See Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton Sing Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ on ‘SNL’
As catharsis after an emotionally exhausting week that witnessed both the election of Donald Trump and the death of Leonard Cohen, Saturday Night Live opened with Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton sitting alone at the piano and singing Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
After weeks of opening each pre-Election Day episode with amusing, over-the-top debate night sketches between McKinnon’s Clinton and Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump, there was no laughter to be heard in the latest cold open. McKinnon, in her Hillary wig and white pantsuit, simply turned Cohen’s oft-covered Various Positions classic into her character’s own personal concession speech.
“Maybe I’ve been here before / I’ve seen this room and I’ve walked this floor / I used to live alone before I knew you,” McKinnon’s Clinton sang, with the actress breaking character to wink at the camera.
“I’m not giving up and neither should you,” McKinnon, as Clinton, said following her performance. “And live from New York, it’s Saturday night.”
Watch Hillary Clinton’s heartfelt presidential concession speech.