Prince plays eight minute Saturday Night Live set: Watch the special performance starring Lianne La Havas

The artist's appearance on the NBC sketch show is already being hailed as one of the greatest live performances in the show's long history

Prince made a return to the small screen on Saturday night when he appeared with his band 3rdeyegirl and special guest star Lianne La Havas on long-running comedy sketch show, Saturday Night Live.

The artist performed a landmark eight-minute medley of tracks from his two most recent studio albums, Art Official Age and Plectrumelectrum, and included “Clouds”, “Plectrum Electrum”, “Marz” and “Another Love”.

The performance is currently being streamed over on Deadspin here.

Normally, sets on SNL are split into two segments with a commercial break in between, but Prince's show was uniquely uninterrupted.

Prince first starred on SNL in 1981 and has performed three times since - including, most recently, in 2006.

The special episode also marked the return of comedian Chris Rock as the host of the show.

Rock interviewed Prince before in 1997, when the pair discussed rap lyrics, his rivalry with Michael Jackson and artistic freedom.

Rock’s opening monologue garnered the most attention, with a series of dark jokes on themes such as terrorist group Isis, the Boston Marathon bombing and 9/11.

“Yesterday was Halloween, tomorrow's the New York City Marathon… Yeah, scary - what could go wrong there, right?” he quipped.

“It'll be all right - New York's gonna be fine, just like Boston's fine after the marathon.”