On October 3, 1992, Sinéad O’Connor appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live for the second and last time of her career. That evening, she performed two songs: her new single “Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home,” and an a cappella version of Bob Marley’s 1976 record “War.” At the conclusion of “War,” O’Connor held up a picture of Pope John Paul II, tore it to pieces, and yelled, “Fight the real enemy!”
You can take a look at the footage for yourself below:
SNL producer Lorne Michaels reportedly demanded that the studio’s “Applause” sign be turned off immediately after the incident, leaving the audience in absolute silence. The network reportedly received upwards of 4,000 complaints in response and banned O’Connor from appearing on the show ever again. Everyone, from Catholic cardinal Bernard Francis Law to the Anti-Defamation League, also promptly condemned O’Connor’s behavior.
After Her ‘SNL’ Protest, Sinéad O’Connor Explained the Personal Story Behind It
On the following week’s episode, guest host Joe Pesci brought up O’Connor during his opening monologue. “She was very lucky it wasn’t my show, cuz if it was my show, I would’ve gave her such a smack,” Pesci joked, to a round of applause.
“I would’ve grabbed her by her…her eyebrows,” he continued, poking fun at O’Connor’s bald head:
Madonna parodied the stunt as well when she was the musical guest in January 1993, tearing up a photo of Joey Buttafuoco at the end of one song:
For her part, O’Connor addressed the backlash in a letter sent to several news publications, calling herself an abused child and revealing that she became a singer so that her story could be heard. “The Catholic Church have controlled us by controlling education,” O’Connor continued, “Through their teachings on sexuality, marriage, birth control, and abortion. And most spectacularly through the lies they taught us with their history books.”
O’Connor closed out her statement by writing, “My story is the story of countless millions of children whose families and nations were torn apart for money in the name of Jesus Christ.”
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