Leonard Cohen & Phife Dawg Honored On ‘Saturday Night Live’

Last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live featured touching tributes to two musicians who passed away this year. The program opened with a moving nod to Leonard Cohen, while musical guests A Tribe Called Quest honored their late band mate Phife Dawg.

Reprising her Hillary Clinton impression, SNL cast member Kate McKinnon performed Cohen’s standout “Hallelujah” on solo piano as part of the episode’s cold open. Following the tribute to the 82-year-old musician who passed away last week, a clearly emotional McKinnon concluded by saying “I’m not giving up and neither should you” before delivering the standard “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” introduction. Here’s “Hallelujah”:

Hip-hop legends A Tribe Called Quest were the musical guests, appearing one day after releasing their long-awaited, and final album We Got It From Here … Thank You 4 Your Service. During a rendition of the album track “We The People…” Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Jarobi White, honored the late Malik Isaac Taylor, aka Phife Dawg, who passed away in March, by lowering a banner with his image. Later in the show ATCQ was joined by Busta Rhymes and Consequence for a rendition of “The Space Program” also from their first album since 1998. Watch “We The People…” below followed by the entire episode (“The Space Program” starts at the 51:48 mark).