NEWS FLASH: At age 56, Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor has away. She was known for both her music and her outspoken opinions.
Irish musician and campaigner Sinéad O’Connor passed away at the age of 56. With the 1990 publication of her hit Nothing Compares 2 U, O’Connor became a household name.
She was “our beloved Sinéad,” her family wrote in a letter to The Irish Times. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad.”Her family and friends are inconsolable and have asked for privacy during this extremely trying time.
O’Connor, who was born on December 8, 1966, didn’t have an easy childhood. The artist, who had a physically abusive mother, has dedicated her life to speaking out against child abuse because she doesn’t want any other children to go through what she had through.
At the age of 15, O’Connor discovered she had a talent for singing. During this time in her life, she was also institutionalized for concerns related to theft and truancy.
She made her debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, five years later, at the age of 20, and was nominated for a Grammy for it.
O’Connor was put on a pedestal by the album’s widespread adulation, where she remained for the majority of her troubled and contentious life.It was ranked among the top albums of the 1980s by both Slant Magazine and Pitchfork. Slant called it “one of the most electrifying debuts in rock history.” “Themes of patriotism, sexuality, Catholicism, and social oppression set the stage for a career marked by a resolute sense of independence,” the album’s critics wrote in Pitchfork.
Having her head shaved, O’Connor sometimes experienced criticism simply because she didn’t fit the standards of what a woman should look like but it was an assertion against traditional views of women according to the singer herself.
O’Connor released her second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, in 1990. The album included her cover of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U, her most famous and highest-charting recording.
The controversies surrounding her life started during the time there were rumors of the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexual abuse cases followed by protests. During an appearance on Saturday Night Live, O’Connor expressed her thoughts over the entire situation in quite a controversial manner, by tearing a photo of Pope John Paul II while singing Bob Marley’s War, telling the audience to “fight the real enemy.”
Her action affected her career, but the singer said she had no regrets. “Everyone wants a pop star, see? But I am a protest singer. I just had stuff to get off my chest. I had no desire for fame,” she wrote in her 2021 memoir Rememberings.
In 2018, O’Connor converted to Islam after practicing Christianity her entire life and even being ordained as a priest in the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church. She then changed her name to Shuhada’ Davitt.
Over the years, she struggled with mental health issues and even tried to take her own life when she was 33, as she told Oprah. O’Connor was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder.
18 months before her passing, O’Connor lost her son to suicide. Shane was 17 years old when he took his own life leaving his mother desperate and mourning his tragic loss.
“There will never be anything to sing about again,” she said following his passing, canceling her tour and postponing her new album.
Taoiseach (Irish PM) Leo Varadkar said her music “was loved around the world and her talent was unmatched”.
Irish President Michael D Higgins praised O’Connor’s “authenticity” as well as her “beautiful, unique voice”.
“What Ireland has lost at such a relatively young age is one of our greatest and most gifted composers, songwriters and performers of recent decades, one who had a unique talent and extraordinary connection with her audience, all of whom held such love and warmth for her,” he said.
O’Connor expressed heartache over her son’s passing just days before she died.
The exact cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Rest in peace, Sinéad O’Connor.
