Sinéad O’Connor, Irish singer behind ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ and more, has died at 56.
She had changed her name to Shuhada’ Sadaqat, which means “martyr” in Arabic.
A family statement said: “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.”
O’Connor was found unresponsive in a hotel room in Ireland. A cause of death has not been announced.
O’Connor had recently moved to London. She was completing an album of new music for a 2024 release. She had also shared plans of a concert tour in Australia and New Zealand in 2024, and in Europe and the United States in 2025.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, O’Connor had a difficult childhood. She began her music career in the early 1980s. Her debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, was released in 1987. The album was a critical and commercial success. with two hit singles; the most popular being the Prince-penned “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
In 1990, O’Connor appeared as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live. She tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II in a protest against the Catholic Church’s child abuse scandals. The incident caused a great deal of controversy, and O’Connor was dropped by her record label. Although she had been vilified for the actions at the time, over the past few years there had been a noted shift in public opinion, and she was experiencing a new-found respect for her courage and conviction.
Despite the controversy, O’Connor continued to release music and tour. She released several more albums, including I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990), Universal Mother (1994), and Throw Down Your Arms (2001). She also appeared in several films, including In the Name of the Father (1993) and The End of the World (1999).
In recent years, O’Connor publicly noted her struggles with mental health issues.
A complex and often controversial figure, she was a respected musician and performer, and an important voice for social justice.
She will be remembered for her art, a strong spirit, and a fearless willingness to speak her truth.
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She was iconic. Both the look and the attitude; appearing fearless yet intensely vulnerable.
That moment in the Nothing Compares 2 U video when the tear rolls down her cheek is spine tingling.
A personal favourite is Success Has Made A Failure Of Our Home. Again, the climax with the repeated impassioned question ‘Am I not your girl?’ is darkly captivating.
A troubled life, I hope she could at least realise how much her music meant to people and she has peace now.
The Lion and The Cobra was quite the first impression. “Mandinka”, of course, was the lead single. I like “Nothing Compares 2 U”, but, to me, “Mandinka” is the song that defines her. That chorus.
I don’t know no shame
I feel no pain
I can’t
I don’t know no shame
I feel no pain
I can’t see the flame
I thought it just sounded cool. I wasn’t quite sure what O’Connor was caterwauling about. And she looked cool.
The chorus came into sharp focus after her career-killing appearance on SNL.
“Mandinka” was a protestation about her personal experience with leaving the church.
I’m GenX. We knew there were problems with the clergy. But we didn’t know as much as Sinead O’Connor. No internet. I wasn’t inundated with information. You had to read a book. I wasn’t a reader at this point in my life. What I find most useful about the internet is that it points me in the direction of what books to read.
I saw The Magdalene Sisters. Oh, my. It served as my epiphany about O’Connor’s stance on that unforgettable Saturday night. For the rest of America, I guess it was Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight. That’s when you saw op-eds, encouraging people to revisit O’Connor’s actions, because finally, we had a definitive context. I could hear audible gasps during the film’s postscript in a surprisingly packed theater. We saw our own state appear among the list of cities and countries, twice.
For me, what O’Connor was railing against wasn’t a blind spot. But for other people, it was possible to be oblivious, or, compartmentalizable, because the extent, the scale of how systemic the problem was went unreported.
I second the greatness of “Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home”. It was well-received by the NBC studio audience, and me. It was so transformed, I was unaware that it was the same song Elvis Costello covered on Almost Blue.
I understand if you, the reader, has problems with O’Connor. She attacked an institution that you grew up with.
But if it was a guy who made the same political statement on network television, arguably, the backlash wouldn’t have been quite as insistent and intense.
Listening to what a woman has to say is still a relatively fresh concept.
*”Mandinka” was about her personal experience with leaving the church.
Love and respect Sinead — always have. She’s one of those people who was too good for this earth. Her moral clarity in this very compromised world was both her superpower and her biggest weakness. She was our Cassandra… speaking truths we refused to hear. And she lived through so much pain — even in her highest moments, she experienced such pure hatred.
She is also a reminder that mental health is health. It’s no different from cardiac health or pulmonary or what have you. It is essential to live, not just a thing that privileged people worry about. Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Learn to manage stress, to find balance, to love and forgive yourself, and take time to be mindful.
https://youtu.be/I8afONdqpTY
Leave it to a former college radio DJ to find the perfect deep cut.
Legit that’s my favorite Sinead song. The one I put on many mixtapes back in the day…
AllMusic hands out too many stars. But Gospel Oak is a legit four-and-a-half stars.
“Daddy I’m Fine” from Faith and Courage is my favorite post-1992 song.
What drives me crazy about the modern-day celebrity is that they’ll put out a tweet, gauge the temperature of the room, then take it back if it’s too hot.
That wasn’t Sinead O’Connor.
She made no attempt to rehabilitate her image in order to expand the fanbase that stuck with her.
O’Connor also played the Virgin Mary in Neil Jordan’s The Butcher Boy. That pretty much consigned her to cult status for the rest of her professional life.
She was not sorry.
She owned it.
She could not un-own it.
She gave survivors a voice.
O’Connor would have broken too many hearts if she took it back.
Thanks for this, mt. It’s all over social media, with plenty of people jumping to conclusions about the cause of death. I’m glad you stuck to the facts.
Last night, I died a little inside reading what people posted about Bronny James going into cardiac arrest. I can’t imagine a worse commentariat than the people who post at my daily’s website.
Thank you. It would be profoundly disrespectful to have done otherwise.
Regarding all of that: see the July 28 Friday Sidebar.
It always upsets me when anybody younger than me dies. I’m only two years older than Sinead, but man, 56 still sounds too young to me to pass away. To paraphrase what Tom said in his writeup of Nothing Compares 2 U, no one compares to what she did with that song. RIP.
Sinead was truly unique, and I always admired her steadfast convictions. It’s unfortunate she lived through so much turmoil, but fortunately she was able to convey that pain and emotional roller coaster into a medium where she could help others with her voice and lyrics.
I remember sitting in the floor lounge of my dorm in college watching that SNL episode, and the 4 or 5 of us just looked at each other going – whoa, did she just do that? One girl asked why she ripped up a picture of the Pope, and another girl, standing there brushing her teeth, nonchalantly summed up exactly what Sinead was trying to say with that action in an incredibly succinct sentence, then just wandered back in to the bathroom to finish up brushing her teeth like it was no big deal. As though this should be common knowledge. Which, for most 18 year olds, really isn’t.
I never knew enough about Sinéad’s background when the SNL debacle happened, yes the news in my country reported about that, I guess the day after, but I don’t think that it caused a huge disturbance, probably it wasn’t enough to “cancel” her, because her commercial peak had already passed.
But years later I knew a part of her personal story and she lived through devastating things. I remember being bothered when Miley Cyrus sort of mocked her when she publicly spoke about feeling suicidal.
A couple of months ago, I can’t remember what was I talking about with my older brother (probably something about the church came in the conversation) and he said “Sinéad O’Connor was right all along”.
I couldn’t help feeling sad when I heard about her passing, and all I could think was “tortured soul”. I really hope she had found peace.