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    This Season's 'SNL' Musical Guests, Cruelly Ranked

    With the 2017-18 season of Saturday Night Live now a wrap, we consider all 21 musical guests from this year — from worst to best. Apologies in advance to Sam Smith.
    by Stephen Thompson May 21, 2018 8 minutes
    Donald Glover, performing as Childish Gambino on <em>Saturday Night Live </em>May 5, 2018.

    Its quality has varied in its 43-year history, but Saturday Night Live has never lost its luster as a showcase for star musicians. The series' 2017-18 season wrapped this weekend with a performance by Nicki Minaj, closing out a 21-episode run that spotlighted major players in hip-hop (Jay-Z, Minaj, Eminem, Cardi B), pop (Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Pink), R&B (SZA), rock (U2, Jack White, Foo Fighters), country (Chris Stapleton, Kacey Musgraves) and whatever earth-shattering genre hybrid we're using to describe Childish Gambino now.

    The SNL stage isn't always kind to musicians: As with other late-night shows, the energy and sound mix often aren't quite right, and the singers are attempting to win over a crowd that's been watching comedy all evening. But every season, many of the musical guests do something extra with the SNL space and find a way to make something riveting, visually arresting or at least interesting — of course, attempting to subjectively rank such a broad assortment of apples and oranges is a truly cruel and stupid endeavor.

    So here goes.

    21. James Bay

    "Pink Lemonade," "Wild Love"

    It's hard to figure out what to make of James Bay, whose name, voice and physical presence all seem to represent a composite sketch of every singer you've ever heard and thought, "Wait, is this again?"

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