An Irish singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the late 1980s and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Prince. In 1992, she controversially tore a photo of Pope John Paul II to pieces on Saturday Night Live to protest sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church and was vilified by the media.
Today MTV is celebrating its 30th birthday. Remember when MTV mattered? You can watch the first 20 minutes of the original August 1, 1981 broadcast.
Love this woman as well. And she was absolutely correct about sexual abuse in the Catholic church. Absolutely correct!
Even as a 13-year-old boy, I couldn’t really understand why the media turned what Sinéad did on SNL in 1992 into a vitriolic personal attack against her character. Her protest was meant to bring an important issue to the forefront of public discourse, but instead she was demonized, boycotted and had her mainstream career destroyed. So it goes.