Sinead O’Connor in 1992 during her appearance on “Saturday Night Live”.Photo:Yvonne Hemsey/Getty
Yvonne Hemsey/Getty
The moment — and O’Connor’s staunch defense of it in the years since — is receiving renewed attention in the wake of her death at 56,which was confirmed on Wednesday.
On Oct. 3, 1992,O’Connor was the musical guest of the long-running NBC sketch comedy show. Rather than performing one of her own songs for the occasion, she did an a cappella cover of Bob Marley’s “War” while holding a picture of the pontiff. At the conclusion of her performance, she tore up the picture and said, “Fight the real enemy,” before throwing the pieces at the camera. The singer then walked off the stage to silence.
Meanwhile, network executives, who had no warning about the stunt, were angered, while the show’s longtime producer, Lorne Michaels, called for the studio’s “Applause” sign to not be lit. O’Connor was eventually banned for life from NBC, and the scene of O’Connor ripping up the picture was not shown in reruns of theSNLepisode.
In a 2021 PEOPLE interview, O’Connor said she knew that her move would generate a reaction. “I had a pretty good feeling. And part to me just as an artist, particularly an Irish artist — there’s a tradition in Irish art, particularly among playwrights, there used to be riots in the streets over the plays. This is a tradition in Irish art of the type of, ‘Let’s see what happens if.’ So there was a part of me that was curious to see what would happen,” she explained.
Ultimately, O’Connor said she was “well aware there would be [backlash]. I understood it, because we joke in Ireland or in Europe that Americans, they don’t think anything happened until it happened to them. So I totally understood. I didn’t blame anyone.”
Sinead O’Connor on “Saturday Night Live” in 1992.
Upon later reflection, O’Connor, who scored a No. 1 U.S. hit with her cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” in 1990, said that she had no regrets about what she had done following the backlash. As she wrote in her 2021 memoirRememberings: “A lot of people say or think that tearing up the pope’s photo derailed my career. That’s not how I feel about it. I feel that having a number-one record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track.”
source: people.com
