Revisit Sinead O’Connor’s Infamous ‘Saturday Night Live’ Performance That Got Her Banned for Life
usmagazine.comSinéad O’Connor released 10 albums over the course of her impressive career, but one moment stood out more than any other: her performance on Saturday Night Live.While promoting her third album, Am I Not Your Girl?, O’Connor appeared as the musical guest on an October 1992 episode hosted by Tim Robbins.
She was originally scheduled to perform two tracks from her new album, but the day before the show aired, she got permission to replace “Scarlet Ribbons” with an a cappella cover of Bob Marley‘s “War.”O’Connor intended her “War” performance as a protest of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. “We know we will win,” she sang while staring into the camera. “We have confidence in the victory of good over evil.” As she sang the word “evil,” she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II.
Before throwing the pieces on the ground, she encouraged the audience to “fight the real enemy.”The incident drew immediate backlash from viewers and critics, including SNL, which banned her from ever performing on the show again.
The following week, host Joe Pesci mocked O’Connor during his monologue, holding up what he claimed was the taped-together pope photo that O’Connor had ripped.“She’s very lucky it wasn’t my show. ’Cause if it was my show, I woulda gave her such a smack,” Pesci, now 80, told the audience before adding in a dig about O’Connor’s shaved head. “I woulda grabbed her by her … eyebrows.”Despite the criticism, O’Connor later said she had no regrets about the controversial performance even though it more or less killed her career. “I feel that having a No.
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