What is among Saturday Night Live’s most controversial moments could have had a happy ending. In an all new interview with Matthew Belloni of Puck News, SNL creator Lorne Michaels said he had planned to bring back Sinéad O’Connor for a performance during the SNL50 live special.
“If [O’Connor] were still alive, I would have asked her to sing that song,” Michaels said in reference to the performance of “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard. O’Connor, of course, passed away in July 2023.
For context, O’Connor’s banishment from SNL stems from her October 3, 1992 appearance. During a rousing performance of the Bob Marley gem “War,” O’Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II, telling audiences worldwide to “fight the real enemy.” The incident caused immediate controversy, and the singer never made another appearance on the iconic show. The incident was all over the news back then, and it caused the already controversial O’Connor to be labeled a true media pariah. Two weeks after the performance, O’Connor was nearly booed off the stage at the Bob Dylan tribute show at Madison Square Garden.
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To makes matters worse, SNL’s coverage assumed a mocking tone almost in the aftermath of the episode. Later in the same season, Madonna tore up a photo of Joey Buttafucco (complete with the singer declaring that infamous philanderer as “the real enemy.”) The most egregious of these protests, however, was Joe Pesci’s appearance on SNL the week following O’Connor’s, during which the Catholic actor said he would’ve like to grab O’Connor “by the eyebrows” and “[give] her such a smack.”
For his part, Michaels has remained generally consistent over the years regarding his “relationship” with O’Connor and how he viewed the historic performance. At various times, he had called O’Connor “selfish” for her actions (via The Daily Beast.) As part of SNL’s “takeover” issue of Spin magazine published in February 1993, Michaels attacked O’Connor for her seemingly deceptive approach to the performance.
“I thought [it] was sort of the wrong place for it, I thought her behavior was inappropriate,” Michaels said. “Because it was difficult to do two comedy sketches after it, and also it was dishonest because she didn’t tell us she was going to do it.”
In the same Spin interview, Michaels recounted being shocked “the way you would be shocked at a houseguest pissing on a flower arrangement in the dining room.”
However, beginning this past January, Michaels began showing signs of his change of heart. In comments made during the documentary Ladies & Gentleman… 50 Years of SNL Music, Michaels revealed a deep well of respect for O’Connor’s actions.
“There was a part of me that just admired the bravery of what she’d done, and also the absolute sincerity of it,” Michaels said.
They do say that time heals all wounds, and given the fact that O’Connor may have been right to critique the Catholic Church, Michaels’ new perspective isn’t entirely out of left field. Elsewhere, Time magazine posthumously named O’Connor as the most influential woman of 1992 for her actions.
With Michaels’ comments as of late, SNL’s official tone toward O’Connor might be shifting outright, and that would lay to rest one of the uglier (albeit delicious) moments in the show’s long, storied history. Still, don’t expect too much more posthumous praise from Michaels given his mostly tight-lipped approach to managing SNL. But there is a continued cultural reawakening around O’Connor, and perhaps her forthcoming biopic will include and position this moment as one of great artistic significance and complicated cultural context.
You can read the rest of Michaels’ interview here; he and Belloni also spoke about Donald Trump, more from the SNL50 celebration, the forthcoming cancellation of Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and “secrets” from SNL‘s many seasons.
Below, relive genuine musical history with O’Connor’s full performance of “War.”
