Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard delivered a powerful rendition of Nothing Compares 2 U during SNL50: The Anniversary Special on Sunday night. The Prince-penned track became a global hit after Sinéad O’Connor recorded it for her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.
While their performance seemed to honor O’Connor, there was no mention of her 1992 Saturday Night Live controversy.
That year, she famously tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II after performing Bob Marley’s War, declaring, “Fight the real enemy,” as a protest against sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. The act led to her ban from SNL and widespread backlash, including mockery on the show and criticism from host Joe Pesci.
O’Connor later addressed the moment in her 2021 memoir, Rememberings:
“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. I feel that having a number-one record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track.”
In an interview with People the same year, she reflected, “I was well aware there would be [backlash]… We joke in Ireland or in Europe that Americans don’t think anything happened until it happened to them.”
O’Connor passed away in 2023 at the age of 56.
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