Sinéad O’Connor 'never linked to Pope performance'

Sinéad O'Connor was reportedly never being lined up to perform with Pope Francis at an awards show.

The 47-year-old singer had claimed on her blog that her American Music Awards performance was cancelled because the holy leader had not agreed to appear alongside her.

But it is now claimed that the organisers of the awards ceremony, Dick Clark Productions, in fact never wanted the Pope involved.

According to TMZ, the production company allegedly never planned to reach out to the Pope to ask him to introduce the singer.

Sinéad's hostile public image with regards to religion is a result of a Saturday Night Live performance she gave in 1992. She ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II in front of a live audience and sang the word "evil". This stunt got her banned from the show for life.

On her blog on Sunday the singer complained that she had been cancelled as a performer at the AMA's because the production company had the awkward idea to invite the current Pope to introduce her onto the stage.

"Since naturally their idea was not only disrespectful to the Pope and to millions of Catholics… they didn't get a response (from the Pope) and I'm not doing the show," she wrote in a long post.

She claimed that Dick Clark executives thought it would be a "great hook" to put the two of them together. According to her, there had been no response from the Vatican and therefore she lost her chance to perform.

Sinéad will apparently not be appearing on the awards show at all.