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David Bowie. Prince. Patti Smith. Of all the iconic artists that have served as musical guests throughout ‘Saturday Night Live’s’ 50-year tenure, none have been quite as influential as Sinéad O’Connor during her 1992 stint on the beloved sketch comedy series.

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Even with hits like “Nothing Compares 2 U,” O’Connor was arguably just as famed for her advocacy as she was for her music, regularly speaking up about issues including racism, women’s rights, child abuse, and abuses stemming from the Catholic Churches. Alongside boycotting the Grammy Awards for “respect[ing] mostly material gain,” O’Connor famously refused to let “The Star Spangled Banner” play before a New Jersey concert.

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Weeks after the release of her third studio album, 'Am I Not Your Girl?' In September 1992, O’Connor appeared as a musical guest on 'SNL''. The artist performed her single, "Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home,” before entering into an a capella rendition of Bob Marley & The Wailers’ “War,” where she sang the phrase “child abuse” in the place of some of the song’s original words.

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"We know we will win, we have confidence in the victory of good over evil," she sang before pulling out a photo of  Pope John Paul II that had belonged to her late mother and ripping it to shreds. “Fight the real enemy!” She exclaimed, the pieces of the photo falling to the floor.

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Evoking silence from ‘SNL’s’ typically lively studio audience — one likely attributed to Lorne Michaels choosing not to light the show’s applause sign following her performance — the show’s producers were seemingly just as shocked as viewers. While they had known that O’Connor planned on ripping a photo after “War,” she had rehearsed with a photo of a refugee child rather than an image of the Pope.

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“The air went out the studio,” Michaels recalled of the moments after O’Connor’s controversial performance.

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In the days following her performance, NBC said they had received roughly 4,400 phone calls about O’Connor’s act, the vast majority criticizing her protest. As such, the network banned the Irish artist from appearing on the show ever again.

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But it wasn’t just fans who were left fuming. Joe Pesci condemned O’Connor during his ‘SNL’ monologue the following week. “If it was my show, I would have gave her such a smack,” he told the audience, holding the pasted-together photo. Beyond Pesci, artists like Madonna and organizations like the Anti-Defamation League — who incorrectly flagged her Rasta emblem as Jewish — spoke out against the artist’s act.

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Shortly after her performance, O’Connor sent an open letter to several publications, detailing the experiences of abuse that compelled her to act. “The cause of my abuse is the history of my people, whose identity and culture were taken away from them by the British with full permission from The ‘Holy’ Roman Empire. Which they gave for money and in the name of Jesus Christ,” she explained. “The story of my people is the story of the African people, the Jewish people, the Amer-Indian people, the South American people.My story is the story of countless millions of children whose families and nations were torn apart for money in the name of Jesus Christ.”

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A few weeks later, O’Connor took the stage at a Bob Dylan tribute concert in New York City. Despite being introduced as an “artist whose name has become synonymous with courage and integrity" by country icon Kris Kristofferson, the audience reacted with a mixture of cheers and boos. Their jeers and applause prompted O’Connor to change course, scratching her planned performance of Dylan’s "I Believe in You" in favor of an a capella performance of “War." She ultimately left the stage crying, Kristofferson consoling her.

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Even with this widespread backlash, one that ultimately altered the course of her career, O’Connor had no regrets, writing in her 2021 memoir, 'Rememberings', that her divisive performance helped her break free from the pressures of being a pop star. "A lot of people say or think that tearing up the Pope’s photo derailed my career. That’s not how I feel about it," she explained. "I feel that having a No. 1 record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track."

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"Everyone wants a pop star, see? But I am a protest singer. I just had stuff to get off my chest. I had no desire for fame."