Dua Lipa's “SNL” Monologue Nods to Kristi Noem Shooting Her Puppy, as Jerry Seinfeld, Troye Sivan Cameo on Show
The singer pulled double duty as host and musical guest gig a day after the release of her latest, highly-anticipated album, 'Radical Optimism'
Saturday Night Life/YouTube
Dua Lipa hosts 'Saturday Night Live' on May 4, 2024Saturday Night Live is back — and so is Dua Lipa!
The pop songstress returned to Studio 8H, this time as both musical guest and host for the sketch comedy series' May 4 episode.
Lipa, 28, kicked off the show with a monologue that saw her introducing herself and noting that some call her "Dula Peep." She revealed her parents were in the audience and joked about seeing them out in the club, before adding that they "had always been so supportive," including letting her move from Kosovo to London at 15 years old to pursue her career, noting that she'd just dropped her new album, Radical Optimism.
Explaining the concept of radical optimism to her meant "looking on the bright side of any situation," she then asked the audience to share their problems with her.
First up, SNL cast member Andrew Dismukes revealed his wife had left him after he called her "mom" during sex — to which Lipa responded that "on the bright side, now you'll have more time to spend with your mom." The singer then gave Bowen Yang's character a "bright side" for his doctor telling him to stop drinking.
However, when Heidi Gardner stood up in a MAGA hat and introduced herself, saying, "Hi, I'm South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem," Lipa was quick to shut her down.
"No, No, No. Sorry. I can't help," the singer said.
Noem, 52, attracted attention recently after she detailed the story of killing a puppy in her forthcoming book, which was revealed in an excerpt published on The Guardian. In the book, per The Guardian, she said she decided to shoot her dog, Cricket, whom she described as "untrainable" and “less than worthless as a hunting dog."
On April 28, she wrote a lengthy post on X that explained why she had decided to kill the animal. “I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch," she wrote, in part, in the post.
Noem went on to note that, “The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did" and later concluded her post by stating, "As I explained in the book, it wasn't easy. But often the easy way isn't the right way."
Meanwhile, during the May 4 show, Lipa later performed two tracks from her new record, "Happy for You" which was introduced by guest star Jerry Seinfeld and "Illusion," introduced, in another cameo, by Troye Sivan.
Seinfeld, 70, also appeared during the Weekend Update as "a man who did too much press," while Lipa herself took part in a number of skits throughout the show, including as a culture critic on a fictional morning show, Good Morning Greenville and a woman being fought over by a man and a Sonny Angel doll in a skit named Sonny Angel.
Saturday marked the "Dance the Night" singers first return to SNL since she was the musical guest to host Kristen Wiig in 2020.
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In a promotional teaser released in the lead up to this week's episode, Lipa seemed eager to hand off her singing duties to SNL cast member Chloe Fineman. Despite a full makeover, Fineman's dance and lyrical abilities weren't quite there — but Lipa told the actress, "It's close enough."
"I'm gonna actually just focus on my sketches. So, I thought maybe you could, you know, do the performance for me. I'm gonna go and grab dinner," Lipa joked to Fineman.
Radical Optimism was released on May 3 to generally positive reviews, following the debut of the album's first three singles: "Houdini," "Training Season" and "Illusion."
The name of the 11-track project has origins in a conversation that Lipa has "a couple years ago," she revealed in a previous statement. She explained: "a friend introduced me to the term Radical Optimism. It’s a concept that resonated with me, and I became more curious as I started to play with it and weave it into my life. It struck me – the idea of going through chaos gracefully and feeling like you can weather any storm."
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