Tonight’s cold open with Kate McKinnon. #ChappelleOnSNL pic.twitter.com/zZhQOLhKXY
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) November 13, 2016
Singing her heart out. Kate McKinnon donned a Hillary Clinton pantsuit and wig one more time on Saturday Night Live, but instead of playing for laughs, she tugged at heartstrings on November 12.
Sitting at a grand piano, the Ghostbusters star delivered an emotional performance of “Hallelujah” that paid tribute to both the song’s writer, Leonard Cohen, who died earlier this week at the age of 82, and Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in the presidential election on Tuesday, November 8.
As she came to the end of the song, McKinnon had tears in her eyes as she turned to the camera and said, “I’m not giving up and neither should you.”
Fans flocked to Twitter to weigh in on the performance and declared it the perfect way to kick off the show in a week that saw tens of thousands of people join anti-Trump protests for four straight days across the country.
“Hands down the best cold open SNL has ever done #Kate McKinnon,” one fan tweeted.
“I needed to see @katemckinnon sing Hallelujah,” wrote another. “I didn’t know it, but I did. Thank you. #ImStillWithHer.”
“Damn you #KateMcKinnon for making me cry again!! But that was beautiful. And I could see tears in her eyes too,” tweeted one viewer.
As Us Weekly previously reported, Alec Baldwin, who played the real estate mogul in the presidential debate sketches this season, decided not to reprise his impression of Trump on this week’s show.
After McKinnon’s emotional performance, host Dave Chappelle took the stage for a searing monologue that had fans declaring this week’s show the best episode of SNL in a very long time.
Watch McKinnon’s performance above and check out more Twitter reactions below.
