An Irish musician and activist, Sinead O’Connor, known for her distinctive style, radical and fearless expressions, her challenge to societal norms, and her constant questioning of authority, has passed away at the age of 56. Throughout her life, she left a lasting impact with her music and advocacy work.
Irish musician and activist Sinead O’Connor passed away at the age of 56.
With her non-conforming style and direct challenge to the traditional notions of femininity and sexuality prevalent in popular culture, O’Connor reshaped the image of women in music during the early 1990s.
In 1990, she made her mark on the global music scene with the video of “Nothing Compares 2 U,” originally written by Prince, where she sang directly to the camera. The video has been viewed approximately 400 million times on YouTube.
“Nothing Compares 2 U” received three Grammy nominations, and Rolling Stone named her the Artist of the Year in 1991. She also won the Brit Award for Best International Female Solo Artist.
The magazine praised O’Connor, saying, “She proved that a recording artist can refuse to compromise and still connect with millions of hungry ears for concise music.”
Throughout her career, she earned a total of eight Grammy nominations and won the award for Best Alternative Music Performance in 1991. In 2003, O’Connor announced her retirement from music, but she continued to create new recordings.
She defied authority
She expressed her frustration with record companies’ pressure to be “appealing” by shaving her head. Sinead O’Connor was known not only for her music but also for her outspoken views on religion, sexuality, feminism, and war.
Her political stance of questioning authority often made headlines.
She got into conflicts with other artists, like Frank Sinatra, when she refused to let the US national anthem be played, and accused Prince of physically threatening her. In 1989, she declared her support for the Irish Republican Army (IRA), but she retracted that statement a year later. During the same period, she walked out of the Grammy Awards, stating that they had become too commercialized.
When Rolling Stone magazine featured Kim Kardashian on its cover, she criticized the magazine, saying, “Music has officially died.”
Long before widespread reports of sexual abuse allegations, O’Connor criticized the Catholic Church. In October 1992, during a famous appearance on the US TV show “Saturday Night Live,” she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II and declared the Church as her enemy, making headlines worldwide.
At Madison Square Garden in New York, Sinead O’Connor attended a tribute to Bob Dylan, but the audience reacted with boos. Although she was supposed to perform Dylan’s “I Believe in You,” she switched to an a cappella version of Bob Marley’s “War,” which she had previously sung on “Saturday Night Live.”
A month after the SNL incident, O’Connor gave an interview to TIME magazine where she stated, “I don’t have any issues with the man himself. My concerns lie with the office and the institution he represents. In Ireland, we are aware of some of the worst cases of child abuse in Europe. This is directly related to the disconnect between the Irish people and their own history, as well as the fact that priests have been involved in child molestation and sexual abuse in schools for years. The control over the Irish people has been taken by the Church.”
In 1999, O’Connor faced backlash in Ireland when she became a priestess in the separatist Latin Tridentine Church, a position not recognized by the mainstream Catholic Church.
For many years, she has been calling for a thorough investigation into the extent of the Catholic Church’s cover-up of child abuse by its clergy.
In 2010, when Pope Benedict XVI apologized for the decades of abuse and sought forgiveness from Ireland, Sinead O’Connor condemned the apology as insufficient. She called for a boycott of Mass until a thorough investigation into the Vatican’s role was conducted, which made international headlines in 2018.
In a 2010 op-ed published in The Washington Post, O’Connor clarified, “People thought I didn’t believe in God. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a Catholic by birth and culture, and if the Vatican had made a sincere offer of reconciliation, I would have been the first one at the church’s doorstep.”
O’Connor showed support for the LGBTI+ community
She was also an LGBTI+ activist. In 1988, shortly after Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher enacted the anti-gay Section 28 law, O’Connor joined the Pride event to express solidarity with the community. In the late 1980s, she performed on stage with the mainstream pop duo Erasure, which included openly gay lead vocalist Andy Bell, in a show of support.
In 1990, during the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic, O’Connor contributed to the fundraising album “Red Hot + Blue” by reinterpreting the song “You Do Something to Me” by gay composer Cole Porter. The album featured other artists like U2, Neneh Cherry, Salif Keita, and Fine Young Cannibals.
Throughout her life, O’Connor’s support for the LGBTQ+ community continued. According to a former employee of the Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI), she donated her clothes to transgender youth.
The weight of grief
In 2018, the singer who embraced Islam changed her name to Şüheda Sadakat, but she continued to use the name Sinéad O’Connor on stage.
In her biography titled “Rememberings,” which was released in 2021, the artist stated that she did not regret being a “protest singer” who didn’t seek fame.
In January 2022, her 17-year-old son, Shane, went missing for two days and was later found dead. Following Shane’s death, O’Connor made a statement on social media, mentioning that her son had made the decision to end his struggle on this earth and requested that no one should take him as an example.
After her son’s passing, the singer canceled all of her planned live performances for the year 2022 due to the ongoing grief she was experiencing.