Revisiting Cher’s Debut Performance on ‘Saturday Night Live’

On Dec. 20, 2025, Cher will appear as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, nearly 40 years since her debut performance on the show.

The very first time Cher appeared on SNL was on Nov. 21, 1987, where she performed two songs, “We All Sleep Alone” and “I Found Someone.” You can watch the latter down below.

At that point in time, Cher was focused primarily on her acting career and not music.

“I like what I’m doing now, but I’m not sure which part of it I like,” she said to The New York Times in October of 1987, a month before her SNL performance. “I don’t like getting up at five in the morning, and I hate being in makeup all the time. Most of the time, directors are a major pain. And sometimes I want to be sick when I see the movies I’ve made. But there’s something about acting I really like, though I haven’t figured it out.”

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Over the course of 1987, Cher appeared in three films, Suspect, The Witches of Eastwick and Moonstruck, the last of which earned her an Oscar for Best Actress. But it was also the year in which Cher released her first album in five years. The self-titled release was a return of sorts to a rock ‘n’ roll sound, and its first two singles — both of which Cher performed on SNL — were hits. “I Found Someone” went to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, while “We All Sleep Alone” went to No. 14.

The latter song was cowritten by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child, who had little to no reservations about working with someone who had been out of the game, so to speak, for a number of years.

“She was coming back and putting out a record and nobody wanted to work with her, no one wanted to write with her,” Sambora told American Songwriter. “When Jon and I heard she was looking, we said ‘We’d be honored.’ She’s such a legend.”

Cher’s Other ‘SNL’ Appearances

Following Cher’s 1987 performance, she returned to Saturday Night Live twice more — once on September 26, 1992 during the Weekend Update segment and again for the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special where she performed “If I Could Turn Back Time.”

When Cher appears on SNL this coming December, the episode will be hosted by another returning figure, Ariana Grande.

Watch Cher Perform ‘I Found Someone’ on ‘SNL’ in 1987