Key Insights
- Lily Allen's performance: She returned to Saturday Night Live after a long hiatus to showcase songs from her new album.
- Album inspiration: The album West End Girls reflects on her personal experiences, particularly her marriage breakdown.
- Notable collaboration: Dakota Johnson made a surprise appearance during Allen’s performance of “Madeline.”
- Upcoming tour: Allen is preparing for an arena tour starting March 2 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Lily Allen returned to Saturday Night Live to perform a pair of songs from her latest album, West End Girls.
Marking her first appearance on the late-night sketch comedy show since her 2007 debut, the 40-year-old British pop star delivered tracks from the visceral new release, written in response to the breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour.
Introduced by host Josh O’Connor, Allen opened with the introspective ballad “Sleepwalking,” lounging in a dimly lit bedroom dressed in a white nightie as she softly sang about a fractured relationship.
She followed with “Madeline,” performing in front of a translucent curtain that silhouetted a woman seated on a bed who’s having an extramarital relationship with her husband. At the end of the song’s spoken-word section, in which the woman reads a text message describing the affair, the figure stepped out and was revealed to be Dakota Johnson. The actress then stood behind Allen before kissing her on the cheek.
Allen has said that West End Girls blends real life with fantasy and doesn’t present a flattering portrait of her marriage to Harbour, whom she married in 2020.
“It was an act of desperation, actually,” Allen said of the album in a late November interview with CBS Mornings. “Since I’ve put it out, it’s felt completely and utterly liberating.”
Allen is currently gearing up for an arena tour that launches March 2 in Glasgow, Scotland.
SNL will close out 2025 on Dec. 21 with an episode hosted by Ariana Grande and musical guest Cher.
Watch Allen’s SNL performances below, and find all the ways to stream the full episode here.
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