Sinéad O'Connor

Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor was born on 8 December 1966 in Glenageary, County Dublin, Ireland. She is the middle of five children, sister to Joseph, Eimear, John, and Eoin.
Her parents married young and had a troubled relationship, separating when Sinéad was eight. The three eldest children went to live with their mother, where Sinéad claims they were subjected to frequent physical abuse. Her song 'Fire on Babylon' is about the effects of her own child abuse, and she has consistently advocated on behalf of abused children. In 1979, she left her mother and went to live with her father and his new wife, but her frequent shoplifting landed her in a Magdalene Asylum at the age of 15. In some ways, she thrived there, especially in writing and music, but she also felt stuck under the imposed conformity. One of the volunteers at the home was the sister of Paul Byrne, drummer for the band In Tua Nua, who heard Sinéad singing Barbra Streisand's 'Evergreen'. She recorded a song with them called 'Take My Hand', but the band felt that at 15, she was too young to join the them. In 1983, her father sent her to Newtown School in Waterford, where she started to florish, as it allowed much more freedom. With the help and encouragement of her Irish language teacher she recorded a four-song demo, with two covers and two of her own songs which later appeared on her first album. Through an ad she placed in Hot Press in mid-1984, she met Columb Farrelly. Together they recruited a few other members and formed a band called Ton Ton Macoute. Sinéad soon dropped out of school and followed the other band members to Dublin. In February the following year Sinéad's mother was killed in a car accident, which, despite their strained relationship, devastated her. Soon after she left the band and moved to London.

Sinéad's time as singer for Ton Ton Macoute brought her to the attention of the music industry, and she was eventually signed by Ensign Records. Soon after she was signed, she embarked on her first major project, providing the vocals for the song 'Heroine', which she co-wrote with U2's guitarist The Edge for the soundtrack to the film Captive. Her manager, who had been fired by U2 for complaining about them in an interview, was outspoken with his comments about music and politics, and Sinéad began to adopt the same habits: she defended the actions of the IRA and said U2's music was bombastic. During this time she became pregnant by her session drummer John Reynolds, who went on to drum with the band Transvision Vamp.
Thanks to her manager's persuasion, the record company allowed her - 20 years old and by then seven months pregnant - to produce her own album. The Lion and the Cobra wasn't hugely successful in commercial mainstream although it eventually hit gold record status and earned a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy nomination. 'Mandinka' was a big college radio hit. In her first US TV appearance, she presented the track on Late Night with David Letterman in 1988. The single 'Troy' was also released in Ireland and the UK, a brilliant club mix of which would become a major US dance hit in 2002.
Her second album 'I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got' contained her international breakthrough hit 'Nothing Compares 2 U', written by Prince and originally recorded and released by a side project of his, The Family. The video consisted almost solely of Sinéad's face. The track went on to occupy the Top Spots of the charts worldwide for endless months. She received Grammy nominations including Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and eventually won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance - but Sinéad boycotted the award show. That year she announced that she would not sing if the United States national anthem was played before one of her concerts. Frank Sinatra threatened to kick her ass. After receiving 4 Grammy Award nominations she withdrew her name from consideration.

On 3 October 1992, Sinéad appeared once more on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest. She sang an a cappella version of Bob Marley's 'War', which she intended as a protest over the sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, by changing the word 'racism' to 'child abuse'. She then presented a photo of Pope John Paul II to the camera while singing the word 'evil', after which she tore the photo into pieces, said 'Fight the real enemy', and threw the pieces towards the camera.
After spending nine years dividing her time between London and Los Angeles, O'Connor returned to her home town of Dublin in late 1992 to live near her sister and focus on raising her son Jake, then six years old.

In January 2010, Sinéad performed a duet with R&B singer Mary J. Blige: The proceeds of 'This Is To Mother You' were donated to GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services).
She announced that she was recording a new album, Home, which will be released in May 2011.

Sinéad O'Connor - Troy (1987)
NL#8




Sinéad O'Connor - Troy (2002)
US#6, BE#35, UK#48



Sinéad O'Connor - Madinka (1987)
IRL#6, UK#17, NZ#18, NL#24



Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U (1990)
IRL#1, UK#1, US#1, AUS#1, AT#1, CH#1, DE#1, IT#1, NL#1, NOR#1, NZ#1, SWE#1, Euro Hot100 #1, FR#5



Sinéad O'Connor - The Emperor's New Clothes (1990)
IRL#5, IT#10, CH#17, AUS#20, NL#22, NZ#23, AT#24, DE#28, UK#31, US#60