Sinéad O’Connor Passes Away At 56

Irish singer-songwriter and activist Sinéad O’Connor passed away at her private home in London on Wednesday, July 26th. She was 56 years old.

O’Connor proved that she was a unique artist from the start with her debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, charting internationally following its release in 1987. Her second studio album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, was released in 1990 and became her most commercially successful, selling over seven million copies worldwide. It included the hit “Nothing Compares 2 U.” While the song was originally written and used by Prince, O’Connor made it hers, and it eventually was awarded the number-one world single in 1990 by the Billboard Music Awards.

Growing up, O’Connor was abused by a family member as mentioned in her 2021 autobiography Rememberings. She spent time in a home for juvenile delinquents after being kicked out of Catholic school for truancy and got caught shoplifting. It was there that a nun gave O’Connor a guitar and she began to sing. She performed on the streets in Dublin and in an Irish band called In Tua Nua. Eventually, she caught the attention of The Edge, the guitarist of U2, and was signed to a record label.

Throughout her musical career, O’Connor never shied away from singing about societal, and what some would consider controversial problems in the real world. Her lyricism about abuse, social injustice, and fighting against the patriarchy caught the attention of fans and non fans. In 1992, O’Connor performed as a musical guest on the television show Saturday Night Live. During her performance, she sang an acapella version of “War” by Bob Marley and ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II. Such actions by O’Connor were publicly shamed, and she was essentially one of the first artists to be “canceled.” However, O’Connor continued to make music, releasing 10 albums throughout her career.

O’Connor changed her name to Magda Davitt in 2017 to remove the patriarchal and parental names she had. She then changed her first name again to Shuhada’ when she converted to Islam in 2018 followed by her surname to Sadaqat in mid-2019.