Sinead O'Connor Rips It Up Simulating Sinead On 3 October 1992, the Irish rock singer Sinead O'Connor was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. For her first song, Sinead performed the title track from her most recent album, Am I Not Your Girl? with a full backing band. For her second, she went with "War," a song by Bob Marley that had once been banned for its apparent advocacy of violence. In a very risky move, musically speaking, Sinead performed the song a capella. Dressed all in white, surrounded by candles and (as usual) shaven-headed, she was a riveting sight. With NBC-TV's cameras focused in-tight on her, Sinead ended her "War" by crying for another one to begin. "Fight the real enemy!" she called, and, out of nowhere, produced a copy of a photograph of Pope John Paul II, which she ripped into pieces. There was stunned silence, and then the station went to a commercial. The NBC switchboard was immediately inundated by complaints (supposedly 4,484 in all) called in by outraged viewers.

Denunciations of Sinead's "blasphemy" poured forth from all kinds of religious figures and celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, who was quoted as saying he wanted to "punch" the singer "right in the mouth." NBC was supposedly fined $2.5 million dollars by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which had never before fined the network for content aired on Saturday Night Live. In the meantime, Sinead herself said nothing about what she'd done or why she'd done it. (Simply changing one of Marley's lines so that it referred to "sexual abuse" instead of "racial injustice," as Sinead had done in mid-song, hadn't been sufficient explanation and so the press was filled with lurid denunciations of her.) When she returned to the United States on 16 October 1992 to perform at a birthday concert for Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sinead was greeted by a weird mixture of cheers and boos. Despite the severely divided response to her presence, she once again sang an a cappella version of "War." Once she was done, she staggered offstage, where she was comforted by Kris Kristofferson.

Shortly thereafter, Sinead O'Connor permanently retired from the "pop" entertainment industry. Eventually, Sinead O'Connor made her peace with the Pope. On 22 September 1997, in an interview with the Italian weekly newspaper Vita, she asked the Holy Father to forgive her. She claimed that her attack on the photo had been "a ridiculous act, the gesture of a girl rebel," which she did "because I was in rebellion against the faith, but I was still within the faith." Quoting St. Augustine, she went on to add, "Anger is the first step towards courage." Another courageous step Sinead took in the late 1990s was to join the congregation of the controversial Irish Bishop Michael Cox, who eventually ordained Sinead as a priest. Lacking a sense of humor, the Vatican has refused to recognize Sinead's membership in the priesthood, which the Pope considers "bizarre." This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but the Pope is right: Sinead's story is a bizarre one. And NBC?

In the informative and relatively even-handed biography of the singer that airs on VH1 as part of the cable TV station's on-going "Behind the Music" series, it's said that, "even to this day," NBC refuses to allow the photo-ripping scene to be re-broadcast by anyone. VH1 itself had to settle with a blurry shot of Sinead in mid-rip that was published by one of New York's tabloid newspapers. You can catch a glimpse, but you can't actually see what Sinead did that night in 1992: you can only hear about it, thanks to the Vatican's clout and NBC's cowardice. This would seem a good point to talk about censorship. But it isn't -- not yet. The Comedy Channel shows back episodes of Saturday Night Live several times a day. In early August 2001, I happened to see the episode in which Sinead O'Connor is the musical guest. Everything goes as it should -- dressed all in white, Sinead performs "War" a capella as her second number -- until the end of the song.

There is no war cry, no identification of "the real enemy." Sinead doesn't hold up a picture of the Pope, but a picture of a cute little black boy, instead. And then the song is over, and Sinead stands, smiling, holding the picture behind her back, as the crowd applauds and cheers. It took a while for it to sink in that NBC hadn't simply blacked out or removed the photo-ripping scene. Instead, NBC had gone beyond mere censorship and either had replaced the Pope-ripping sequence with another one (the song as it was performed in rehearsal?) or had digitally altered the broadcast so that there was apparently nothing in "the original" to black out or remove in the first place. Why would anyone want to block or cut out Sinead's impassioned plea for the children? In times of war, don't we tend to forget about the children, especially the cute little black ones? Nice bullshit, but it wasn't Sinead's. Like the authors of textbooks on Soviet history, who had to keep changing the past so that it would conform with Stalin's latest purges, NBC has created its own Sinead O'Connor and is now passing her off as the original.

(A video of Sinead singing "War" and ripping up a picture of the Pope used to be and is no longer available on You Tube .) To Contact NOT BORED! Remembering why Sinead O'Connor tore up the pope's picture on national TV | Public Radio International Remembering why Sinead O'Connor tore up the pope's picture on national TV sinead_oconnor_pope.png Irish singer Sinead O'Connor sings at a concert in aid of the Chernobyl Children's Project in The Tivoli Theatre on March 6, 2003 in Dublin, Ireland. Sinead O'Connor performed an a cappella cover of Bob Marley's "War" on Saturday Night Live on October 3, 1992, rewriting a few of the lyrics to address child abuse, in addition to the song's initial topics of racism and the horrors of war.

As she finished the song, she produced and tore to shreds a photograph of Pope John Paul II, shouting, "Fight the real enemy!" In his opening monologue the following week while hosting SNL, actor Joe Pesci insisted that had he been in charge of the show, he would have given O'Connor "such a smack." This echoed an event from the previous year when O'Connor insisted that the National Anthem not be played before her concert at a venue in New Jersey. Frank Sinatra, while performing at that same venue the next night, threatened to "kick her ass." And Jonathan King, a millionaire British television and record producer, and the executive producer of the BPI Awards, stated in an interview with Billboard that she needed to be spanked for her display of bad manners. Ten years later, King would be convicted of several counts of sexual assault on 14- and 15-year-old boys and sentenced to seven years in prison . By then O'Connor had already earned a reputation as something of a loose cannon and a crazy woman after a series of radical public acts. And in the popular cultural memory of the United States, O'Connor remains a crazy woman.

Her act of speaking out against the Catholic Church with that bold action remains for many a hysterical act. What she did was intentionally incendiary. Blowback from destroying a picture of the pope on live national television is to be expected and, one would imagine, desired. But at the time, the Saturday Night Live incident was not well understood. At the time, the public was largely unaware of the sex abuse crisis hiding within the church. Today the world sees with increasing clarity just how deep the Catholic Church child abuse epidemic runs. It has been well-documented that priests who raped young boys were in many cases simply moved from parish to parish, endangering greater numbers of children. Thousands of civil lawsuits have been brought against the church over five decades' worth of abuse cases around the world, including O'Connor's native Ireland , resulting in settlements totaling billions of dollars . O'Connor illuminated these issues with an angry and haunting act on live national television 22 years ago and was issued a humor-coated, SNL-endorsed threat of physical violence in response. She was dismissed as deserving of a "smack" — more of a nuisance than a threat.

She is herself a Catholic, and claims to be an ordained priest in a breakaway version of the church. She has in recent years struggled with mental illness. O'Connor became a lightning rod for an electrical storm of misogyny early in her career (she has also publicly discussed pressure from her first record label to abort a pregnancy), and admissions of struggle with emotional instability have made her an easily dismissed character. And yet the destruction of the image of Pope John Paul II, the sparse and passionate performance of "War," the imperative to "Fight the real enemy" collectively defined a moment of expression that was brave, intentional and visionary — not insane. It was a public moment that should remind us that art remains a vital force, able to incite and to elucidate. It was a moment that should remind us that there are threads running through the fabric of culture which run counter to the pattern. Early this year, pop culture maven Tavi Gevinson gave an interview with the Chicago Public Radio-produced Nerdette Podcast , speaking about what she sees as a merging of mainstream pop culture and underground sensibilities. "The counterculture comes out of people being dissatisfied with mainstream culture, but what if instead we can make mainstream culture more inclusive. . .

Even looking at someone like [pop singer] Lorde — it makes me happy that she is so popular because something has happened in these past few years [as a result of the Internet] . . . I don't want there to be a counterculture, I want mainstream culture to be great and varied." A little over a week before Gevinson made that statement, the Internet was ablaze with a viral transcript of the radical Grammy Awards acceptance speech that Lorde had reportedly delivered and which was allegedly censored by the broadcasters. In this account, in lieu of a traditional acceptance speech Lorde had launched into a lecture on the evils of a transnational global capitalist oligarchy, citing Naomi Klein and Chris Hedges. But it was a hoax. There was no censored, radical action from Lorde at the Grammys. So it was the fantasy of Lorde's revolutionary act that went viral. In 1989, however, Sinead O'Connor really did appear on the Grammys to sing the Alex Haley-inspired "Mandinka" with the hip-hop pioneer Public Enemy's crosshairs logo drawn on the side of her shaved head .

And in 1991, while she was at the top of the charts, selling millions of records, she really did boycott the Grammys altogether, declining to accept her award for Best Alternative Music Performance on the grounds that the ceremony celebrated "mostly material gain" and did not address deeper social issues. And in October 1992, she really did destroy an image of the pope on national television. O'Connor exemplified the kind of merging of mainstream culture and "underground" or radical ideas that Gevinson is talking about. As a Catholic, she tore apart the picture of Pope John Paul. She appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show the day before the Grammys to talk about her boycott. She was engaged in these institutions even as she battled against them. After a long hiatus from the public eye, O'Connor reemerged in 2012 with a new album and last year she published an open letter to 21-year-old pop star Miley Cyrus , which said in part, "Nothing but harm will come in the long run from allowing yourself to be exploited." Releasing another album this year, she has continued to criticize the Catholic Church , lambasting limited reform efforts by Pope Francis.

O'Connor cannot obtain a position of power within the church, owing to the fact that she is a woman. But neither can she, it seems, obtain any sort of substantial position in the countercultural memory either. Reruns of that October 1992 episode of SNL do not air O'Connor's performance — that performance has been replaced by a rehearsal take wherein she merely holds up a photograph of a child at the end of the song. The original performance, however, can be seen on YouTube . Perhaps it is indeed the case, as Gevinson said, that "something has happened in these past few years." While you are here... The work we do has never been more important — whether it’s because of “news” that might not be news at all or healing the deep divides in our country. Now more than ever, we need conversation, perspective and diverse voices. Will you support PRI in our efforts to create a more informed empathetic world? Inside Sinead O'Connor's tumultuous life You are using an older browser version. Please use a supported version for the best MSN experience.

Inside Sinead O'Connor's tumultuous life Wonderwall 2016-05-16 Mark Gray Singer Sinead O'Connor found safe in Chicago area: police Reuters Storyful 0:58 UP NEXT For about 24 hours on May 15 and 16, Sinead O'Connor was missing. Almost immediately reports surfaced that she was suicidal. While in most cases, that is an obvious rush to judgment, but in Sinead's case, it's unfortunately not out of the realm of possibility. Since breaking onto the scene in 1990 with her smash "Nothing Compares 2 U," Sinead's life has been shocking and tragic. Really, the term "roller coaster" doesn't sum up her life, as it's been hit with mostly low moments and attempted suicides. Take a look at an overview of her tumultuous life below... 1990: Sinead is given four Grammy nominations and she even wins one for best alternative performance. She boycotts the show.

When asked why, she maintained that her reasoning stemmed from the award show's "extreme commercialization." © /WENN Inside Sinead O'Connor's tumultuous life October 1992: Without a doubt, her most infamous moment. While performing on "Saturday Night Live," Sinead tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II without telling producers after singing Bob Marley's "War." The reason: she was was angry about child abuse scandals within the Catholic Church. This is long before the public was aware of the Catholic Church's role in covering up child abuse, and the incident ignited a firestorm. 2007: During an interview with Oprah, Sinead claims that she tried to kill herself on her 33rd birthday in 1999. Four years later, she was diagnosed as bipolar. Dec. 8, 2011: The singer gets married to Barry Herridge during a quickie ceremony in Las Vegas. After the ceremony, Sinead told The Sun she went on a hunt for marijuana . "We ended up in a cab in some place that was quite dangerous. I wasn't scared - but he's a drugs counselor.

What was I thinking?" From there, things continued to go downhill. "I was handed a load of crack," Sinead was quoted as saying. "Barry was very frightened - that kind of messed everything up a bit, really." The marriage lasted 18 days. January 2012: Sinead attempts suicide in Los Angeles. "I took an overdose," she said a few days after not one, but two suicide attempts. "God obviously wants me around, though I can't think why." Shortly after, she was treated for depression. April 2012: She cancels a tour due to her bipolar disorder. "As you all know I had a very serious breakdown between December and March and I had been advised by my doctor not to go on tour but didn't want to 'fail' or let anyone down as the tour was already booked to coincide with album release," she said. "So very stupidly I ignored his advice to my great detriment, attempting to be stronger than I actually am." Fall 2013: Sinead threatens to sue Miley Cyrus .

This all started with Sinead published an "open letter" chastising Miley for her hyper-sexual persona and warning her not to "prostitute" herself. Miley replied by comparing the Irish singer to actress Amanda Bynes, who was seeking psychiatric treatment at the time. January 2014: Sinead is hospitalised with a mystery illness . It turned out to be kidney stones. After undergoing tests, she blamed her ill health on "a physical reaction to an emotional trauma." Sinead O'Connor - Songwriter, Singer - Biography.com Sinead O'Connor With her signature shaved head, Sinead O'Connor emerged in the '90s with a powerful voice and a big hit, 'Nothing Compares 2 U,' along with a fair share of controversy. IN THESE GROUPS Famous People Named Sinead Synopsis Born on December 8, 1966, in Dublin, Ireland, Sinead O'Connor started her music career when she was discovered by a local drummer. With fame came controversy: Among other incidents, O'Connor tore up a picture of the pope during an appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1992 and has more recently been known for using social media to express her personal struggles.

Early Life Born December 8, 1966, in Dublin, Ireland, Sinead O'Connor had a difficult childhood (her parents divorced early on and her mother was frequently abusive), and she was sent to reform school after being caught shoplifting. Her music career began when she was "discovered" by the drummer of the popular Irish band In Tua Nua and co-wrote their hit song "Take My Hand." Before finishing school, O'Connor ran away to Dublin, where she sang and played guitar on the street and in pubs and worked for a singing telegram service. Career Breakthrough While performing with a Dublin band called Ton Ton Macoute, O'Connor caught the attention of the two owner-managers of a small London record label called Ensign Records. Ensign released her debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, late in 1987. Critics lauded O'Connor's powerful and expressive voice and noted the complexity of her songs, even while acknowledging their decidedly uncommercial nature. Though it had no major hit singles, the album eventually sold over 500,000 copies and went platinum.

With the 1990 release of O'Connor's second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, the bald-headed singer-songwriter became an international star. Driven by the phenomenal success of the smash hit single "Nothing Compares 2 U" (a once-obscure song written by Prince and first recorded by a band called the Family), the album shot to the top of the Billboard charts and nabbed O'Connor four Grammy Award nominations including Best Album, Best Song, Best Female Vocalist, and Best Alternative Album. The video for "Nothing Compares 2 U" won the MTV Award for Video of the Year, and O'Connor was named Artist of the Year in 1991 by Rolling Stone. Controversy Her next two albums, Am I Not Your Girl? (1992) and Universal Mother (1994), made far less of an impact either critically or commercially. Soon, however, O'Connor became famous for her controversial public outbursts, beginning in 1989 when she announced her support for the radical Irish Republican Army (IRA); she retracted the statement one year later.

She again made headlines in 1990 when she refused to appear onstage in New Jersey if "The Star-Spangled Banner" were played before the concert. In 1991, O'Connor boycotted the Grammy ceremony and refused her award for Best Alternative Album, maintaining that her absence was a protest against the extreme commercialism of the Grammy Awards. Even more publicity surrounded a 1992 performance by O'Connor on Saturday Night Live, during which she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II , denouncing the Catholic Church as "the real enemy." Despite her contempt for the clerical hierarchy and to bring attention toward allegations of child abuse within the institution, O'Connor maintained she was a Catholic and devoutly spiritual. "It's not the man, obviously -- it's the office and the symbol of the organization that he represents. I consider them to be responsible for the destruction of entire races of people and the subsequent existence of domestic and child abuse in every country they went into," the singer stated in a 1992 interview with Time magazine.

Changes and Challenges Aside from the release of her 1997 single, Gospel Oak, O'Connor's recording career faltered in the late 1990s, eclipsed by the turmoil in the singer's private life. In 1995, an extended custody battle began between O'Connor and her ex-lover, Irish journalist John Waters, over their infant daughter, Roisin. Plagued by Waters' bitter accusations that she was an unfit mother, O'Connor attempted suicide in March 1999. While recovering, O'Connor agreed to let Roisin live with Waters in Dublin. A few days later, however, she snatched the girl from Waters' home and flew with her back to London. (In addition to Roisin, O'Connor has a son, Jake, with her first husband John Reynolds.) Less than a month later, O'Connor made headlines in an altogether different way-in April 1999, she was ordained as the first-ever priestess of the Latin Tridentine Church, a dissident Catholic group led by a self-styled Roman Catholic bishop from Ireland named Michael Cox.

In April 2000, Mother Bernadette Marie (O'Connor's clerical name) was elevated to Archdeacon for her work with Dublin's homeless. In 2000, O'Connor signed with Atlantic Records. Her first album in six years, Faith & Courage, was released later that year. Her personal life made headlines the following year. After a whirlwind romance, O'Connor married the British journalist Nick Sommerlad in a secret ceremony in the summer of 2001. But this union did not last. The pair soon split up. She went on to release an album of traditional Irish music, Sean-Nós Nua, in 2002. O'Connor announced that she was retiring from music in 2003. She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty (2003) was supposed to be her last album. According to People magazine, O'Connor posted this message on her website: "I am a very shy person, believe it or not.

So I ask with love, that I be left in peace and privacy by people who love my records too." She welcomed a third child, a son named Shane, with Irish trad musician Donal Lunny around this time. In Recent Years O'Connor did not retire from the music scene for long. In 2005, she released the reggae-influenced Throw Down Your Arms. O'Connor continued to produce new music with 2007's Theology and add to her family. She gave birth to her fourth child, Yeshua Bonadio, that same year. Yeshua's father is Frank Bonadio. In 2010, O'Connor once again tried for wedded bliss. She married friend and frequent collaborator Steve Cooney that year, but the union didn't last. The pair called it quits the following spring. Undeterred from finding her happily ever after, O'Connor married for the fourth time in December 2011. She and Barry Herridge tied the knot in Las Vegas, but she announced that the marriage was over after only 18 days.

Despite her rocky personal life, O'Connor earned strong reviews for her 2012 effort How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?. Her next record, I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss (2014), also received a warm reception. In late 2015, O'Connor experienced some type of mental health crisis. She wrote two notes indicating that she was suicidal on her Facebook page before her family requested that the page be taken down. O'Connor was reportedly hospitalized after her first Facebook post. In May 2016 O'Connor went missing for a day while biking in Chicago, only to be found by authorities soon after. She then proceeded to write about her personal struggles again on Facebook, this time a scathing attack on her family, blaming them for her mental health crisis. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

Citation Information Cameraman to give behind-the-scenes glimpse of 'Saturday Night Live' - Orlando Sentinel Cameraman to give behind-the-scenes glimpse of 'Saturday Night Live' Jan Kasoff, who was a cameraman on the TV show "Saturday Night Live." Courtesy of Jan Kasoff Jan Kasoff, who was a cameraman on the TV show "Saturday Night Live." Jan Kasoff, who was a cameraman on the TV show "Saturday Night Live." (Courtesy of Jan Kasoff) Christine ColeCorrespondent Privacy Policy MOUNT DORA — Cameraman Jan Kasoff has seen plenty since his start at NBC in 1965. He has filmed, taped or shot live news, sports — even soap operas — but most people ask him about his 23 years as a studio cameraman at "Saturday Night Live." When he appears at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the W.T.

Bland Public Library to present "Behind the Scenes at 'Saturday Night Live' and NBC," he will bring memorabilia from both — scripts, photographs, even camera-shot sheets usually mounted on each camera so the cameraman is ready when the director calls, "Camera 3 — shot two." Some of the best stuff, and Kasoff will show it from a reel given to him at NBS's 75th birthday anniversary, includes memorable outtakes. One that caused a furor involved Irish singer Sinead O'Connor. In 1992, during dress rehearsal, O'Connor tore up a photograph of a refugee child as a protest while performing a version of Bob Marley's song "War." "But when we went live, she takes out a picture of the Pope, rips it up and throws it at the camera," Kasoff said. "But we were live. It gave us agita, but what could we do?" Kasoff, an New York University grad whose program is sponsored by the Mount Dora Library Association, said he had wanted to be a cameraman since his dad took him to see "Gone with the Wind." "I saw the tornado and I wanted to know how they did that," he said.

"At the Academy Awards, I was never interested in the stars. My heroes were the cinematographers." Kasoff, who has won eight Emmys — six for "Saturday Night Live" and two for Olympic coverage — said he always brings along one of the statuettes. "I found out that people like to see one up close," he said. Kasoff loved doing the Olympics live, remembering getting up at 2 a.m. in Australia to cover an event, recording the machinations that used to make up the political conventions and being present for each day's "NBC Nightly News." "I'm a news junkie," he said. "But when we covered things live, those were the days." Kasoff's colleague Leonard Zaslowsky, who was a news writer and a sportswriter at NBC, will present "Diamond Reflections: Baseball Between the Wars" at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The library is at 1995 N. Donnelly St. For more information, call 352-735-2626.

Sinead O'Connor | Rolling Stone artists > S > Sinead O'Connor > Bio Sinead O'Connor Bio With her emotional delivery and confessional songs, Sinéad O'Connor has sold millions of albums. Brazenly outspoken, she was unlike any woman in pop music before her; sporting a shaven head and formless clothing, Sinead O'Connor seemed to symbolically repudiate the stereotypical female pop star's image. An unwed mother who's spiritually inclined but anticlerical, she has startled —and at times baffled —the media and fans with her provocative statements and gestures. The third of four children of an engineer father and a dressmaker mother, O'Connor spent a difficult childhood in conservative Dublin; she later claimed abuse by her mother (killed in a 1985 car wreck), to whom she was greatly, if ambivalently, devoted. Torn by her parents' separation when she was eight, O'Connor was expelled from Catholic schools, arrested for shoplifting, and sent to reform and boarding schools.

At 15, singing Barbra Streisand's "Evergreen" at a wedding, she was discovered by Paul Byrne, the drummer for In Tua Nua, a band affiliated with U2. She cowrote In Tua Nua's first single, "Take My Hand," and began singing Dylan covers in coffeehouses. Fleeing boarding school at 16, she then studied voice and piano at Dublin's College of Music. She supported herself by waitressing and delivering "kiss-o-grams" in a French maid costume. Moving to London in the early '80s at the behest of Ensign Records, O'Connor collaborated with U2 guitarist the Edge on a film soundtrack (The Captive, 1986) while preparing her debut album. The first tapes of that project were scrapped because O'Connor despised the Celtic-derived production. She self-produced The Lion and the Cobra (its title taken from Psalm 91), which ranged from orchestral rock to folk to dance pop. The album sold well (#36, 1988), but with O'Connor's celebrity came controversy.

By then the mother of a son by her drummer, John Reynolds, O'Connor shocked the press by attacking U2 (calling the band's music "bombastic") and defending the IRA. She married Reynolds in 1988, but tumult continued with her firing of manager Fachtna O'Ceallaigh. The #1-selling I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got and its Prince-written single, "Nothing Compares 2 U" (#1, 1990), raised O'Connor's profile even higher. (In 1991 she would allege that Prince had physically threatened her.) Critics applauded her emotionally charged music (inspired by her separation from Reynolds), but British tabloids attacked her romance with black singer Hugh Harris and savaged her politics. Frank Sinatra assailed her refusal, at a 1990 New Jersey concert, to perform if the hall played "The Star-Spangled Banner," and that same year O'Connor canceled a Saturday Night Live appearance in protest against what she perceived as host Andrew "Dice" Clay's misogyny. Nominated for four Grammy Awards, she withdrew from the competition and aligned herself in interviews with rap rebels N.W.A and Ice-T.

That year, she also contributed to Red Hot + Blue, a Cole Porter tribute album to benefit AIDS charities. (Her previous outside projects had included the B side of a single by Colourfield and vocals for 1988's Stay Awake, an album of Disney film music.) O'Connor's next studio outing, Am I Not Your Girl?, was a surprise; it was a collection of torch songs associated with such singers as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Controversy continued throughout 1992, though: She tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II in an appearance on Saturday Night Live, and two weeks later she was booed at a Bob Dylan tribute at Madison Square Garden. Also in 1992 the English rock paper Melody Maker reported O'Connor's imminent retirement from music; her publicist clarified that the singer was merely tired of "promoting" her career, but would in fact return to Dublin to study opera. In 1993 O'Connor, who had appeared in a 1989 Irish film, Hush-a-Bye Baby, played Ophelia in Hamlet at Dublin's Project Arts Centre.

She also toured with the WOMAD festival, organized by Peter Gabriel, with whom she was briefly romantically linked. She returned to the studio in 1994 and produced Universal Mother (#36, 1994), which mixed spoken-word political pronouncements with soft ballads and hip-hop–influenced compositions. The understated Gospel Oak EP (#128) followed in 1997, the same year as her performance as the Virgin Mary in the Neil Jordan film The Butcher Boy. O'Connor then signed to Atlantic Records, in 2000 releasing Faith and Courage, a critically acclaimed mixture of traditional Celtic sounds with modern beats recorded with producers Brian Eno, Wyclef Jean, and Dave Stewart. O'Connor's personal life continued to interest the tabloids: A 1999 custody battle for her young daughter ended when she agreed to joint custody with the father, Dublin journalist John Waters. Upon the release of Faith and Courage, the singer declared to various interviewers she was a lesbian, though subsequent comments were contradictory, at times declaring her love for men while claiming to be celibate.

And while praising both Buddhism and the Rastafarian religions, O'Connor was ordained as a priest by a Roman Catholic splinter group called the Latin Tridentine Church, taking the clerical name Mother Bernadette Maria. This biography originally appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001). Sinead O'Connor Slams AMAs in Blog Rant, Claims Pope Francis Was Scheduled to Appear Sinead O'Connor Slams AMAs in Blog Rant, Claims Pope Francis Was Scheduled to Appear Sinead O'Connor Slams AMAs in Blog Rant, Claims Pope Francis Was Scheduled to Appear More Sinead O'Connor can throw some serious shade. The polarizing singer, 47, took to her personal blog on Friday, Oct. 10, to slam the American Music Awards in a rant about the awards show. Entitled "The AMA's and the Most Appropriately Named Company on Earth," the post criticized Dick Clark Productions and detailed a supposed plan for O'Connor to perform at the show. Said plan was derailed however, as the "Take Me to Church" performer explained that she was scheduled to be joined by a surprising guest: Pope Francis.

PHOTOS: Sinead's Feuds Pinpointing the "insane stupidity of the story," O'Connor referenced her controversial past and how it influenced her standing with the AMAs. "6 weeks ago the appropriately named Dick Clarke Productions contacted my record company saying they wanted me to perform at the AMAs. They would naturally need to run this by the network [on account of I'm the Pope's-photo-ripper] and would be back to us shortly-ish," she wrote, nodding to the infamous 1992 incident, in which she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II while performing on Saturday Night Live. "Their hope was I would perform Nothing Compares [2 U] segueing into Take Me To Church. We heard f--k all for like three weeks and began asking, so we could know how to go about scheduling my work and consequent child-care arrangements around the event, in the unlikely case that it were to happen.

I didn't expect it to happen." O'Connor then goes on to explain that the brainstorming for the AMAs continued with Dick Clark Productions, as her manager was told that the ABC network and the show's production company "were finding a contemporary artist with whom I might duet the songs and didn't want to say whom, apart from proffering that it wasn't to be Miley." PHOTOS: Sinead's Tattoos The pairing never came to fruition, however, as O'Connor and her team were informed that the powers that be behind the AMAs had "passed," and the star she was supposed to be appearing with was far from Cyrus.

"Without (even up until today) informing their CEO, three Jewish men (May I state my deep and sincere and absolute adoration firstly for all things Judaic, especially The Nevi’m and Bob Dylan), employed by Dick Clark Productions, had a meeting or series of meetings (in which he swore to me tonight they did not smoke crack, cocaine, weed, nor e-cigarettes) wherein it was decided that it would be 'A great hook' to ask Pope Francis to appear with me." PHOTOS: Celebrity Meltdowns and Scandals O'Connor said the idea was for the Pope to introduce O'Connor as a way to resolve her longstanding tension with the Catholic community, as the AMAs saw the possible interaction as "important," "relevant," and "meaningful." "It was decided that these three stooges would (in all seriousness) attempt to contact the Pope via his Twitter account alone, and via no other means," O'Connor continued. "Since naturally their idea was not only disrespectful to the pope and to millions of catholics (The idea he ought consider lowering his feet into the disgusting world of show business and celebrity at all!

Never mind with Sinead O'Connor) they didn't get a response and consequently I'm now not doing the show." PHOTOS: Talk Show Controversies and Feuds: The Biggest Ever "I never heard anything so warped and disrespectful to both the Pope and myself, as well as millions of catholics (As well as my fans, with whom I have some f--king street cred, thanks, and integrity) in my life," O'Connor added. Representatives for Dick Clark Productions and the AMAs, which are scheduled to air on Sunday, Nov. 23, have yet to comment on O'Connor's words. Reblog Sinead O’Connor pens open letter to Miley Cyrus: ‘Don’t let the music business make a prostitute of you’ – EW.com Pinterest Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor is no stranger to controversy (she famously tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II while saying, “Fight the real enemy!” on Saturday Night Live in 1992), but the 46-year-old musician finds nothing amusing about Miley Cyrus’ headline-grabbing antics — or her recent willingness to strip off her clothes.

O’Connor has penned an open letter to the artist formerly known as Hannah Montana in response to Cyrus’ recent Rolling Stone cover story, in which she explained that O’Connor’s iconic music video for “Nothing Compares 2 U” helped inspire her own “Wrecking Ball” clip — you know, the one that features Cyrus licking a sledgehammer and swinging naked on a wrecking ball. “Nothing but harm will come in the long run, from allowing yourself to be exploited,” O’Connor warns, “and it is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your sexual appeal than your obvious talent.” “The music business doesn’t give a sh– about you, or any of us,” she continues. “They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think it’s what YOU wanted… None of the men oggling you give a sh– about you either, do not be fooled.” O’Connor’s words are harsh, but she weaves in moments of sincere admiration for Cyrus’ musical ability throughout the piece.

“You have enough talent that you don’t need to let the music business make a prostitute of you,” O’Connor argues. “Your records are good enough for you not to need any shedding of Hannah Montana. She’s waaaaaaay gone by now. Not because you got naked but because you make great records.” Read the full letter below: Dear Miley, I wasn’t going to write this letter, but today i’ve been dodging phone calls from various newspapers who wished me to remark upon your having said in Rolling Stone your “Wrecking Ball” video was designed to be similar to the one for “Nothing Compares” … So this is what I need to say … And it is said in the spirit of motherliness and with love. I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way “cool” to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos. It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether it’s the music business or yourself doing the pimping.

Nothing but harm will come in the long run, from allowing yourself to be exploited, and it is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your sexual appeal than your obvious talent. I am happy to hear I am somewhat of a role model for you and I hope that because of that you will pay close attention to what I am telling you. The music business doesn’t give a sh– about you, or any of us. They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think its what YOU wanted.. and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prostituted, “they” will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone. None of the men oggling you give a sh– about you either, do not be fooled. Many’s the woman mistook lust for love. If they want you sexually that doesn’t mean they give a f— about you. All the more true when you unwittingly give the impression you don’t give much of a f— about yourself.

And when you employ people who give the impression they don’t give much of a f— about you either. No one who cares about you could support your being pimped.. and that includes you yourself. Yes, I’m suggesting you don’t care for yourself. That has to change. You ought be protected as a precious young lady by anyone in your employ and anyone around you, including you. This is a dangerous world. We don’t encourage our daughters to walk around naked in it because it makes them prey for animals and less than animals, a distressing majority of whom work in the music industry and its associated media. You are worth more than your body or your sexual appeal. The world of showbiz doesn’t see things that way, they like things to be seen the other way, whether they are magazines who want you on their cover, or whatever.. Don’t be under any illusions.. ALL of them want you because they’re making money off your youth and your beauty.. which they could not do except for the fact your youth makes you blind to the evils of show business. If you have an innocent heart you can’t recognise those who do not.

I repeat, you have enough talent that you don’t need to let the music business make a prostitute of you. You shouldn’t let them make a fool of you either. Don’t think for a moment that any of them give a flying f— about you. They’re there for the money.. we’re there for the music. It has always been that way and it will always be that way. The sooner a young lady gets to know that, the sooner she can be REALLY in control. You also said in Rolling Stone that your look is based on mine. The look I chose, I chose on purpose at a time when my record company were encouraging me to do what you have done. I felt I would rather be judged on my talent and not my looks. I am happy that I made that choice, not least because I do not find myself on the proverbial rag heap now that I am almost 47 yrs of age.. which unfortunately many female artists who have based their image around their sexuality, end up on when they reach middle age. Real empowerment of yourself as a woman would be to in future refuse to exploit your body or your sexuality in order for men to make money from you. I needn’t even ask the question..

I’ve been in the business long enough to know that men are making more money than you are from you getting naked. It’s really not at all cool. And it’s sending dangerous signals to other young women. Please in future say no when you are asked to prostitute yourself. Your body is for you and your boyfriend. It isn’t for every spunk-spewing dirtbag on the net, or every greedy record company executive to buy his mistresses diamonds with. As for the shedding of the Hannah Montana image.. whoever is telling you getting naked is the way to do that does absolutely NOT respect your talent, or you as a young lady. Your records are good enough for you not to need any shedding of Hannah Montana. She’s waaaaaaay gone by now.. Not because you got naked but because you make great records. Whether we like it or not, us females in the industry are role models and as such we have to be extremely careful what messages we send to other women. The message you keep sending is that it’s somehow cool to be prostituted.. it’s so not cool Miley.. it’s dangerous. Women are to be valued for so much more than their sexuality. we aren’t merely objects of desire.

I would be encouraging you to send healthier messages to your peers.. that they and you are worth more than what is currently going on in your career. Kindly fire any motherf—er who hasn’t expressed alarm, because they don’t care about you.

Question: While performing on TV on "Saturday Night Live" in 1992, singer Sinead O'Connor tore up a picture of whom?
Answer: The Pope