jaylen Brown, Karl-Anthony Towns, Darius Garland, Damian Lillard

As it turns out, everyone in the All-Star Game is a very good basketball player so it feels wrong to have some of these guys this far down. Brown, like the guys in the group above, could be really good in this if he can hit some jumpers because of his defense on the other side. KAT is a real Wild Card because he might just be able to rain in threes over anyone. Garland has crazy handles but the size is a concern on defense. Lillard, similar thing, but the shot-making ability is still up there with the best.

6-Seeds: Jalen Brunson, Tyler Herro, Alperen Sengun, Trae Young

For the three guards here, the size question on defense plays a big role in being on the 6-seed line. All of them are talented and diverse scorers on offense, but would face real challenges against bigger players. Sengun isn’t the best defensive big and if it’s a quick shot clock, you wonder about his ability to get to his spots in time to get good shots off. But again, he’s a crazy talented shotmaker and if he can get the touch on those midrange floaters and things, he could give someone the business.

THE BRACKET

Look at this bracket and tell me you wouldn’t be extremely excited to see this tournament. We’ll dive into the first round matchups below, but just look at what the quarterfinals would be if the top-2 seeds all won their first game — LeBron vs. Steph, Jokic vs. Wemby, KD vs. Ant, SGA vs. Tatum. Are you telling me those guys wouldn’t have a little more juice for those matchups? This would be sensational. I’m begging the NBA to go through their rolodex of sponsors and find someone that’ll put a million or two up as a prize for this, because I don’t think the players would turn it down if there was a considerable prize at the end.

FIRST ROUND MATCHUPS

3. Kyrie Irving vs. 6. Trae Young (Winner faces 2. Stephen Curry)

Kyrie vs. Trae as our opener? Yes, please. Winner faces Steph? Double yes. Some phenomenal shot creation skill would be on display in this matchup and it might come down to who can get a stop.

4. Jaren Jackson Jr. vs. 5. Damian Lillard (Winner faces 1. Nikola Jokic)

Matchups are going to matter a lot in this tournament, and this feels like a tough draw for Dame. Still, few are better at shot creation in a 1-on-1 environment than Dame and if he can see an early three go down, he’d have a chance.

3. Donovan Mitchell vs. 6. Alperen Sengun (Winner faces 2. Anthony Edwards)

How would Sengun fare in space defending Mitchell? Could Mitchell stop Sengun from getting to his spots? The cat-and-mouse of the big vs. guard matchups would be fascinating.

4. Evan Mobley vs. 5. Darius Garland (Winner faces 1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander)

This is really where I think the 1-on-1 tournament could be especially fun. One of the best parts of the drafted All-Star teams has been when teammates go against each other — the most competitive portion of recent games has been when Tatum and Brown have gone 1-on-1. Here, we get the Cavs two young stars going toe-to-toe in a matchup I’m sure has happened plenty in practice. Could Garland hold up at all on defense? Could he shake Mobley and get the range from deep to make it not matter?

3. Cade Cunningham vs. 6. Tyler Herro (Winner faces 2. Jayson Tatum)

This would be the matchup that got overlooked on paper, but could be one of the most fun early-round matchups. Cade would have the strength advantage going downhill, but Herro can get hot from deep.

4. Pascal Siakam vs. 5. Karl-Anthony Towns (Winner faces 1. Kevin Durant)

I would honestly love to see this matchup. Two very unique offensive skillsets going head-to-head. As mentioned above, if KAT can knock down threes, he’d be very dangerous.

3. James Harden vs. 6. Jalen Brunson (Winner faces 2. Victor Wembanyama)

Another really fun one. Harden would be favored, but Brunson’s Dog In Him levels are off the charts and this feels like a more favorable matchup for him than if he drew one of the longer wings. Of course, both players would only dodge length for one matchup as Wemby would be waiting in the wings on this matchup.

4. Jalen Williams vs. 5. Jaylen Brown (Winner faces 1. LeBron James)

Closing out the night would be the matchup that I think would get the feistiest. The battle of Ja(y)lens would feature some aggressive defense and serious physicality. This would just be two bulls just locking horns, with LeBron waiting in the next round.

Last month, Selena Gomez seemed to be teasing some upcoming music. Now, we know that to be true: Today (February 14), she and fiancé Benny Blanco announced a collaborative album, I Said I Love You First, and shared the lead single, “Scared Of Loving You.”

So, the album is officially on the way, but it very easily could have been scrapped.

The two were interviewed together for a new Interview conversation shared today. During the chat, they were asked if there was any hesitation about making an album with each other, and Blanco said, “We said at the beginning, ‘If this ever is weird, we cancel it fucking immediately,’ because we knew what we had was so important.”

Gomez added, “I definitely didn’t feel any sort of pressure. I was maybe just nervous with jitters in the beginning, and then slowly but surely it was happening and it sort of fell into place with a lot of hard work and love.”

Blanco continued, “We also just made it in this house. We weren’t going to a studio every day. I’d be like, ‘Hey, I have this cool chord thing.’ Then she’d come in. We weren’t like, ‘Today’s the studio. We’re going to write this song and that.’ So many times it was so hodgepodge. It was like two hours here, two hours there. I’d never worked that way with someone. Usually I work that way if I’m by myself, but it was so cool to be able to do that with her.”

Read the full interview here.

I Said I Love You First is out 3/21 via SMG Music/Friends Keep Secrets/Interscope Records. Find more information here.

Like the rest of the world last year, Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker was addicted to playing Balatro.

He called the poker roguelite the “the most addictive thing ever created,” and predicted that when the video game comes out on mobile devices (which it is now), “humankind’s activity is going to drop about 25 percent.” Hopefully Brooker found enough time away from Balatro — as well as his other recent favorites, open-world adventure game Ghost of Tsushima and deep-sea RPG Dave the Diver — to work on new episodes of Black Mirror.

Here’s everything we know about season 7 of Black Mirror on Netflix.

Plot

Charlie Brooker described Black Mirror season 7 as “a mix of genres and styles. We’ve got six episodes this time, and two of them are basically feature-length. Some of them are deeply unpleasant, some are quite funny, and some are emotional.” He added that the new season is “a little bit OG Black Mirror. It’s back to basics in many ways. They’re all sci-fi stories, but there’s definitely some horrifying things that occur, but maybe not in an overt horror-movie way. There’s definitely some disturbing content in it.”

When asked by Wisconsin Public Radio host Doug Gordon what he can reveal about the season, Brooker replied, “Not much! What can I say? There is a real mix of styles. There are quite a lot of emotional episodes. We’ve got a sequel for the first time. We did an episode called ‘USS Callister,’ which is very heavily influenced by The Twilight Zone.”

The “USS Callister” follow-up has Critics’ Choice award winner Cristin Milioti reprising her role as Nanette Cole, but Jesse Plemons won’t be back considering… I’ll just let Brooker spoil an eight-year-old episode. “Well, Jesse Plemons, his character is dead, unfortunately. So not to spoil the first one! Yeah, he dies at the end of the first one, so he’s gone, but they’ve got to sort of press on,” he teased. “It’s a nearly feature length extravaganza. And we’ve got another feature length episode elsewhere in the series. And like I say, quite a lot of emotion. You know, I just hope, as ever, I hope people like it.”

Based on the response to the first-look image, I think people will.

As for whether this is the final season of Black Mirror, here’s what Brooker had to say:

“I’m in a really, really fortunate position where I get to write this stuff, and it gets made, and I get to work with amazing people who also make me look better. And I love every minute. The editing is my favorite, actually. And there’s so much variety, so it’s in many ways inexhaustible. I’m sure I’ll find out when we’re not doing any more seasons! It will be made apparent to me at some point, I’m sure. But I’m in it for the long haul. I’m not going anywhere.”

Hm, if only there were technology concerns for Black Mirror to cover. Oh well!

Cast

The season 7 cast was revealed in a very Black Mirror-y way: on a flickering computer screen in a video titled “TCKR_Confidential_NotForDistribution.mp4.” The headliners include Awkwafina, Peter Capaldi, Emma Corrin, Paul Giamatti, Rashida Jones, Billy Magnussen, Cristin Milioti, Chris O’Dowd, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Jimmi Simpson, but if you want to see the full, lengthy list, click here.

Release Date

Black Mirror season 7 will definitely premiere in 2025, as confirmed in the video below, but there’s no exact date yet.

Trailer

There’s also no trailer, but Black Mirror gets a shout out in the streamer’s 2025 sizzle reel.

Today (February 14), lovers around the world are celebrating Valentine’s Day. With that in mind, Emotional Oranges decided to give fans something sweet to vibe out to.

The “Be Somebody” musicians teamed up with Jessie Reyez and Becky G to get their romantic message out there. Together, the entertainers released their collaborative song, “Candy Gum,” co-produced by Chiiild.

In alignment with the record’s title, “Candy Gum” is a sweet and sensual song about a tussle between the sheets.

“Mouth to mouth like you need resuscitation / Ain’t no point in fighting, you know what I came for / I came for loving, came for touching / Came for sugar, came to c*m,” sings Emotional Oranges’ Valentina Porter.

Over on Instagram, the group teased their studio follow-up to 2023’s Still Emo while promoting the track. “It’s been over a year since STILL EMO and we wanted to come with something special for our first single from the album,” wrote the duo. “There’s nothing more iLL than 3 fly women barring out, reminds me of some of the dope posse cuts we grew up with in the early 2000s. been a fan of jessie since she dropped ‘figures’ & it’s an honor to work with becky again, a real LA legend.”

Listen to “Bubble Gum” above

Bon Iver is one of the more accomplished indie artists of the past 20 years. John Wilson created HBO’s equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking How To With John Wilson. Together, they combined forces on the video for “Everything Is Peaceful Love,” the first single from Bon Iver’s new album, SABLE, fABLE.

Vernon said in a statement, “I knew what kind of record I wanted to make the day we made ‘Everything Is Peaceful Love.’ I always knew that would be the feeling I wanted to share first. I wanted the video to just be people smiling uncontainably. Luckily, Eric Timothy Carlson suggested getting in touch with John Wilson from How To with John Wilson.”

The Bon Iver frontman accurately called the HBO series “simply the most poignant and hilarious program in all of television,” continuing, “We were extremely fortunate that John liked the idea. He went out, shot a bunch of fun stuff, and edited it all to the song. It gives me what I want for this album, all in one video. The idea that happiness and joy are the highest form and the true buoyancy of survival, and even taking yourself less seriously could heal the world.”

You can watch the “Everything Is Peaceful Love” video.

SABLE, fABLE is out 4/11 via Jagjaguwar. Find more information here.