Saturday Night Live is taking several swings at the Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics this year.
The show has submitted seven original songs for consideration this year (which it last won in 2018 with “Come Back Barack”). That’s one less than last year, when SNL made up eight of the categories 60 submissions. (Of those submissions, only one secured a nomination at last year’s ceremony: Maya Rudolph’s Mother’s Day monologue song, which ultimately lost out to a song from Only Murders in the Building.)
SNL’s stable of entrants is an interesting bunch in that it doesn’t include everything from the wide-ranging, music-filled year the sketch show has had. Despite the return of The Lonely Island with three musical Digital Shorts, only one of their songs is in contention. Other musical standouts, like “Big Dumb Line” and Jane Wickline’s original Weekend Update compositions, are also absent.
(There’s also John Mulaney’s SNL 50 breakout “New York 50th Musical,” which presumably was not submitted because it’s a medley of parodies rather than an existing work.)
This year, the Music & Lyrics category saw a total of 66 submissions. Per Emmy rules, that means the entrants are vying for five nomination slots. Here’s a look at the seven SNL songs in the running.
“My Best Friend’s House“
When she hosted in October, Ariana Grande fronted a memorable music video that also served as the debut of a new recurring segment for SNL, Dan Bulla’s SNL Midnight Matinee. In “My Best Friend’s House,” Grande plays a girl enamored with the comfort and safety offered by her best friend’s home… until a turn in the sketch reveals something more sinister at play.
Dan Bulla wrote the lyrics with Steven Castillo and Ceara O’Sullivan, and the music with record producer Jake Procanik.
“Ariana Grande Monologue”
Grande’s hosting stint kicked off with music from the get-go. Hosting for the second time, the episode marked Grande’s only official visit to the show where she was not the show’s musical guest. Perhaps as a result, the musician used her monologue to croon a promise that she would “keep things low-key tonight.” With her episode now up for two potential Emmy nominations, it would seem Grande didn’t quite keep that promise.
The lyrics are by O’Sullivan, Alison Gates, and Auguste White. The show’s music director Eli Brueggemann wrote the music.
“Making Love”
Another host to unsurprisingly shine via music? Jack Black, who delivered an uplifting—literally—duet with Sarah Sherman about a couple’s first time. While the sketch relies heavily on the visual element of watching Black and Sherman fly around 8H, the song adds humor of its own—even bringing Bowen Yang and musical guest Brandi Carlile into the mix.
“Making Love” features lyrics by Gates, Celeste Yim, Kent Sublette, and Streeter Seidell, with music by Brueggemann.
“Pip”
SNL utilized another musician host for its Midnight Matinee when Lady Gaga returned for her second double-duty episode. Here, Gaga belts words of encouragement for her classmate Pip, a mouse attempting to prove his haters wrong by winning a high school weightlifting competition. (While the song ends on a positive note, the sketch itself has a bloodier ending.)
Bulla penned the lyrics with Castillo, Mike DiCenzo, and Jake Nordwind, and the music with Procanik.
“No More Slay”
Lady Gaga may have staged two captivating live performances as musical guest, but that didn’t stop her from doing another number live in studio. She also duetted with Yang on “No More Slay,” a passionate plea to nix some overused slang from our vocabulary once and for all—from “slay” and “bop” to “living” and “sus.”
The lyrics hail from Yim, Gates, and Bowen Yang, while Brueggemann composed the music.
“Sushi Glory Hole”
The Lonely Island netted SNL its first ever Music & Lyrics Emmy back in 2007 with “Dick in a Box.” Now they’re looking to do it again. Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer made a surprise return to SNL with the first Digital Short since 2018 to bring us “Sushi Glory Hole,” which describes a business venture that’s exactly like it sounds.
Schaffer, Samberg, and fellow Lonely Islander Jorma Taccone are credited with the lyrics. The music is by DJ & record producer DJ Nu-Mark (Mark Ali Potsic).
“Adam Sandler’s Song: 50 Years”
Evoking his moving musical tribute to Chris Farley back in 2019, Sandler was given the spotlight at SNL‘s 50th anniversary special to perform another touching tune about the hallowed legacy of SNL.
Sandler’s new acoustic ode offered a slew of inside jokes for SNL staffers, and a series of shoutouts to SNL hall-of-famers—both in front of and behind the camera—that also served as something of an ‘in memoriam’ for the show’s dearly departed.
Sandler and Bulla co-wrote both the music and lyrics for “50 Years.”
The duo could potentially compete against themselves at the Emmys. Sandler and Bulla have also submitted “Here Comes the Comedy,” a song from Sandler’s Netflix comedy special Love You.
Another SNL alum is also in the running for a nomination. “Harper and Will Go West”, the song performed and co-written by Kristen Wiig for the documentary Will & Harper, has been submitted for consideration after coming up short in the Oscar nominations earlier this year.
Emmy nominations will be announced on Tuesday, July 15. The 77th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony is scheduled to air live on CBS Sunday, September 14.
Sandler FTW