Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard paid homage to the late Sinéad O'Connor with a cover of 'Nothing Compares 2 U' during  Saturday Night Live's 50th season anniversary show on Sunday.

Neither Cyrus nor Howard made any reference to O'Connor's 1992 performance of Bob Marley's 'War' on the programme, after which she pulled out a photograph of Pope John Paul II, ripped it apart and threw the pieces onto the floor, before asking the audience to "Fight the real enemy." The singer, who died of natural causes in 2023, later clarified that her actions sought to call out sexual abuse taking place within the Catholic Church.

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."

Two weeks after the initial incident, O'Connor participated in a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden. After the audience booed her, she decided not to perform Dylan's 'I Believe In You,' and defiantly performed Marley's 'War' again.

"A lot of people say or think that tearing up the pope’s photo derailed my career," O'Connor wrote in her 2021 memoir, Rememberings. "That’s not how I feel about it. I feel that having a number-one record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track."

Cyrus and Howard's rendition of 'Nothing Compares 2 U' came during SNL's 50th anniversary celebrations, which also included performances from Paul McCartney, Lil Wayne, Sabrina Carpenter and Paul Simon.