The Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor, who was renowned for her powerful and gorgeous voice, her political beliefs, and the emotional turmoil that characterised her final years, has passed away. Age-wise, she was 56.
One of the biggest songs of the early 1990s was “Nothing Compares 2 U” by O’Connor. Her relatives informed everyone of her passing. Her death was not publicly disclosed, nor were its circumstances. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad,” the statement read. Her family and friends are inconsolable and have asked for privacy during this extremely trying time.
In the late 1980s, alternative radio was filled with the voices of female vocalists who broke cultural norms of what women should sound like and look like. However, O’Connor stood out even among the likes of Tracy Chapman, Laurie Anderson, and the Indigo Girls.
Not merely because of her stunning appearance, her first album’s cover art was really remarkable when it was initially released in 1987. Her hands were fiercely clasped across her heart, and her head was as bald as an eagle. The Lion and the Cobra, the name of the album, alludes to a Psalm 91 statement about believers and the strength and tenacity of their faith. And Sinéad O’Connor displayed resiliency throughout her early years.
In 2014, O’Connor admitted to NPR, “I grew up in a severely abusive situation, with my mother being the perpetrator.” “So much of child abuse is about not having a voice, and just making sounds is a wonderfully healing thing,”
After being expelled from Catholic schools and regularly caught shoplifting as a child, O’Connor began creating noise in a facility for young offenders. But after a nun gave her a guitar, she started singing, first on the streets of Dublin and later with the well-known Irish band In Tua Nua.
The Edge, the guitarist for U2, became aware of O’Connor, and she was subsequently signed to the Ensign/Chrysalis label. She achieved double platinum sales in 1990 with her second studio album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, in part thanks to the Prince-penned smash “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got perfectly captured O’Connor’s fervent sense of social injustice and her meditative musical sensibility. She disapproved of its four Grammy nominations because she felt they were overly commercial and “for destroying the human race.” When she refused to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” because of its lyrics that laud bombs detonating in the air, she was barred from an arena in New Jersey.