“Irish singer and activist Sinéad O’Connor has died at the age of 56”. When her song Nothing Compares 2 U came out in 1990, O’Connor became known all over the world.
In a statement to The Irish Times, her family said, “It is with great sadness that we tell you that our beloved Sinéad has died.” “Her family and friends are heartbroken, and they have asked for privacy during this hard time.”
O’Connor was born on December 8, 1966, in Dublin. She didn’t have an easy childhood. The singer’s mother was physically abusive, so she spent her whole life speaking out against child abuse because “she didn’t want any other child to have to go through what” she did.
At age 15, O’Connor learned she was good at music. This was also the time in her life when she was sent to an asylum for shoplifting and not going to school.
Five years later, when she was 20, she made her “first album, The Lion and the Cobra, which” got her nominated for a Grammy.
The record got a lot of praise and put O’Connor on a pedestal, where she stayed for the rest of her troubled and controversial life. It was named one of the best records of the 1980s by both Slant Magazine and Pitchfork. Slant said that it was “one of the most electrifying debuts in rock history.” Critics of the record on Pitchfork said “that its themes of patriotism, sexuality, Catholicism, and social oppression set the stage for a career marked by a strong sense of independence”.
With her head shaved, O’Connor sometimes got criticism because she didn’t look like what people thought a woman should look like. However, the singer says that it was a statement against traditional views of women.
“I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, her second record, came out in 1990”. The most popular and highest-charting song she ever recorded was a version “of Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U, which was on the” album.
The problems in her life began when there were claims that the Catholic Church was hiding sexual abuse cases, and then there were protests. O’Connor said what she thought about the whole situation in a very controversial way “on Saturday Night Live. She tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II while singing Bob Marley’s War and told the” audience to “fight the real enemy.”
The singer said she didn’t feel bad about what she did, even though it hurt her business. “See, everyone wants to be “a pop star? I am a protest singer, though. I just needed to get something off my chest”. “I didn’t want to be famous,” she said “in her 2021 book Rememberings.
O’Connor” became a Muslim in 2018. Before that, she had been a Christian her whole life and even became a priest in the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church. Then she became known as Shuhada’ Davitt.
She had trouble with her mental health over the years and tried to kill herself when she was 33, she told Oprah. O’Connor was given a diagnosis of complicated “post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder.
18” months before she died, O’Connor’s son killed himself. Shane was 17 years old when he killed himself. His death left his mother sad and desperate.
Really sorry to hear of the passing of Sinéad O’Connor.
Her music was loved around the world and her talent was unmatched and beyond compare.
Condolences to her family, her friends and all who loved her music.
Ar dheis Dé go Raibh a hAnam. https://t.co/JVHxz7Kv2Z
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) July 26, 2023
“There will never be anything to sing about again,” she said after his death. She then canceled her tour and put off the release of her new record.
Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, said that “her music was “loved around the world” and” that she had “unmatched talent.”
Michael D. Higgins, the president of Ireland, hailed “O’Connor’s “authenticity” and her “beautiful, unique voice.”
“What Ireland has lost at such a young age is one of our greatest and most talented composers, songwriters, and performers of the last few decades, one who had a unique talent and an extraordinary connection with her audience, all of whom held such love and warmth for her,” he said”.
Just days before she died, O’Connor talked about how sad she was about her son’s death.
The exact reason for death hasn’t been found yet.
Rest peacefully, Sinead O’Connor.