Thirty years ago this month, Sinéad O'Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on "Saturday Night Live," effectively destroying her mainstream career with a single act of protest against the Catholic Church.
Then 25, the Grammy-winning Irish singer was an unlikely pop star. Known for the raw, emotive power of her voice and her equally fierce resistance to industry pressure — most famously, by shaving her head — O'Connor had risen to international fame with her transcendent cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U" and her vulnerable, tear-streaked performance in its accompanying video.
A sharp critic of racism and misogyny in the music business who refused to play the national anthem before her concerts, O'Connor was already a controversial figure. But the "SNL" incident — in which O'Connor sang Bob Marley's "War" before tearing up the photo to protest, she later said, the Catholic Church's enablement of child abuse — turned her into a full-blown pariah. Two weeks later, O'Connor was booed off the stage at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden and fled, crying, into the arms of Kris Kristofferson.
