Police found Sinéad O’Connor unresponsive at her London home just after 11 a.m. on Wednesday and pronounced her dead at the scene. She was 56. British police told Variety they were not treating the death as suspicious, and said a file is being prepared for the coroner. No cause has been given.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad,” her family said in a statement. “Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”
Earlier in July she had written on Facebook that she was back in London after 23 years and finishing an album for release the next year. She had touring plans too: Australia and New Zealand in 2024, then Europe, the United States and other territories in 2025.
From a Magdalene Asylum to No. 1
Her childhood was hard. Her parents separated when she was eight, and she said from an early age that her mother, with whom she lived, physically abused her. That experience drove her later advocacy for abused children. At 15 she spent eighteen months in a Magdalene Asylum for truancy and shoplifting. After changing schools she recorded a four-song demo, then formed the band Ton Ton Macoute, left school and moved to Dublin.
Her 1987 debut, “The Lion and the Cobra,” went gold and earned a Grammy nomination. The breakthrough came with her second album, “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got,” which carried her version of “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a song Prince wrote for his side project, the Family. It hit No. 1 in several countries, stayed on top in Ireland for 11 weeks and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990. The album won her the Grammy for best alternative music performance in 1991. She went on to release 10 studio albums in all, and played Our Lady in Neil Jordan’s 1997 film “The Butcher Boy.”
Provocations
She made as many headlines for her protests as for her records. In 1991 she said she would boycott the Grammys, claiming the Recording Academy rewarded commercial success. In October 1992, as musical guest on “Saturday Night Live,” she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II and said “Fight the real enemy,” a protest against child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. NBC received more than 4,400 complaint calls.
The backlash was loud. Joe Pesci threatened on the show to smack her, Madonna mocked her by ripping up a photo of Joey Buttafuoco, and Frank Sinatra called her “one stupid broad.” Asked about it by The New York Times in 2021, O’Connor said: “I’m not sorry I did it. It was brilliant. But it was very traumatizing.”
In 2013 she wrote an open letter to Miley Cyrus warning her about how women are treated in the music industry. Responses were mixed. In 2018 she converted to Islam and took the name Shuhada.
Grief and tributes
O’Connor spoke candidly about her spiritual life, her politics and her mental health, and wrote about them in her 2021 memoir, “Rememberings.” Her son Shane died by suicide in 2022 at age 17. On July 17, her last post on her new Twitter account linked to a Tibetan compassion mantra, with the words “For all mothers of Suicided children.” She is survived by three children.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar wrote that her music “was loved around the world and her talent was unmatched and beyond compare.” Mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor called her “one of our absolute finest, by a long shot.” The band Garbage wrote on Instagram: “Thank you for all the beauty and all the wise teachings you offered up to us.”
Sources
- Sinéad O’Connor, Irish Singer of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U,’ Dies at 56
- Sinéad O’Connor, Irish singer who rose to fame with 'Nothing Compares 2 U,' dies at 56
