Post Malone “Steals the Show,” Teams up With Nirvana for ‘SNL50’ Performance

February 15, 2025 12:05 pm

Post Malone fears no genre. The Texas-raised artist got his start in music with hip-hop tracks like “White Iversen” and “Rockstar.” Malone, 29, explored pop territories before landing in country music with last year’s chart-topping F-1 Trillion. Most recently, the “I Had Some Help” crooner dipped a toe into ’90s grunge. Post Malone joined the surviving members of Nirvana during SNL50: The Homecoming Concert for a rousing rendition of their signature hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Here’s how some social media users felt about seeing the past and present collide.

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Nirvana Reunites Onstage With Posty at the Helm

Celebrating a half century of the cultural phenomenon that is Saturday Night Live, a star-studded lineup gathered Friday (Feb. 14) night at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. SNL50: The Homecoming Concert took the audience on an epic journey down memory lane, paying homage to some of the show’s most memorable musical guests.

Introduced by Adam Sandler, the surviving members of Nirvana—Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear—reunited onstage with Posty at the helm.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Post Nirvana,” Sandler said to uproarious applause.

Sporting a white shirt, ball cap and jeans, Post Malone stepped into the shoes of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Fiercely strumming his guitar, the genre-bending hitmaker snarled the familiar lyrics to the 1991 hit: With the lights out, it’s less dangerous / Here we are now, entertain us / I feel stupid and contagious.

Post Malone and Nirvana’s full performance at the #SNL50 Anniversary Concert. #PostNirvana pic.twitter.com/FUJT1Rikvx
— Pop Truther (@poptruther) February 15, 2025

It wasn’t Malone’s first brush with the grunge pioneers’ catalog. Back in April 2020, he delivered a 15-song set of Nirvana classics, with Blink-182’s Travis Barker on drums.

As with most endeavors Post Malone takes on, this Nirvana cover shouldn’t have worked. And yet, it did for many on social media.

“Post Malone just stole the show at #SNL50 with that Nirvana cover,” Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy wrote on X/Twitter. “Holy s—.”