Sinead O'Connor

Musical Guest:

9/29/90
"Three Babies"
"The Last Day of Our Acquaintance"

10/30/92
"Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home"
"War"

Bio:

Sinead O'Connor's two stints on SNL have become the stuff of television legend. Her first SNL booking was actually for May of 1990. But when she learned that comedian Andrew Dice Clay was hosting, she refused to appear, feeling that he was "misogynistic." Eventually, she was rebooked for the following season.

However, it is her second and final SNL appearance that has become the most notorious and had a long-lasting affect on her career. After performing an a cappella version of the Bob Marley song "War," she tore up a picture of the Pope and said, "fight the real enemy." The audience booed her off the stage and her taunts aimed at them didn't help matters any. Since the event, her career has never been as big as it was at the time.

SNL producers did not know she was going to pull this stunt. At the dress rehearsal, she finished the song by showing a picture of a smiling black child -- in rebroadcasts of the infamous episode, this is what is aired. As a form of apology, host Joe Pesci held up a taped-together picture of the pope in the following week's episode and when Madonna next appeared, she tore up a picture of tabloid star Joey Buttafuoco, shouting, "fight the real enemy."

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