It’s been 18 months since Sinéad O’Connor passed away at 56 on July 26, 2023.
But the Irish icon — who was at the center of one of the most controversial moments in “Saturday Night Live” history when she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II in 1992 — lived on Sunday night during “SNL 50: The Anniversary Special” when Miley Cyrus channeled her during a performance of O’Connor’s signature song “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
Cyrus, 32, belted out her rendition of O’Connor’s chart-topping Prince cover, which she performed with singer-guitarist Brittany Howard — just two days after they also paired up at “SNL: The Homecoming Concert.”
It was a surprising but touching tribute to O’Connor — not only because of her shocking protest of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church during her “SNL” performance of Bob Marley’s “War,” but because of the feud she had with Cyrus before her death.
Their generation-spanning spat began when Cyrus told Rolling Stone in 2013 that her “Wrecking Ball” video was inspired by O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” clip. While Cyrus swings naked on a wrecking ball and licks a sledgehammer in the video, she also sheds a tear a la O’Connor. Both clips won Video of the Year at the VMAs.
O’Connor responded to Cyrus’ homage in an open letter written “in the spirit of motherliness and with love.”
“I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way ‘cool’ to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos,” she wrote. “It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether it’s the music business or yourself doing the pimping.
“Nothing but harm will come in the long run, from allowing yourself to be exploited, and it is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your sexual appeal than your obvious talent.”
O’Connor warned: “The music business doesn’t give a s—t about you, or any of us. They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think it’s what YOU wanted.”
Cyrus responded by posting screen grabs of tweets reportedly made by O’Connor in which the singer is publicly struggling with her mental heath. “I desperately need to get back on meds today. am in seriously danger,” read one tweet.
And Cyrus captioned the post with “Before Amanda Bynes…. There was….,” alluding to a fellow former child star who has suffered from mental health issues.
After O’Connor’s death, Cyrus opened up about their beef, making peace with her.
“I was expecting there to be controversy and backlash [from the ‘Wrecking Ball’ video’], but I don’t think I expected other women to put me down or turn on me, especially women that had been in my position before,” Cyrus said in her ABC concert special “Endless Summer Vacation: Continued (Backyard Sessions).”
“This is when I’d received an open letter from Sinéad O’Connor, and I had no idea about the fragile mental state that she was in, and I was also only 20 years old, so I could really only wrap my head around mental illness so much,” she continued. “All that I saw was that another woman had told me that this idea was not my idea.”
But while admitting that “to have that taken away from me deeply upset me,” Cyrus expressed nothing but love for O’Connor: “God bless Sinéad O’Connor, for real, in all seriousness.”
