The cast of Saturday Night Live starred as a spoof ABBA for a Christmas-themed sketch this weekend.
Kate McKinnon was joined by fellow SNL alumni Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph along with current cast member Bowen Yang on Saturday’s episode (December 16), during which they posed as the Swedish pop legends in a skit about the band promoting a holiday album.
The four-piece were decked out in shiny red and green outfits to perform Christmas spins on classic ABBA songs like ‘Santa Queen’, ‘Who’s That Baby’ and a new take on ‘Chiquitita’ called ‘Frostitita’.
James Austin Johnson played the infomercial presenter, who teased “15 brand new Christmas classics and 85 holiday remakes of their existing songs”.
The cast also staged the performance with ABBA’s “signature ‘standing close, facing different directions’,” and could be seen laughing as they sang with their faces pressed right up against each other.
Watch the full sketch below.
[embedded content]
McKinnon announced she was leaving SNL last year after a decade on the late night show. She later elaborated on the decision, sharing: “All I ever wanted to do in my whole life was be on Saturday Night Live. So, I did, I loved it, I had the best decade, and then I was just like, my body was tired, and I felt like it was time.”
In a short monologue on Saturday’s episode she acknowledged she was coming back to her “old job”, saying: “My name’s Kate, hi. I used to work here.”
Elsewhere on the episode, Billie Eilish sang two songs as the final musical guest of 2023 on the show.
The popstar visited Studio 8H to give two intimate performances, opening with her Barbie soundtrack hit ‘What Was I Made For’, which was recently nominated for a Golden Globe. The singer was even introduced by Barbie director Greta Gerwig.
For her second song of the night, Eilish also sang a stripped-back rendition of Frank Sinatra‘s ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’.
In other ABBA news, Sir Ian McKellen and Björn Ulvaeus recently starred in another festive clip, this time celebrating their new ABBA socks.