Sinead O'Connor has died at the age of 56.
Irish media quoted her family on Wednesday (7-26) as saying: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinead. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”
Recognizable by her shaved head and wide eyes, O’Connor released 10 studio albums. Her debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, although too Celtic for most of radio, earned her a Grammy nomination.
Her second album earned her a #1 hit with “Nothing Compares 2 U,” written by Prince. With that, she earned four more Grammy noms. The same year, she won for best alternative music performance – but she shunned the ceremony in protest at the “false and destructive materialistic values” of the music industry.
Born in Dublin, she wrote in her 2021 memoir, Rembemberings: “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.”
In 2007, she revealed to Oprah Winfrey that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and that she had tried to kill herself on her 33rd birthday.
She was the mother to four children and her 17-year-old son, Shane died by suicide last year. In her last Tweet, she posted: “Been living as undead night creature since. He was the love of my life, the lamp of my soul.”
Her cause of death has not been revealed.
O'Connor's career was covered in controversy, most globally noted by an appearance in 1992 on Saturday Night Live, where she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II and said, “Fight The Real Enemy.”
She once told us this: It depends on what the particular controversy is about…. :38 (OC: listening to the records over the years, would have heard much more tenderness, than anything else, than anger. Do you know what I mean.)
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