Confronting Bodies: NBC Television; Roman Catholic Church community
Dates of action: October 1992
Location: New York
Description of the Art Work
Performance featured three elements:
1) Singing the Bob Marley song
"War";
2) Tearing a photograph of Pope John Paul II;
3) Reciting
the phrase, "Fight the real enemy."
Description of incident
October 3, 1992: Sinead O'Connor appears as the musical guest on
"Saturday Night Live." Toward the end of the show O'Connor performs a
remarkable a capella version of the Bob Marley song "War," which Marley
wrote using words from a speech given by Ethiopia's last emperor, Haile
Selassie, who died in 1975. The song basically says war is an appropriate
response for victims of racial injustice, child abuse and other types of
cruelty. At the song's conclusion O'Connor held up an 8" x 10" color
photo of Pope John Paul II, ripped it into pieces and said, "Fight the
real enemy."
Results of incident
Over the next few days the NBC switchboard in New York received thousands
of calls, mostly denouncing O'Connor's performance. The network and the
show's executive producer, Lorne Michaels, both denied any knowledge of
O'Connor's plan and said she had performed the song differently in
rehearsal. Catholic groups expressed outrage at the act and called it
patently offensive to people of all religious beliefs. NBC has never
again aired the O'Connor performance.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, 10/9/94
