12 Best Musician Cameos In TV Shows

There are few celebrities that can really command a crowd like a musical icon. Celebrity cameos may be a dime a dozen on TV, but when it's a pop star or rock legend showing up in the audience's favorite programs, magic seems to happen, especially the more surprising of a pairing it is. Fortunately, there's a huge history of musician cameos on television, though not all of them are as beloved as you might expect.

Nevertheless, there have been plenty of musician cameos in movies and TV that are not only memorable but also feel just as shocking now as they were when they first aired. Of these moments where musicians popped up in TV shows, some were great instances that showcased a performer's range off-stage, oftentimes juxtaposed against their hard-won public persona. Other times, they're just simply fun moments that break the fourth wall of a given series, like an added Easter egg for those who care to dive deep into a show's lore or secrets. 

Here are the 12 best musician cameos in TV shows.

The Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós aren't exactly the most popular band in the west, but their music made a good fit for a show like "Game of Thrones." The HBO fantasy series had several high profile cameos from musicians, including Will Champion of Coldplay, Chris Stapleton, and Ed Sheeran. However, unless you're an avid fan of Sigur Rós, you might not even recognize their cameo in the season 4 episode "The Lion and the Rose."

While most of the episode is set during the wedding of Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) and Margaery (Natalie Dormer), a mostly pleasant affair that ends with the assassination of Joffrey by poisoning, of which his uncle Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) is accused of. It's one of the most shocking cliffhangers of the series, but its occurrence is foreshadowed moments earlier in the appearance of Sigur Rós. 

Namely, members Jónsi Birgisson, Georg Hòlm, and Kjartan Sveinsson are the wedding band, performing a familiar song for "Thrones" fans: "The Rains of Castamere." Notably, this song, which chronicles the bloody victories of Tywin Lannister, also scores the moments before the Red Wedding in season 3. It must've been quite an honor for Sigur Rós to play such an integral role in one of the best "Game of Thrones" episodes.

Jack Antonoff is the type of musician whose music you've heard, even if you aren't too familiar with him as an individual. While Antonoff fronts the band Bleachers, he's also a frequent producer for artists like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, and Kendrick Lamar, as well as a former member of the band Fun., whose hit song "We Are Young" won Antonoff his first several Grammy Awards. Appropriately, Antonoff's cameo as himself on an episode of the Hulu series "High Fidelity" lets the general public in on what a studio session with the super-producer looks like.

In "High Fidelity," Zoë Kravitz plays Rob, a record store owner reminiscing on her past relationships. At one point, she makes a visit to Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan, a frequent real-life workplace of Antonoff, where the Bleachers frontman is producing a song for Rob's latest boyfriend, Liam. Antonoff and Rob get into a banal conversation about the best falafel in New York City, and Rob offers Liam advice on his vocal take that impresses Antonoff. 

What's most fun about this cameo is that it likely came out because, at one point, Antonoff was producing a solo album for Kravitz. Though nothing has come out as of 2025, Kravitz does have a writing credit on Taylor Swift's "Lavender Haze" off her album "Midnights," which potentially originated as a track for the "High Fidelity" star. Consider that TBD album, like "High Fidelity," the one that got away for us. 

Lady Gaga's huge cameo in "Wednesday" was making headlines before the second season even aired, which speaks to not only her star power but the remarkable popularity of the Netflix series. The series already features plenty of celebrity cameos, including former "The Addams Family" cast members like Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci. While Gaga's film career is quite successful on its own, her role in "Wednesday" is limited to one guest appearance in the season 2 episode "Woe Thyself."

In the episode, Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) has lost her psychic abilities and attempts to regain them by visiting the grave of a former professor at her school, Rosaline Rotwood. Rosaline attempts to grant Wednesday's wish but warns her of the consequences, which come to fruition when Enid (Emma Myers) interrupts Wednesday's moment alone with the ghost. Enid and Wednesday end up body-swapping, resulting in a hilarious episode where both actresses are playing the other's character.

Though it's not the biggest cameo for a pop star as massive as Lady Gaga, the musician accompanied the season two release with a brand new song, "The Dead Dance," with a music video by "Wednesday" director Tim Burton. It's certainly a cameo appearance that ties nicely into Gaga's latest album, "MAYHEM," but more than anything her portrayal of Rosaline leads to one of the most fun episodes of "Wednesday" thus far. 

For a show about the music industry, Donald Glover's satirical "Atlanta" has had some pretty eclectic celebrity cameos. Across its four seasons, the show featured the likes of Jaleel White, Liam Neeson, Soulja Boy, Michael Vick, and Alexander Skarsgård, but by far the best of them all came in the show's third-ever episode, "Go for Broke." While Earn (Glover) takes his girlfriend Van (Zazie Beetz) on a dinner date at a restaurant he can't afford, Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) ends up in the middle of a remote forest to make a drug deal with Migos, the generation-defining hip-hop group.

The trio (Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff) quickly set the stage for this high pressure drug deal by revealing to Alfred and his companion Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) that they have kidnapped someone. The deal is even more stressful once Quavo kills the captive just after letting him run free. Like many episodes of "Atlanta," it's a surreal sequence of events that ends anti-climactically as the deal is finished and Alfred and Darius get to walk free. 

Although the presence of Migos as RV drug dealers may not register for many fans of "Atlanta," it's a memorable cameo that sets the tone for the series' future. What makes it even funnier in hindsight is the fact that Glover did a parody sketch of Migos when he hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 2018, which must've been a fun way to poke fun at his friends and former co-stars. 

In its fifth season, "Only Murders in the Building" is chock full of celebrity cameos, but it didn't exactly start out that way. In the show's first season, the Arconia building in New York City was home to only one famous face: Sting, the iconic frontman of The Police. While his initial appearance in the first season is humorous, Sting unexpectedly ends up becoming a suspect for the murder of Tim Kono, at least according to freshman podcasters Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez). 

Sting initially draws the suspicion of the podcast gang due to his hatred of Oliver's dog, Winnie, which lines up with the mysterious poisoning of his pet. As it turns out, Tim Kono happened to formerly work for Sting as a financial advisor, only to lose him tons of money, forcing Sting to angrily fire him days before his death. Sting ends up exonerating himself by revealing that he believed Tim's death to have been a suicide resulting from his firing and not a murder like the podcasters believe. 

Sting ends up moving out of the Arconia penthouse by the end of the season, but his impression on the first season is memorable if only because it preludes a series' worth of celebrity cameos, from Eugene Levy to Melissa McCarthy. Sadly, none of them are as hilariously unexpected as Sting's impromptu song inspired by his guilt over Tim's death. 

Stevie Nicks is one of the greatest singer-songwriters ever, but she's far from the type to transition from an on-stage career to acting. She made the exception for two different seasons of "American Horror Story," the FX anthology series from Ryan Murphy, with one being in a season many fans consider to be the best season of "American Horror Story." 

Nicks' first appearance was in its third season, "American Horror Story: Coven," which centers on a coven of witches descended from the targets of the Salem witch trials. The episode, titled "The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks," sees Nicks appearing as an illusion to convince Misty (Lily Rabe) of what awaits being the Supreme who has mastered all areas of witchcraft. Nicks also delivers an emotional performance of the iconic Fleetwood Mac song "Rhiannon," a song Nicks appropriately wrote about witches from Welsh mythology. 

The other appearance Nicks makes is in "American Horror Story: Apocalypse," the eighth season of the series, which featured returning plot threads from several previous seasons, including "Coven." It's a similar appearance in which Nicks appears to once again sing a rendition of her song "Gypsy." As far as cameos in Ryan Murphy shows go, Nicks uses her screen time to do what she does best, and fits very nicely in the witchy world of both seasons. 

Like "Extras," "30 Rock" had its own reputation for recruiting insane celebrity cameos, from Al Gore to Oprah Winfrey. However, the circumstances that led to Jon Bon Jovi's cameo in the fourth season episode "Anna Howard Shaw Day" were special, to say the least. The episode was created as part of NBC's "artist in residence," in which over the span of two months Jon Bon Jovi would be making appearances on the network's biggest shows, including "Saturday Night Live," "The Today Show," and of course, "30 Rock."

In the episode, Tina Fey's Liz Lemon struggles with having no one to pick her up from a root canal surgery, having eschewed signing a liability waiver after meeting Bon Jovi (who is NBC's artist-in-residence in the show, too) and heeding his advice. Elsewhere in the episode, Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy pulls a classic Don Rickles move on Bon Jovi by goading him into interrupting a conversation with CNBC anchor Avery Jessup (Elizabeth Banks), only to snub the musician in an effort to impress his date.

Though it's not the most stand-out episode in a given season of "30 Rock," Bon Jovi's cameo was a clever usage of his brief stint as NBC's artist-in-residence. He fit right in with the plentiful celebrity cameos of "30 Rock," and it even gave the show an opportunity to have a meta commentary about NBC's practice of forcing celebrities into their shows. 

Dolly Parton has her own history of acting, including films like "9 to 5" and "Steel Magnolias," but her recurring guest appearances on "Hannah Montana" are where she gets to embrace her country-pop legend status. "Hannah Montana" was famously the show that launched the career of Miley Cyrus, who played the role of a teenager who lives a double life as the titular pop star. Although the show is a far cry from Cyrus' career now, her relationship with Parton was inspired by her true life. 

In three episodes of "Hannah Montana," Parton appeared as Miley's Aunt Dolly, a mentor figure in the fictional pop star's life, inspired by Parton's own status as Cyrus' real-life godmother. Her appearances also highlight Parton's iconic wit and comedic chops, which were sadly never seen in "Heavens to Betsy," a sitcom that's impossible to watch from the late '90s. 

What's even more heartfelt about Parton's cameos on "Hannah Montana" is how her bond with Cyrus has remained strong nearly 15 years after the Disney Channel show ended. Parton was supportive of Cyrus throughout her media controversies of the early 2010s, and in 2023, she re-recorded a duet with Cyrus of her goddaughter's hit song "Wrecking Ball." If only we all had a lovable aunt like Dolly!

These days, sighting of Taylor Swift outside of her own promotional efforts are few and far between. But that was not the case back in 2013, hot off the success of her album "Red" and about to break into the pop stratosphere the next year with "1989." During this time, Swift's acting career was existent but scarce, including small roles in films like "The Lorax" and "Valentine's Day," but also including one memorable cameo in the season 2 finale of "New Girl." 

The episode, "Elaine's Big Day," features the main cast attempting to sabotage the wedding between fellow roommate Cece (Hannah Simone) and her arranged husband Shivrang (Satya Bhabha) on behalf of Schmidt (Max Greenfield). As it turns out, their efforts end up being pointless, as Shivrang interrupts the ceremony to profess love for his childhood friend, Elaine, played by Swift. In the spirit of Swift's own song "Speak Now," the two run off together to elope, leaving Cece at the altar and letting her pursue a relationship with Schmidt.

Although no one would argue that Elaine is one of Taylor Swift's best acting roles, the cameo has some fun meta context given that Swift's music is referenced heavily on "New Girl" as a particular favorite of Jess' (Zooey Deschanel). It might have also taken the cake for our favorite musician cameo in "New Girl," were it not for another cameo that's even more surprising than seeing the future queen of pop...

Before "Wayne's World" was a hit comedy in 1992, it originated as a recurring sketch on "Saturday Night Live." As the sketch grew in popularity and spawned catchphrases in the modern lexicon, Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) were able to lure some real-life celebrities into their basement studio, as was the case in one 1990 iteration of the sketch where Aerosmith are their guests.

One surprising example of this came a year before "Wayne's World" hit theaters, when Wayne and Garth's top 10 list of babes ends with a dream sequence parodying Madonna's iconic "Truth or Dare" documentary. The real-life Madonna cameos as herself, seducing Wayne in a game of truth or dare that results in the two of them making out, while Garth does a dance reminiscent of Madonna's video for "Justify My Love." While there have been plenty of iconic cameos by musicians in "SNL" history, this one stands out by virtue of hearing Madonna throw Wayne's own hilarious catchphrases back in his face. 

Though the sketch doesn't even touch the most controversial sketches and moments on "SNL" involving Madonna, the cameo certainly serves as a predecessor to Alice Cooper's cameo in the film version of "Wayne's World." More than anything, it proves that even amidst Madonna's divisive career in acting, she has some genuine comedic chops that earn our respect. 

"Extras" was a sitcom built on having numerous celebrity guest stars per episode. The BBC series, created by and starring Ricky Gervais, follows the life of an extra in movies and TV shows who is trying to make it in Hollywood as a writer-performer, often featuring iconic actors playing highly fictionalized versions of themselves, including Patrick Stewart, Kate Winslet, and Daniel Radcliffe. However, even among all those A-listers, the most memorable and stunning cameo is of the late, great David Bowie during the second season. 

In the episode, Gervais' Andy is struggling with having his big break on a poorly reviewed, low-brow sitcom but sees an opportunity for advice when he weasels his way into Bowie's VIP section at a party. Bowie seems genuinely invested in listening to Andy describe his woes, until it inspires the iconic singer to write a song in the moment, singing, "Little fat man who sold his soul..." and leading the entire party in a chorus, "See his pug-nosed face," while Andy sits there humiliated at his hero mocking him.

Because "Extras" is so rife with celebrity cameos, the fact that Bowie is the sole cameo in this particular episode gives it so much more weight. On top of that, the song he sings about Andy is one of the funniest moments in the entire 12-episode series, which is only made better by Gervais' reactions to it as other partygoers suggest alternative lines to Bowie. 

Reflecting on the life and career of Prince makes Taylor Swift's reclusiveness seem extroverted. Prince Rogers Nelson was as legendary in his own time as he was enigmatic, with iconic songs like "Purple Rain," "Kiss," and "1999" only being overshadowed by his own eclectic personality and self-made mythology. That's why it seemed so surprising and out-of-character that Prince himself requested to guest star on an episode of "New Girl" in its third season, with the Fox sitcom apparently being one of the only television shows he watched.

Well, what His Royal Badness wants, His Royal Badness gets. The episode, aptly titled "Prince," finds Jess and Cece invited to a party at Prince's house, only for Nick (Jake Johnson) to see her off on an awkward note by telling her he loves her. Schmidt insists they crash Prince's party in an effort for Nick to "take back" his L-bomb, but their confrontation is interrupted by the musician himself, who advises Jess to tell Nick how she truly feels.

As if the scene where Jess and Nick freak out over seeing Prince isn't enough to make this one of the best "New Girl" episodes, it ends with Prince performing a new song, "Fallinlove2nite," on-stage with the cast, while Cece stays behind after the party to play Prince in ping-pong. The entire episode feels like a complete fever dream, which makes it so on brand with Prince's public persona.