The music It is not only an art, but also a way of expression. Although many artists are overcome by the joy and enjoyment of it, others use it to raise their voice for or against social, political and cultural events that we experience on a daily basis.
For Sinéad O’Connor music was a way for protest and confrontation. To exemplify, the Irish singer was the protagonist of a surprising act that confronted her with the Catholic Church that went around the world.
Who was Sinéad O’Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connorbetter known as Sinéad O’Connor was a irish singer and musicianwhose career took off with his debut album, The Lion and the Cobrain 1987.
However, it was with his second project, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990)that achieved world fame. In it was found Nothing Compares 2 Uhis big hit that has a impressive vocal performance by O’Connor.
With ten studio albums recorded, the artist was a symbol of the 1980s and 1990swith a fierce and impulsive personality and one powerful and unmatched voice. Likewise, she was always involved in controversy due to her controversial actions and opinions.
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Throughout his life, struggled with his mental healthincluding a bipolar disorder and substance abuse and suicide attempts. On July 26, 2023, due to a respiratory infection affected by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthmaO’Connor He died at the age of 56.
Why Sinéad O’Connor tore up the Pope’s photo and what repercussions did it have?
A October 3 but 1992Sinéad O’Connor participated as guest of the program Saturday Night Live. There, after performing a version acapella of Warthe Bob Marley song, showed a photo of Pope John Paul II to the camera and tore it into pieces. “Fight the real enemy!” he exclaimed after finishing the topic.
Also, during the song changed some words to protest against child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The singer had taken the image from the room of her recently deceased mother, with whom she did not have a good relationship.
O’Connor herself confessed that she took it hidden and that no one suspected that she would do that. But before his show, he rehearsed with a photo of a street child killed by police in Brazil. He also remembered that when he did so, the NBC studios were silent, stunned by what had just happened.
The artist, who came on stage with the song Success Has Made a Failure of Our HomeI was going to sing a version acapella of your topic Scarlet Ribbons, which would end with her showing a photo of a hungry child.
“When I went backstage, there was literally not a human being in sight.All the doors had closed. They were all gone. Including my representative who locked himself in his room for three days and disconnected his phone,” he wrote in his memoirs.
The repercussions were immediate. In fact, when he left the studio, a group of people threw eggs at him and NBC received 4,000 complaints from viewers. As if that were not enough, two weeks later was booed during his performance at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden.
Even great figures spoke out about the fact. Madonna said, “I think there’s a better way to present your ideas than to trash an image that means a lot to other people,” while Frank Sinatra called her “a stupid girl”.
That night meant the beginning of the end of O’Connor’s careerwhich was engulfed by criticism and marked by the incident. Not only was it one of the greatest television moments in American history, but it also It was a point of no return for the singer.
Source: Ambito
