“The fire in his eyes let you know that her activism was a reflection of her soul, not a political gesture“, I wrote Massive attacks on social media, remembering Sinead O’Connor, who in 2003 was asked to interpret three songs from their 100th window album. “He was a force of nature. A brilliant singer, songwriter and performer whose talent we will never see again. She bravely fought her personal demons“, he tweeted instead. Tori Amos. These are just a few of the many testimonies shared in those first hours after the disappearance of the Irish singer-songwriter by those who were burned or enlightened by the fire.
The global success of “Nothing Beats 2 U” in 1990 was four years ahead of that of “Cornflake Girl,” the hit that in 1994 marked the turning point in Tori Amos’ career: probably didn’t destroy the music business like an earthquake.there wouldn’t be a whole generation of rock songwriters like that of which Amos was one of the greatest representatives. When “The Cornflake Girl” began climbing the charts in 1994, Sinead O’Connor’s parable had been heading hopelessly down the drain for some time. It was a seemingly quiet Saturday night when the Irish pop star’s career 10 million copies sold worldwide between ‘I Don’t Want What I Don’t Have’ and ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ (a re-imagining of a song written by Prince for The Family, but which went completely unnoticed in its original version, until the re-imagining of Sinéad), finished. And the legend ofdifficult, uncompromising, uncontrollable artist: a crazy horse destined to keep fans and initiates in suspense for years.
“Fight the Real Enemy”
The turning point in the personal and musical history of Sinead O’Connor is the date October 3, 1992. Episode guest Saturday night life, the flagship show of American television, followed every Saturday across the ocean by millions of viewers, the Irish singer-songwriter in front of the cameras began to sing a cappella the old Bob Marley song “War”. That something unforeseen, unwritten, was happening, the authors realized when Sinead pulled Photo. He pictured Pope John Paul II. They could not imagine what would happen in the following moments: after the speech, Sinead tore the photo into a thousand small pieces. “
Fight the real enemy“Fight the real enemy,” he said, looking at the camera. It was one shock: “I found an article about families who tried to press charges against the church for sexual abuse, but they were silenced. Basically everything I was brought up to believe was a lie. The artist’s job is sometimes to generate difficult speeches that need to be solved. That’s what art is for,” she would say, having grown up “in a country where Catholicism had forms of fundamentalist theocracy not found in other countries,” years later, explaining the meaning of the gesture. But Sinead’s real enemy was Sinead herself.. This was the beginning of the end. The media began to ostracize her, as did the industry.. Two years earlier, on the stage of the Grammy Award, the musical Oscar, she won the Best Alternative Music Album award for “I Don’t Want What I Don’t Have” and was nominated for the Best Music Video statuette the same year. for “You made me the thief of your heart.” After this gesture, his name was blacklisted by the organizers. Frank Sinatra, reactionary and conservative icon, said he wanted to ‘kick her ass’. When, two weeks after that Saturday Night Live performance, he appeared on stage at Madison Square Garden during Bob Dylan’s thirtieth anniversary concert, was covered in boos from the audience. She left in tears.
Christological figure
Figure of Sinead O’Connor he was a Christological figure, almost Pasolini, in the history of pop-rock music. Type scapegoat who brought upon herself the evil of industry, only to be brutally sacrificed and crucified. “She had so much to give. She was dropped by her label after selling 7 million copies of a single album. She had a proud vulnerability. there is a certain amount of hatred in the music industry for singers who don’t fit in. They are only praised when they are dead. When in the end they can’t even answer“, thundered in these hours Morrisseypointing fingers at the hypocrisy of the media that have ridiculed Sinead for years and today publish editorial after editorial dedicated to the singer-songwriter.
He achieved great success, destabilizing, stunning, at just 23 years old. Through a dramatic childhood and a difficult adolescence, from the domestic abuse her mother endured to the theft and school misconduct that made her 15 years old.locked up for a year and a half in an orphanage. It is difficult to carry certain loads if you have voids inside that have never been filled: “I grew up with a lot of trauma and abuse. There was no therapy at that time. There was music. And I just wanted to scream. Then I entered directly into the world of music. I never took the time to heal. I wasn’t even ready to do it” she would admit, who, prior to the feat with “Nothing Compares 2 U”, had to fight record companies because they wanted to prevent her from carrying a pregnancy to term, at the beginning of her career and at the peak of her career. after her success, she decided to boycott the Grammy Awards, guilty of ignoring African-American rappers. A Victim of Cancellation Culture Thirty Years Before Cancellation Culture Had a Name, Sinead would have been rediscovered by the public and insiders too late. When it was already a hopeless case (this was in the summer of 2017, when he posted on Facebook a video lasting more than ten minutes, in which he expressed in tears all the despair of a lonely and sick woman).
Is there a bit of Sinead in Britney and Miley Cyrus?
And yet she she always walked straight on her way. Winding, labyrinthine, not easy to navigate. Never compromising, yeah the pioneer and visionary artist she has always beenfascinating combination punk fearlessness and authenticity which allowed her to leave an indelible mark and, over time, inspired those who came after her. There’s also a bit of Sinead in Britney Spears beating and shaving her hair, or Miley Cyrus locking Hannah Montana’s lucrative alter ego in the attic.destroys her past by riding naked on a wrecking ball, and all of a sudden she makes a record in which Flaming Lips challenges the girls who have followed her up to this point.
There was a point where Sinead and the former Disney starlet crossed paths. It happened when, in 2013, the year of Cyrus’ breakthrough with “Wrecking ball”, the Irish singer-songwriter wrote an open letter to her young colleague, warning her about the dark workings of showbiz. The very ones she knew intimately and against whom she rebelled: “.I am very worried about you. Being naked in a video is far from cool, and it only overshadows your talent. Do not allow yourself to be exploited and do not prostitute for others. They will exploit you as long as it is convenient for them, making you think that you want it too.. I want to encourage you to send healthier messages to your peers.” Miley Cyrus’ reaction was dismissive.. And humiliating. The voice of “Wrecking ball” compared Sinead O’Connor to former psychiatric actress Amanda Bynes, reposting old tweets in which the Irish singer-songwriter asked for help with her personal problems. “Do you have any idea how stupid it is to mock people who have serious problems? One day you will do it too, rest assured. When you’re done at the clinic, I’ll be happy to drop by to say hello, and I certainly won’t make fun of you.. How did you feel when your friend Britney was humiliated because of her problems? Soon, for the media, you can become “crazy” and it will not be good. You appreciate people like me who support you,” O’Connor replied.
“They tried to bury me, but they didn’t know I was a seed”
The love received in the aggregate over the past few months has passed since the dramatic death of his son Shane. committed suicide early last year at the age of just 17was not enough to compensate for Sinead, a woman with a turbulent, troubled and restless existence, an implacable artist on a political level and persecuted by the media for instances that have now become an element of union and division: “Everyone here wants pop stars. But I’m a protest singer. I have weight to lose from my chest. I have no desire for fame“, – he wrote a year and a half ago in his autobiography “Memoirs”.
Earlier this year, she was touched when on stage at the RTÉ Choice Music Awards, Ireland’s industry awards, she was presented with a special award for “I Don’t Want What I Don’t Have,” now considered a milestone for a rock singer. -song’s author. Last year, Irish filmmaker Katherine Ferguson dedicated the documentary ‘Nothing Compares’ to her, which premiered at some film festivals (with success) but is still awaiting official release: “.I didn’t want to be a pop star. They tried to bury me but they didn’t know that I was a seed“. Forgive us, Sinead.