SINÉAD O’CONNOR
Garden State Arts Center
On August 24, 1990, O'Connor was scheduled to perform at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey. The practice of the venue was to play a recording of the American national anthem before the show began. O'Connor, who said she was unaware of this practice until shortly before the show was to begin, refused to go on if the anthem was played. Venue officials acquiesced to her demand and omitted the anthem, and so O'Connor performed, but they later permanently banned her. O'Connor said that she had a policy of not having the national anthem of any country played before her concerts and meant "no disrespect" but that she "will not go on stage after the national anthem of a country which imposes censorship on artists. It's hypocritical and racist." The incident made tabloid headlines and O'Connor came in for heavy criticism and her songs were banned from a number of radio stations. Frank Sinatra, who performed at the Center the next night, said he wished he could "kick her in the ass."
Saturday Night Live controversy
O'Connor's career received a significant blow — especially in the United States — on October 3, 1992, when she appeared on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest, on a show hosted by Tim Robbins. She was singing an a cappella version of Bob Marley's "War" to protest sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, and added a lyric about "child abuse." She then presented a photo of Pope John Paul II to the camera while singing the word "evil," after which she tore the photo into pieces, said "fight the real enemy," and threw the pieces towards the camera as the entire studio fell silent. Almost immediately, NBC's switchboard was jammed with thousands of complaints. To this day, NBC refuses to allow the footage to be rebroadcast. Instead, they show footage from the dress rehearsal where she smiles and bows after finishing the song.
The reaction to Sinéad's act of defiance was swift. In the resultant media furor, O'Connor was booed off stages and verbally abused by audiences. Her records were destroyed, and radios refused to play her songs.
Two weeks after Sinéad's infamous Saturday Night Live appearance, she was set to perform "I Believe In You" at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary tribute concert in Madison Square Garden. She was greeted by a thundering mixture of cheers and jeers. During the booing, Kris Kristofferson told her not to "let the bastards get you down." Sinéad replied "I'm not down." The noise eventually became so loud that Sinéad saw no point in starting the scheduled song, and called to the keyboard player to stop (which he did), and Sinéad started to deliver a shouted rendition of "War". This time, she didn't finish the song, and she left the stage in tears. Kris Kristofferson comforted her.
Saturday Night Live had no foreknowledge of O'Connor's plan and has resisted invitations to rebroadcast the incident (however, it is available on volume four of Saturday Night Live — 25 Years of Music DVD, one of the program's compilation video sets). When Comedy Central occasionally rebroadcasts the episode, the incident is replaced with Sinéad holding up a picture of a smiling black child. This is the rehearsal performance as she originally planned to perform. As part of SNL's apology to the audience, during his opening monologue the following week, host Joe Pesci held up the photo, taped back together. On Madonna's next appearance on SNL, after singing "Bad Girl", she held up a photo of Joey Buttafuoco and, saying "fight the real enemy," tore it up.
This was not even O'Connor's first go-around with Saturday Night Live; earlier she had refused to appear on a show hosted by "misogynistic" comedian Andrew Dice Clay. Rather, she had agreed to appear on a later episode hosted by Kyle MacLachlan.
On September 22, 1997, O'Connor was interviewed in Vita, an Italian weekly newspaper. In the interview, she asked the Pope to forgive her. She claimed that the tearing of the photo was "a ridiculous act, the gesture of a girl rebel." She claimed she did it "because I was in rebellion against the faith, but I was still within the faith." She went on to quote Saint Augustine, by saying, "Anger is the first step towards courage." However, O'Connor remains unrepentant about the incident. In a 2002 interview with Salon.com, when asked if she would change anything about the October 3, 1992 SNL appearance, she replied "Hell, no".
Despite popular rumours, neither Sinéad O'Connor nor Saturday Night Live were ever fined $2.5 million for the stunt. Saturday Night Live is reluctant to have her as a guest again, however.
