Lorne Michaels says he would have invited Sinéad O’Connor to SNL50 celebration

Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels has said he had planned to bring back Sinéad O’Connor for a performance during the SNL50 live special, according to Puck News.

“If [O’Connor] were still alive,” Michaels said, “I would have asked her to sing that song,” referencing the performance of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ by Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard.

In 1992, Sinéad O’Connor created one of of SNL’s most iconic and controversial moments staging a protest against the Catholic Church.

During her interpretation of Bob Marley’s ‘War’, O’Connor held a photograph of the then-Pope John Paul II up to the camera, tore it to pieces, said "fight the real enemy", and threw the pieces to the floor.

During their cover of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ for SNL50, Cyrus and Howard did not make any reference to O'Connor's 1992 performance.

In a post-SNL interview with Hot Press, O'Connor said she "wanted to stir shit" with her performance. "We’ve all been taught that this is how it’s meant to be," she said. "People think this is normal. People have gotta wake up."

The Dubliner was banned from SNL and was subsequently made fun of in the show's sketches. The following week's host, Joe Pesci, said O'Connor was "very lucky" he had not been hosting when she performed because he "would've gave her such a smack."

Over the years, Michaels has been critical of O’Connor’s performance, attacking O’Connor for her seemingly deceptive approach to the performance in Spin back in 1993:

“I thought [it] was sort of the wrong place for it, I thought her behavior was inappropriate,” Michaels said. “Because it was difficult to do two comedy sketches after it, and also it was dishonest because she didn’t tell us she was going to do it.”

He added that he would have been shocked “the way you would be shocked at a houseguest pissing on a flower arrangement in the dining room.”

Since this past January, though, Michaels Michaels revealed his respect for O’Connor’s action in the documentary Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music.

“There was a part of me that just admired the bravery of what she’d done, and also the absolute sincerity of it,” Michaels said.