{"id":90221,"date":"2025-08-23T02:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T02:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/90221\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T02:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T02:57:11","slug":"ashlee-simpson-reflects-on-backlash-to-2004-snl-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/90221\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashlee Simpson reflects on backlash to 2004 ‘SNL’ performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been 20 years since Ashlee Simpson<\/a>‘s infamous\u00a0Saturday Night Live<\/a>\u00a0performance in 2004, and while the singer has definitely moved past the incident, she can see how it serves as a perfect example of the toxicity of online bullying.\n<\/p>\n

During a recent appearance on the Pod Meets World<\/a> podcast, Simpson, 40, reflected on the intense public backlash she received after being caught lip-syncing while performing as the musical guest for SNL’s Oct. 23, 2004, episode.\n<\/p>\n

Ashlee Simpson on ‘Saturday Night Live’ on Oct. 23, 2004.<\/p>\n

Dana Edelson\/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty<\/p>\n

The\u00a0lip-sync incident<\/a>\u00a0occurred after Simpson had already performed her hit single, “Pieces of Me,” and returned for her second song of the night, “Autobiography.” But when the wrong vocals played, repeating the song she sang earlier in the show, she panicked, briefly danced to cover up the mistake, and walked off the stage.\n<\/p>\n

When asked if she felt that society had grown in its understanding of celebrities being “real people” and making mistakes just like everyone else, Simpson said she believed that “it’s a different era” from the time she was on that SNL stage.\n<\/p>\n

“I don’t think if it was that moment in this era, it would be [like] that,” she added. “I think during that time, I mean, the bullying was insane.”\n<\/p>\n

Simpson admitted that the backlash made her feel as if she had to explain herself all the time, saying, “But then my whole life, I had to tell people, \u2018Oh, but I perform every night.’ And I was like, what am I trying to tell people? My fans know. I had to know that in my heart.”\n<\/p>\n

The 7th Heaven alum also acknowledged that she’s “had ups and downs just like every other human” and even though she feels as though she momentarily lost her voice, that doesn’t take away from her artistic integrity.<\/p>\n

As Simpson put it, “That doesn’t mean [I] didn’t write these songs.”\n<\/p>\n

The mother of three went on to say she thinks that the attitude towards celebrities has “evolved,” but conceded that it “also hasn’t in some ways.”\n<\/p>\n

“But I think it’s different now. For us, we had the magazines… Now everything’s kinda more fleeting,” she added. “That was more like, ‘Here it is to be on your shoulders forever,’ you know? And I think now everything is, like, a little bit more fleeting and fast.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Simpson echoed a similar sentiment during an appearance<\/a> on the\u00a0Broad Ideas With Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen\u00a0podcast<\/a> last February.\n<\/p>\n

In retrospect, Simpson said the whole ordeal taught her about “the power of my no” and “the power of me saying absolutely not… that’s what I would go back and say.”<\/p>\n

She added: “It was a humbling moment for me. I had the No. 1 song and everything was about to go somewhere. And then it was just like, whoa. The humility of not even understanding what grown-ass people would say about you, grown-ass men, awful awful things. It was so hard to learn how to tune that out, to find my strength, to get up and go again.”<\/p>\n

Ashlee Simpson at the launch of Arne’s Reserve Caviar on July 3, 2025.<\/p>\n

Dave Benett\/Getty<\/p>\n

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly<\/a>‘s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.\n<\/p>\n

Simpson also pointed out that while the 2004 performance remains pervasive online, her return to the sketch show the following year is impossible to find.<\/p>\n

“Do you know what’s funny? I went back to SNL with my second album, and I can’t find it anyway,” she said. “I’ve searched and searched for that performance and I can’t find it.”<\/p>\n

As for what it felt like to return to Studio 8H in 2005, Simpson said, “That was f—ing scary to do,” but “having the show at that time was nice because all the people that were my fans stuck with me.”<\/p>\n

You can listen to Simpson’s full podcast interview above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been 20 years since Ashlee Simpson‘s infamous\u00a0Saturday Night Live\u00a0performance in 2004, and while the singer has definitely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-90221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}