2023-07-26 07:00:00
Sinead O’Connor, the leading Irish singer-songwriter well known for her powerful and evocative voice, as demonstrated in her biggest hit, which was the impressive performance of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”, as well as for her political controversies inside and outside the scene, has died. She was 56 years old.
His long-time friend Bob Geldof, an Irish musician and activist, confirmed his death, as did his family in a statement, according to the BBC and RTE, the Irish public broadcaster.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinead,” the statement said. “Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.” No further details were immediately provided.
Recognizable by his shaven head and large eyes, which might appear sorrowful or filled with anger, O’Connor released 10 studio albums, beginning with the alternative hit The Lion and the Cobrain 1987. He went on to sell millions of albums worldwide and rose to fame with the 1990 album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.
That album, which included “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a #1 hit in constant rotation on MTV, won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance. However, O’Connor boycotted the ceremony in 1991 due to what he called the excessive commercialism of the show.
O’Connor rarely shied away from controversy, although it often had consequences for his career.
In 1990 he threatened to cancel a performance in New Jersey if the US national anthem was played in the concert hall before his appearance, incurring the ire of none other than Frank Sinatra. That same year he withdrew from an appearance on Saturday Night Live in protest of the misogyny he perceived in the comedy of Andrew Dice Clay, who was going to host that episode.
But all that paled in comparison to the uproar caused when O’Connor, who participated in Saturday Night Live in 1992—shortly following the release of their third album, Am I Not Your Girl?— capped off her a cappella performance of Bob Marley’s “War” by tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II as a stance once morest sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. “Fight the real enemy,” he said.
That incident immediately made her the target of criticism and scorn from social conservatives and other sectors. Two weeks following her presentation in Saturday Night Livewas harshly booed at a Bob Dylan tribute concert held at Madison Square Garden (she had planned to perform Dylan’s “I Believe in You,” but sang “War” once more and ran off the stage before finishing).
For a time, the hostility once morest O’Connor was so persistent that he became something of a pop culture meme. In Saturday Night Livein early 1993, Madonna poked fun at the controversy by ripping up a photo of Joey Buttafuoco, the Long Island auto mechanic who was all over the tabloids at the time because of his affair with a 17-year-old girl.
O’Connor went from being a rising star to stagnating. Am I Not Your Girl?, an album of covers of jazz and pop classics like “Why Don’t You Do Right?” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” only reached number 27 on the charts. Her next album, Universal Mother (1994), did not exceed 36th place.
British musician Tim Burgess, of the band The Charlatans (known in the United States as The Charlatans UK), wrote this Wednesday a Twitter: “Sinead was the true embodiment of a punk spirit. He never compromised his ideals and that made him have to fight more during his life.”
O’Connor never had another big hit in the United States following “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Gotalthough for a time he remained a constant presence on the British charts.
However, in his 2021 autobiography, Memories. Scenes from a complicated lifeO’Connor claimed that tearing up the pope’s photo was a righteous act of protest and therefore a success.
“I feel like having a number one hit derailed my career,” he wrote, “and that breaking the photo got me back on the right path.”
O’Connor explained it further in an interview with The New York Times that same year, where she called the incident an act of rebellion once morest the limitations of pop stardom.
“I don’t regret doing it. It was brilliant,” O’Connor said. “But it was very traumatic,” he added. “It was like declaring it was open season to treat me like a crazy bitch.”
Sinead Marie Bernadette O’Connor was born in Glenageary, a Dublin suburb, on December 8, 1966. Her father, John, was an engineer and her mother, Johanna, was a dressmaker.
In various interviews and in his autobiography, O’Connor said that he had a traumatic childhood. He said that her mother physically abused her and that she had been deeply affected by her parents’ separation, which occurred when she was 8 years old. As a teenager, she was arrested for shoplifting and sent to reform schools.
When she was 15 she sang “Evergreen”—the love ballad of A star Is Born, made famous by Barbra Streisand—at a wedding, and was discovered by Paul Byrne, a drummer linked to the Irish band U2. She left boarding school at 16 and began her career, working as a waitress and making kiss-o-grams (a singing telegram that includes a kiss) with a sensual French maid outfit to support herself.
The Lion and the Cobra —the title alludes to Psalm 91—established her as a rising talent with a spiritual heart, an ear for unconventional melodies, and a fierce, combative style. Her music was inspired by classic 1980s alternative rock, hip-hop, and flashes of Celtic folk that emerged when her voice rose to the highest registers.
O’Connor made headlines for defending the Irish Republican Army and publicly mocked U2—whose members had supported her—as the band “bombastic.” She also said that she had rejected attempts by her record label, Ensign, to have her adopt a more conventional image.
Label leaders “wanted me to wear high-heeled boots and skinny jeans and let my hair grow long,” O’Connor told him. a Rolling Stone en 1991. “And I decided they were so pathetic that I shaved my head so there wouldn’t be any more arguments regarding it.”
“Nothing Compares 2 U”—originally released by Prince’s side project The Family in 1985—became a phenomenon when O’Connor covered it five years later. The song’s video, focused closely on his soulful face, was hypnotic, and O’Connor’s voice, rising from delicate, whispery notes to powerful screams, transfixed listeners. Singers such as Alanis Morissette have cited O’Connor’s work from this period as a key influence.
Shortly following “Nothing Compares 2 U” became a hit, O’Connor accused Prince of physically threatening her. She detailed the story in her memoirs, where she claimed that the singer, at his Hollywood mansion, lashed out at her for swearing in interviews and started a pillow fight where he ended up hitting her with something hard that was in her pillowcase. O’Connor said she fled on foot in the middle of the night, but Prince chased her down the road.
The effects of childhood trauma, and the search for ways to fight and heal, became a central part of his work and personal philosophy. “The cause of all the problems in the world, in my opinion, is child abuse,” O’Connor told Spin magazine in 1991.
Her mother, whom O’Connor described as an alcoholic, died when she was 18. In her autobiography, the singer said that, on the day she died, she removed a photo of the dad from her mother’s wall; It was that same photo of her that she ripped up on television.
On later albums, O’Connor made warmly expansive pop-rock (Faith and Courage2000), performed traditional Irish compositions (Sean-We Nude2002) and covered classic reggae songs (Throw Down Your Arms, 2005). His last album was I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Bossreleased in 2014.
As her music career waned, O’Connor, who had been outspoken in the past regarding her mental health struggles, became an increasingly erratic public figure, often sharing unfiltered opinions and personal details on social media. social networks.
In 2007, O’Connor revealed on Oprah Winfrey’s television show that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and tried to commit suicide on her 33rd birthday. Her son Shane committed suicide in 2022, at age 17.
O’Connor stated in 2012 that she had been misdiagnosed as bipolar the previous year and was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from a history of childhood abuse. “Recovering from childhood abuse is a lifelong job,” she told People magazine.
Years ago he converted to Islam and began using the name Shuhada Sadaqat, although he also continued to respond to O’Connor.
Complete information regarding those who survive O’Connor was not immediately available. O’Connor had two brothers, Joe and John, and a sister, Eimear, as well as three stepsisters and a stepbrother. In her autobiography, the singer wrote that she was married four times and that she had four children: three boys named Jake, Shane and Yeshua, and Roisin, her only daughter.
Discussing his memoir with the Times in 2021, O’Connor focused on his decision to tear up the photo of John Paul II as a key moment in a life of protest and rebellion.
“The media made me out to be crazy because I didn’t act like a pop star was supposed to act,” she said. “It seems to me that being a pop star is almost like being in a kind of prison. “You have to be a good girl.”
Alex Traub contributed to this report.
Ben Sisario covers the music industry. He has written for the Times since 1998.
Joe Coscarelli is a culture reporter specializing in pop music, and is the author of Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story. @joecoscarelli
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