Charli XCX appeared as a singing parrot on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live last night (December 19).

The singer was scheduled to be the musical guest on the episode and was going to perform with Caroline Polachek and Christine And The Queens. However, the performance was cancelled as the show moved to a limited cast format due to rising cases of COVID-19.

XCX did still appear in a pre-taped sketch alongside host Paul Rudd and some of SNL’s regular cast members. Rudd introduced the sketch, explaining: “You know, Christmas is a time of charity and giving and that was the inspiration for this next music video, which I shot yesterday morning with Kyle Mooney, Aidy Bryant, Heidi Gardner, Keenan Thompson, Alex Moffat and what should have been tonight’s musical guest, Charli XCX.

“It’s a heartfelt Christmas song about a magical moment between a boy and a strange man at a department store. Enjoy!”

In the sketch, Mooney plays a young boy who meets Rudd in a department store while buying some “Christmas socks” for his mum to cheer her up after their bird flew away earlier in the year. His mum, played by Bryant, appears as Mooney and Rudd have a conversation through song and shares some news about the pet – “T.J. Rocks is back and started a band.”

XCX played the parrot T.J. Rocks and sang: “I am T.J. Rocks, these are the Junkyard Boys and we’d like to play a song for you.” The group then launched into a surf-rock song that went: “I took a bus to LA and I got the Junkyard Boys / We got rich and famous but we wanna spend Christmas with you.” Watch the sketch above now.

Meanwhile, XCX recently shared the first trailer for her documentary Alone Together. The film captured the creation of her album ‘How I’m Feeling Now’, which was made during lockdown in 2020.

After premiering at SXSW earlier this year, the documentary will now be released in cinemas and on Video On Demand. Reviewing Alone Together, NME wrote: “Alone Together also acts as a post-credit scene for ‘How I’m Feeling Now’. There’s a launch party with Angels connecting via Zoom to enjoy the record together. It’s a world away from the headline shows that opened the documentary but it’s just as euphoric.

“’All these individual stories add up to one big reminder of music’s healing power’, as Charli explains at the end of the film: ‘We are all, in some way, going through exactly the same thing. In a time where we were forced to be apart, we felt connected in ways we never have before.’ Alone, then, but also together.”