Imagine Dragons Head To ‘SNL’ For A ‘Radioactive’ Performance

Straight off the heels of Imagine Dragons’ powerful performance with Kendrick Lamar at the Grammys, the pop rock band will be heading to Saturday Night Live to perform their boombastic hit song “Radioactive.” The timing of their performance on SNL couldn’t be any better. It was announced weeks ago that the band would join Melissa McCarthy for her hosting duties, and now merely a week after the raved about performance at the Grammys and Imagine Dragons’ exposure has amassed to new highs.

For Imagine Dragons, this is just one successful gig in a series for the Las Vegas natives. After the band heads to 30 Rock they will kick off their tour to support their album Night Visions. The first date set for the band will start on February 8 in Boise, Idaho.

Before Imagine Dragons hit the stage at the Grammys, their lead singer Dan Reynolds sat down with the Hollywood Reporter to talk about the upcoming performance that wound up being the most talked about of the awards ceremony. Of the impending performance, Reynolds said:

“In a perfect world, it would be like the Hunger Games and at the end, me and Kendrick would light on fire.”

After the performance, Reynolds told the trade magazine:

“We were a big fan of Kendrick’s. It was raw. The lines are blurred between genres. We were on the same page.”

At the time Kendrick Lamar seemed to share the same sentiment as Imagine Dragons’ front man, having said:

“Don’t go against your own s–t. … I don’t want anybody to do anything fake.”

Since the Grammys performance the band and new collaborator Kendrick Lamar have recorded a “Radioactive Remix”, which features the solid rap by the Compton native.

As for their upcoming appearance on SNL, producer Lorne Michaels has always had a good ear for finding bands that were just on the tip of really breaking through to the mainstream. In the past, other musical guests that have enjoyed the SNL stage are Patti Smith, The Kinks, Meat Loaf, Grateful Dead, Talking Heads, Blondie, Tom Petty, and many more.

Of the SNL performance, Imagine Dragons took to their twitter in excitement, hinting that they might have something very special up their sleeves.

got some very special things planned for our performance on Saturday Night Live this weekend, be sure to tune in..

— Imagine Dragons (@Imaginedragons) January 30, 2014

In addition to being the highlight of the Grammys, the band also took home Best Rock Performance too. Currently their new song with Kendrick Lamar is the sixth best selling single on the iTunes charts of the week.

[Image credit: Lunchbox LP via photopin cc]