Religion and modern music have always had a rocky relationship. When the Rock and Roll era started it was classed as the devil’s music. Outrage was caused when John Lennon was quoted as saying that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus (although they probably were). In the late 1980s members of the Scandinavian Death Metal scene burned down churches.
Arguably the most famous time of music and religion clashed was in the 1990s when on a prime-time Saturday night TV show, a musical performance would be remembered not for the music but for the actions taken. This week The Beat Marches On to 3rd October 1992, when Sinead O’Connor rips up a picture of the Pope John Paul II.
When the incident occurred, Sinead O’Connor was one of the world’s biggest female pop stars. She broke onto the scene in 1987 with the album ‘The Lion and the Cobra’ to moderate success. The second album ‘I Do Not Want What I Have Not Got’ is when the singer made it big. The Prince penned song Nothing Compares 2 U and its iconic video where she is crying into the camera was a worldwide hit. Billboard named the song the world’s number-one single.
After conquering the world O’Connor went into the studio and recorded a follow-up album. This time it was a jazz covers album called ‘Am I Not Your Girl?’ and was released in September 1992. To help album sales as most artists do, the singer was promoting the release. In light of the success of Nothing Compares 2 U, the big TV programmes came calling.
Saturday Night Live is one of the stalwarts of prime-time television in America. Its mixture of comedy sketches and music has boosted careers and made household names of actors and musicians alike. In its first season, it almost reunited John Lennon and Paul McCartney (see here https://beatmarcheson.co.uk/index.php/2023/09/18/30-rekindling-new-york-and-saturday-night/ ) In 1981 Blondie rapped for the first time on the show introducing the genre to most of the nation. Then a decade later the show introduced grunge with Nirvana’s hit ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
With all the momentous events that have happened in the history of the show, it’s a privilege for artists to perform on the show and to make a statement. Sinead O’Connor was going to make a huge one.
O’Connor showed up to the rehearsal on the day and instead of performing the pre-agreed track, Scarlet Ribbons, off the new album or a previous single she decided to do a cover of Bob Marley’s song War. She often covered this at live shows. This time the singer decided to sing a capella version. The producers thought it was different but agreed as they had no idea about the stunt that was going to happen when the cameras were rolling for real. She held up a picture of a refugee child at the end pointing to the struggles the children were going through in war-torn countries.
The show went live later that evening and O’Connor performed the song. It was a riveting performance. She had the audience in the palm of her hands. Instead of the refugee photo in rehearsal, she pulled out the photo of the then-Pope, John-Paul II. Changing the words in a couple of the latter verses she pointed out the abuse that was ignored at the time in the Catholic church. Looking directly into the camera she announced, ‘Fight the real enemy’ and ripped the photo into pieces.
In what felt like forever, there was a stunned silence from everyone. For a split second before the show went to an advertisement break, you can see and feel the tension. The applause sign for the crowd didn’t even turn on before the break. No one knew how to react in the studio.
Before long the broadcasting TV channel, NBC, was bombarded with complaints from the public up and down the country. Most US citizens are God-fearing, so when the incident occurred the public were outraged by the audacity of the stunt. 1000 angry watchers rung the channel to complain over the next few days.
Instantly O’Connor was banned from the network for life. When leaving the studio in New York she was pelted with eggs. Madonna, who is not shy of causing scandalous moments while on stage, criticised the motives of the singer. On the next edition of the show the week after guest host Joe Pesci, a devout catholic, threatened to smack her if he was hosting last week.
Two weeks later Sinead made her first appearance on stage since the controversial moment. Introduced by Kris Kristofferson at a Bob Dylan tribute gig, supported her act of controversy and told her ‘Don’t let the Bastards get you down’ The singer stood on stage in silence for a few moments soaking in the atmosphere, which were mostly jeers and performed War again, with the original lyrics this time.
It was only in the United States that the incident caused an uproar. Mainly because Saturday Night Live is rarely shown outside of the country. This was before social media times so no one could retweet, sorry repost, on X (formerly Twitter) or watch the recording on YouTube, it took a few days for the news to spread around the world. Even when it did the reaction wasn’t as severe as it was in America.
The picture ripped during the incident was deeply personal to O’Connor. It was taken from her mother’s bedroom after she died in 1985. The relationship between the two was strained as there was constant abuse. The singer would get kicked by her mother throughout her youth. She blamed the church for encouraging the abuse to be okay. At the time there were rumours of the catholic church abusing women and children. The rock bottom moment had come to her home country of Ireland but it would be another ten years until it would be proven in America.
Throughout the rest of her career, Sinead O’Connor was shunned from American primetime shows. She didn’t have another hit on any chart in the country and was classed as crazy or unhinged. The singer was fine with it though as she was never one to hog the limelight. She was uneasy with the popularity of Nothing Compares 2 U and the attention it brought. It’s a common practice to go against the grain of the norm to be classed as irrational but sometimes they are ahead of the curve and waiting for the rest of us to catch up.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for six years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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The websites used for research were:
Sinead O’Connor on why she ripped up photo of pope on ‘SNL’ (nypost.com)
The day Sinead O’Connor tore up a photo of the Pope on Saturday Night Live | The Independent
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