In the 50-year history of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, only 41 people have ever been invited by Lorne Michaels to serve as both host and musical guest on the same night, including icons like Paul Simon, Ray Charles, Elton John, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. Of them, only four have been non-professional singers or musicians, the most recent example coming some 30 years ago: Lily Tomlin, on Nov. 22, 1975 and Jan. 22, 1983; Desi Arnaz, on Feb. 21, 1976; Gary Busey, on March 10, 1979; and Deion Sanders, on Feb. 18, 1995.
On Jan. 25, you will be able to add Timothée Chalamet to that list. The star of the hit new Bob Dylan drama A Complete Unknown, in which he impressively sings dozens of Dylan’s songs himself, has been invited to Studio 8H at 30 Rock to serve in that dual role. Chalamet is known to be a huge fan of rap music, but presumably he’ll limit his musical contributions to a few Dylan covers — perhaps “Blowin’ in the Wind” or “Like a Rolling Stone.”
The timing couldn’t be much better for Chalamet, who is vying to become, at 29, the youngest best actor Oscar winner in history. (He would break, by a few days, the record currently held by an another of this season’s best actor contenders, Adrien Brody.) Oscar nominations will have been announced on Jan. 17, and the final round of Oscar voting won’t begin until Feb. 11.
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