I’ll never forget she tried to warn everyone of the abuse the Catholic Church was committing and everyone shunned her for it. A true hero.
I remember Joe Pesci was the SNL host the next week and told the audience he would have assaulted her if he was there when she did it. I have always been confused both by his statement and by the audience’s subsequent laughter. And then within a few years, everyone found out she was right and her career never recovered.
Her son, Shane, died by suicide last year at age 17.
That poor family.
She always seemed to me like the poster child for the phrase “tortured soul.” Such a sad story.
She led a difficult life and clearly dealt with emotional issues throughout it, from being a troubled youth, to someone who was never entirely comfortable with her fame, to most recently the loss of her son (I think he was 17?). Sadly, and it bothers me to say this, I won’t be surprised if it is announced that she took her own life.
She was an INCREDIBLE talent. “The Lion and the Cobra” which had Mandinka and “I Want Your (Hands On Me)” were staples of college radio when the album came out. Most of us know her for her cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” but her original work was nothing short of amazing.
Holy shit. She got invited to do the theme song for the most recent season of Outlander, and she nailed it. Was just telling my wife about her pope photo incident just this week. So young.
I guess at least she lived long enough to be vindicated for the reason she was cancelled.
That had to be both infuriating and a relief, to some degree. Her career was destroyed/damaged for no good reason. So personally I’d be livid but at the same time, the see, I was right, had to feel kinda oddly good.
You’re Wrong About did a really nice piece on her just in April, going over the history, the controversy that got her cancelled before “cancelling” was even a thing everyone talked about (because she protested the Catholic Church’s sex abuse in Ireland before the Spotlight stories were even a thing), and just generally her life story: https://yourewrongabout.buzzsprout.com/1112270/12624780-sinead-o-connor-with-allyson-mccabe
Worth a listen if you like that kind of thing. She was an amazing person that got repeatedly done dirty by the industry and cultural zeitgeist and this death is a tragedy.
Too young :-(
Holy shit. She had it rough. Sent to Magdalene laundries as a teen by her father who thought they were there to help. Instead it was a place of severe abuse. Spoke out about the church’s shit apology for the abuse and slave labor and was canceled because of it. She was booed off stage afterward which led Kris Kristofferson to try to comfort her after by telling her to not let the bastards get her down. Her career should have been bright but instead it never quite got back on track. And her son committed suicide last year.
I feel like she is owed a big apology for the way she was treated after SNL. She was bringing attention to a real issue.
Too young. Far too young. I appreciate her voice and the harm she called attention to. Long live Sinead O’Connor.
Ah yes, the singer Conservatives canceled long before the same Conservatives started crying about being canceled for doing what she was protesting about and got canceled for.
Heartbreaking news, she was so young. Sinead was such a huge, positive influence on teenage girls in the 90s. Her shaved head and activism was uncommon in mainstream music back then. Everyone I knew had The Lion and the Cobra. I know I still have that CD and a couple others.
And this news after Dolores’ death five years ago (Cranberries). She had also just moved back to London working on a new album. Two amazing women who should have had many more albums to come. rip
Fuck
:(
Mama. It runs in the family. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n88t403veYI
