Irish singer Sinead O'Connor passed away at the age of 56 on Wednesday, July 26. With her repeated outbursts, she held an incomparable place in the music scene, from which she twice announced her retirement before changing her mind in 2003 and again in 2021. She was best known for her version of "Nothing Compares 2 U," a song composed by Prince that became the biggest hit of 1990. According to the Dublin daily The Irish Times, neither the place nor the circumstances of her death were specified in a statement from her family, who have requested "privacy at this very difficult time."
Since the suicide of her 17-year-old son in January 2022, O'Connor's life had been nothing but misery. Having tweeted that she no longer wanted to live, she was hospitalized at her own request. The tragedy put an end to a planned tour and postponed indefinitely the release of her 11th studio album, No Veteran Dies Alone.
O'Connor, whose frankness was as disarming as it was uncomfortable, seemed inseparable from pain, even in her peak years. The video for "Nothing Compares 2 U" introduced the world to her beautiful green eyes; her short, shaved hair; and her powerful, heart-wrenching voice. There is a still shot of her walking alone in Parc de Saint-Cloud, near Paris. As French poet Alfred de Musset wrote, "The most despairing songs are the most beautiful," and this one is a pure tear-jerker, which she lets flow in the last verse. Her love has left her, and "all flowers in the backyard that you planted, mama, all died when you went away." This sentence was addressed to her mother, who had died five years earlier in a car accident.
Prince wrote this lachrymose ballad for his side project, The Family. She seemed to be the only one to notice it in 1985. With this single, O'Connor ensured the success of her second album, the 7-million-unit-selling I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, in which, as playful as ever, she covered a translation of a 17th-century Irish poem, "I Am Stretched on Your Grave." The song is sung over the top of a rhythmic loop based on James Brown's "Funky Drummer," which is probably the most sampled track in history. Having become a star, she would now work hard to break free of this new status.
A focus on religion
O'Connor was born in Dublin on December 8, 1966, to parents she claims abused her as a child. She was sent to a Magdalene laundry for her truancy and kleptomania at the age of 15. This sinister Irish institution was designed to put "lost girls" back on the straight and narrow. She found the experience horrifying.
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