Adele hosted last night’s Saturday Night Live without also taking on double duty as the episode’s musical guest—kind of surprising, given how she’s uhhhhhhhh a musician?
But as Adele explained during the broadcast, she doesn’t have any new music to promote at the moment, echoing a joke in previous host Issa Rae’s monologue about having “no reason” to be there. (Earlier this year, Adele said that her follow-up to 2015’s chart-topping 25 would drop in September, but, as The Atlanticpoints out, that obviously didn’t happen.) Also, she just didn’t want to perform. Two valid reasons!
“Now, I know there’s been a lot of chatter about me just being the host,” Adele said during her monologue. “There’s a couple of reasons. My album’s not finished, and I’m also too scared to do both. I’d rather just put on some wigs—and this is all mine, by the way—have a glass of wine or six, and just see what happens.”
Viewers did get some live performances out of her, though—truncated ones, but still. During the episode’s Bachelor parody sketch, Adele sang snippets of four of her biggest hits: “Someone Like You,” “Hello,” “Rolling in the Deep,” and “When We Were Young.” Who likes crumbs? No one? Too bad! Humbly feast upon the sketch’s varied morsels below.
