Kristen Wiig returns home to Saturday Night Live this weekend as the host when she’ll join the Five Timers Club. She left the show as a regular cast member in 2012 and it’s no surprise that she’ll be a member of the illustrious club. After all, the first step in getting to five is being invited back – and that’s conditional upon Lorne Michaels liking you. He was her boss for seven years, of course he likes her. He likes her a lot. 

 

Kristen is currently promoting her series Palm Royale. But she might also be celebrating finally getting PAID by Target. Just this week her new ads for Target, playing the Target Lady, obviously, were released which means that after all these years, the character she came up with at the Groundlings is bringing in some paper. 

 

While we’re here though, do you think she’ll be bringing back any of her past characters this weekend? They often always do, even the guest hosts who weren’t cast members do this. She recently told Conan O’Brien that her favourite character is Aunt Linda who always showed up on Update. If there were movies Aunt Linda didn’t understand then, imagine now. Aunt Linda’s take on Madame Web, please. 

So Kristen’s the host, and then there’s musical guest, RAYE. What a f-cking year it’s been for RAYE! She cleaned up at the BRIT Awards in February. Now she’s performing for the first time on SNL. And she covers the new issue of British ELLE….

 

……and… and… and….this happened: 

Co-writing “Riverdance” with Beyoncé, “no hands”! 

 

If you’re not familiar with RAYE, read the ELLE profile for background and you’ll begin to appreciate what this moment means for her. Because there were music people who basically told her that her only value was to write songs for others. And now she’s out here on her own with a smash hit album, My 21st Century Blues, and winning awards, and collaborating with the Queen. But, at the same time, this still feels like it’s just the beginning for her. There are a lot of people out there who haven’t been introduced to RAYE’s music, and the SNL appearance will start to change that. 

If you want a head start though, of course it’s “Escapism” which really took her to the next level. 

 

 

But my personal favourite RAYE track is “The Thrill Is Gone”. 

 

The whole album though. If you’re discovering the album for the first time… I’m jealous. You won’t stop listening.