‘SNL’ Kacey Musgraves: What to Know About Premiere’s Musical Guest

Saturday Night Live returns tonight Saturday, Oct. 2 for its 47th season. The premiere will feature special guests Owen Wilson, and country and pop singer and songwriter Kacey Musgraves. The performance will mark Musgraves’ return to the live sketch comedy series since 2018.

The upcoming season’s cast consists of some familiar faces and newcomers. Per People Magazine, the cast lineup for 2021-2022 consists of Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Pete Davidson, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Colin Jost, Kate McKinnon, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Melissa Villaseñor and Bowen Yang. Featured members are Aristotle Athari, Andrew Dismukes, James Austin Johnson, Punkie Johnson, and Sarah Sherman.

But many are tuning in to see Musgraves. She’s been a staple in the music industry since being discovered in 2008. Since then, she’s made her mark in the music industry, even successfully crossing over onto the mainstream pop charts. Now, she’s back on the country music scene after surviving a difficult year of heartache and rediscovering herself.

She appeared on ‘Nashville Star’

Musgraves appeared on the show and placed seventh. She was already a success in her own right before participating, having released three albums.

She’s appearing on the Season 47 debut to promote her new album

Musgraves is promoting her newest album Star-Crossed. It’s her fifth studio album and explores her divorce. 

She performed on SNL before

Musgraves last appeared on the show in 2018. At the time, she was promoting her fourth studio album Golden Hour.

She’s newly divorced

Musgraves blames the COVID-19 pandemic for her marital downfall. She married Ruston Kelly in 2017 before divorcing in 2020. Despite gushing over him previously publicly, she says she was “dying on the inside.” She told Elle Magazine amid their split: “I come from a family full of long marriages…It was hard to not feel like I was in some ways a failure,” Musgraves said. But she added that “there’s nothing more shameful than staying somewhere where you don’t fit anymore.”

Holiday tunes are her thing

In 2016, she released her first festive album A Very Kacey Christmas. The album features eight traditional Christmas songs and four originals with features from Willie Nelson, The Quebe Sisters and Leon Bridges. An Amazon Prime Video special, The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show, followed in 2019. 

She’s won several big awards

Musgraves is a big deal in not just country music and the awards that she’s garnered proves such. She has won six Grammy Awards, including one in the coveted category for Album of the Year in 2018, seven Country Music Association Awards, and three Academy of Country Music Awards to name a few.