Sinéad O'Connor Passes Away Aged 56
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”
Sinéad O'Connor in Perth (Credit: Karen Lowe)
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Irish music sensation Sinéad O’Connor has passed away at age 56.
Issuing a brief statement, the singer’s family said, per BBC, “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”
The cause of her death is unknown at this time.
Known for her stunning, passionate cover of the Prince song, Nothing Compares 2 U, from her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, in which the music video saw her take centre stage in front of the camera, singing with her shaved head and tears in the spotlight. O’Connor shot to reluctant fame – she later called herself a “protest singer” in her 2021 memoir, Rememberings.
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“Everyone wants a pop star, see?” she wrote. “But I am a protest singer. I just had stuff to get off my chest. I had no desire for fame.”
Shunning the “false and destructive materialistic values” following her Grammy win for Best Alternative Music Performance, per Reuters, O’Connor became a star by being everything a pop star shouldn’t be: by being herself, an artist who would fight against traditional views of femininity and sexuality, rail against child abuse and systemic racism, and challenging long-held systems that needed change.
O’Connor released ten studio albums throughout her musical career, with her final record, I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss, released in August 2014. While she undoubtedly influenced people in music who didn’t fit in and inspired fans looking for a different kind of protest singer, O’Connor was also a controversial figure due to her strong beliefs and willingness to act on them in public spaces.
Appearing on a 1992 episode of Saturday Night Live, O’Connor didn’t care about her image as an artist when she ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II and told the audience, “Fight the real enemy”. Using her public platform, she made a statement many of us will never forget in her criticisms of the Irish Catholic Church after clergy members were revealed to have been involved in child sex abuse cases.
In 2018, O’Connor converted to Islam, changing her name to Shuhada Sadaqat. However, she still performed under the name we all know, Sinéad O’Connor.
In January 2022, O’Connor’s son, Shane, died by suicide. Responding to the Twitter account Inspirational Quotes last week, which sent out the prompt message, “Tell me how your life is going with emojis”, O’Connor replied with ten crying emojis and said she was “lost”, per Page Six.
“#lostmy17yrOldSonToSuicidein2022,” she wrote. “Been living as undead night creature since. He was the love of my life, the lamp of my soul. We were one soul in two halves. He was the only person who ever loved me unconditionally. I am lost in the bardo without him”.
Tributes pour for Sinéad O’Connor
Tributes have begun pouring for the singer since news of her passing broke this morning.
In a statement via The Irish Post, Irish President Michael D. Higgins said, “To those of us who had the privilege of knowing her, one couldn't but always be struck by the depth of her fearless commitment to the important issues which she brought to public attention, no matter how uncomfortable those truths may have been.
“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.”
Massive Attack, the Bristol trip-hop legends, also paid tribute to O’Connor. The group featured her on their 2003 album, 100th Window. “Devastated. How do you eulogise someone that you never knew well, but were blessed to have the honour of working with,” they wrote, as per Pitchfork. “Honestly. To bear witness to her voice, intimately in the studio. On the road every single person stopped—dropped their tools during soundcheck. The fire in her eyes made you understand that her activism was a soulful reflex & not a political gesture.”
A peer of O’Connor’s and longtime fan, Tori Amos, tweeted that the singer was “a force of nature.” Amos continued, “A brilliant songwriter & performer whose talent we will not see the like of again. Such passion, such intense presence & a beautiful soul, who battled her own personal demons courageously. Be at peace dear Sinead, you will forever be in our hearts”.
Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan added, “Fiercely honest and sweet and funny, she was talented in ways I’m not sure she completely understood. But Sinead stands alone as a figure from our generation who was always true to the piercing voice within and without. And for that I will always admire and respect her. And never forget that she was cancelled for an act of simple resistance. Her crime? Tearing up a photo.”
Sinéad O’Connor will be remembered as a talented artist and fierce protest singer who could never be replicated.
This is a developing story.
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