The infamous moment Sinéad O’Connor was banned from SNL for life

Far Out Magazine
May 16, 2020

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/sinead-o-connor-banned-snl-saturday-night-live-1992-video/

We’re looking back at one of television’s most infamous moments. Sinéad O’Connor is a musician who has never been shy to make her opinion well known in the public eye. Nothing compares, though, to her now-legendary appearance performing on SNL back in 1992.

Saturday Night Live has had several acts break the rules and find themselves on the wrong end of Lorne Michaels’ wrath. But perhaps none were as scandalous as O’Connor’s moment of infamy.

SNL, the now-iconic late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show, has been running prolifically each week since launching in 1975.

Each episode features a musical guest, in the shape of a solo act or a band, who will then perform two or three tracks after being introduced by the host of the show. Make no mistake about it, being booked to perform on SNL can make or break a musician.

While the majority of musicians thrive on the high-pressure moment some, unfortunately, do not. Or perhaps we should be clearer, some artists see the huge audience and the headlines waiting as an opportunity to make a point. Elvis Costello did it with music, Rage Against The Machine did it with flags—Sinéad O’Connor did it with a picture of the pope.

Taking to the Studio 8H stage, the camera panned to O’Connor who, staring directly down the barrel, delivered an a cappella rendition of Bob Marley song ‘War’. The track choice was a poignant one and was delivered as an attempt to protest against sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. It was intended to flip Marley’s original war on racism and train its crosshairs on child abuse.

O’Connor, who started to sing the lyrics: “We have confidence in good over evil,” the singer held up a photograph of Pope John Paul II to the camera at the very moment she sang the word “evil” and with a flash of intensity began tearing it up in pieces, throwing them at the camera and stating: “Fight the real enemy”. Apparently, the photo was one that had been situated on her own mother’s wall since 1978.

SNL had no idea about the stunt O’Connor was planning and, during rehearsals, she instead held up up an image of a refugee child. Following the sudden switch, NBC Vice-President of Late Night, Rick Ludwin stated that after seeing the religious protest from the singer he “literally jumped out of [his] chair”, the crew scrambled while the production team contemplated cutting the feed.

O’Connor has often discussed her actions in the years that followed, the singer then later explained that the plan was inspired by Bob Geldof: “When the Boomtown Rats went to No. 1 in England with Rat Trap, [Bob] Geldof went on Top of the Pops and ripped up a photo of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, who had been No. 1 for weeks and weeks before,” she told Hot Press. “And I thought, ‘Yeah, fuck! What if someone ripped up a picture of the pope?’ Half of me was just like: ‘Jesus, I’d love to just see what’d happen.’”

“It’s not the man, obviously—it’s the office and the symbol of the organisation that he represents,” she said in an interview with Time. “In Ireland, we see our people are manifesting the highest incidence in Europe of child abuse. This is a direct result of the fact that they’re not in contact with their history as Irish people and the fact that in the schools, the priests have been beating the shit out of the children for years and sexually abusing them. This is the example that’s been set for the people of Ireland. They have been controlled by the church, the very people who authorised what was done to them, who gave permission for what was done to them.”

Having been raised in a religious family with the Catholic church, O’Connor later detailed her own relationship with the religion and, subsequently, her own childhood abuse. “Sexual and physical. Psychological. Spiritual. Emotional. Verbal. I went to school every day covered in bruises, boils, sties and face welts, you name it. Nobody ever said a bloody word or did a thing,” she said.

“Naturally I was very angered by the whole thing, and I had to find out why it happened… The thing that helped me most was the 12-step group, the Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families. My mother was a Valium addict. What happened to me is a direct result of what happened to my mother and what happened to her in her house and in school.”

O’Connor’s actions would be equally chastised and celebrated by millions around the world. While many devout Catholics reacted negatively to her actions, a number of high profile figures such as Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson would pay tribute to her bravery in protest.

Trying to get her message across through the relevant channel’s O’Connor also started sending out a letter to major news organisations explaining: “The only reason I ever opened my mouth to sing was so that I tell my story and have it heard,” she wrote. “My story is the story of countless millions of children whose families and nations were torn apart in the name of Jesus Christ.”

At the time of the incident many people struggled to understand her actions and, a decade after the performance, she reflected: “It’s very understandable that the American people did not know what I was going on about, but outside of America, people did really know and it was quite supported and I think very well understood.”