News of Irish musician Sinead O’Connor’s death on Wednesday sparks many memories of her unintimatable career, her haunting cover songs and her political activism.
However, O’Connor 1992 appearance on Saturday Night Live created a lightning storm of controversy and instantly became a defining moment of her career.
It’s one still remembered today as one of the genuine shocks of live television, a moment that got plenty of people upset at the time but holds particular resonance with the protest O’Connor was engaging in.
As has been customary with SNL since the show’s start, O’Connor was featured on an October 1992 episode and delivered a stunning, slightly altered a cappella cover of Bob Marley’s song “War.”
At the end of the song, she pulled out a photo of Pope John Paul II as she sang about good prevailing over evil and ripped it up, saying “Fight the real enemy” as her performance faded out.
MORE: The 5 best Sinead O’Connor songs from the singer’s incredible career
It was her way of protesting child abuse that had been going on within the Catholic Church, a controversy that later became a major moment of reckoning within the religious body as more became reported on the topic.
You can watch the full performance below.
The performance courted plenty of outcry from those within the Catholic Church, including noted dissent at the time from fellow musician Madonna.
However, O’Connor maintained within her 2021 autobiography Rememberings that she never had any second thoughts about the cause she was fighting for, one that took on so much more meaning in the years after that performance.
“Everyone wants a pop star, see?” she wrote (via The Guardian). “But I am a protest singer. I just had stuff to get off my chest. I had no desire for fame.”
