It’s been 18 months since Sinéad O’Connor handed away at 56 on July 26, 2023.
However the Irish icon — who was on the middle of probably the most controversial moments in “Saturday Night Live” historical past when she ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II in 1992 — lived on Sunday evening throughout “SNL 50: The Anniversary Special” when Miley Cyrus channeled her throughout a efficiency of O’Connor’s signature track “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
Cyrus, 32, belted out her rendition of O’Connor’s chart-topping Prince cowl, which she carried out with singer-guitarist Brittany Howard — simply two days after in addition they paired up at “SNL: The Homecoming Concert.”
It was a stunning however touching tribute to O’Connor — not solely due to her surprising protest of kid sexual abuse within the Catholic Church throughout her “SNL” efficiency of Bob Marley’s “War,” however due to the feud she had with Cyrus earlier than her loss of life.
Their generation-spanning spat started when Cyrus advised Rolling Stone in 2013 that her “Wrecking Ball” video was impressed by O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” clip. Whereas Cyrus swings bare on a wrecking ball and licks a sledgehammer within the video, she additionally sheds a tear a la O’Connor. Each clips gained Video of the 12 months on 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’s actually the case that you’ll obscure your expertise by permitting your self to be pimped, whether or not it’s the music enterprise or your self 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 display grabs of tweets reportedly made by O’Connor wherein the singer is publicly struggling together with her psychological heath. “I desperately need to get back on meds today. am in seriously danger,” learn one tweet.
And Cyrus captioned the publish with “Before Amanda Bynes…. There was….,” alluding to a fellow former baby star who has suffered from psychological well being points.
After O’Connor’s loss of life, Cyrus opened up about their beef, making peace together 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 mentioned in her ABC live performance particular “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.”
However whereas admitting that “to have that taken away from me deeply upset me,” Cyrus expressed nothing however love for O’Connor: “God bless Sinéad O’Connor, for real, in all seriousness.”
