Music

Unlike the course of the tranquil Liffey that flows through her hometown of Dublin, the life of the singer born in 1966 is far, very far, from being a long, tranquil river.

Her parents gave her the middle name Bernadette, in reference to Saint Bernadette Soubirous, who for all her life claimed to have witnessed eighteen apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France, in the mid-19th century. From the moment of her birth, little Sinéad's life was thus placed under the sign of religion. Or rather, as we'll see later, religion in the plural. For the artist changed chapels more than once, so to speak...

According to her late testimony, Sinéad experienced a traumatic childhood under the rule of an abusive and violent mother. “With the beatings she gave me, particularly about sex, she completely destroyed my relationship with sexuality,” she later recounted. Her song “Fire On Babylon” on the ironically titled album “Universal Mother” in 1994 recounts her painful childhood.

As a teenager, she was allowed to join her divorced father, but the hothead she already was accumulated petty theft and added a truly abysmal level of truancy. As a result, she was placed in a convent where, once again, things weren't always rosy. “I've never lived in such a state of suffering and terror,” she would later say. On a positive note, she did learn music and writing.

When she arrived in London in the mid-80s, it didn't take long for her exceptional voice and writing talent to be noticed. Backed by her compatriot The Edge, guitarist with U2, she co-wrote “Heroine” for the film “Captive” in 1986. With the singles “Mandinka” and “Troy”, her 1987 debut album “The Lion And The Cobra” established her as a major artist. Three years later, “I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got” launched her into orbit. Strangely enough, it was with “Nothing Compares 2 U” (a cover infinitely superior to that of Prince, her original performer) that she achieved her greatest popular success.

Fundamentally anti-conformist and uncomfortable in her new star attire, always guided by an admittedly abrasive honesty, Sinéad continues to kick up a fuss. And she continues to do so for the rest of her life. In 1994, the magnificent and highly personal “Universal Mother” closed a chapter. Still torn by her demons, but also titillated by her thirst for piety and the absolute, she even announced her retirement from public life. 

When I met her again for an interview a few years later, in 2000, shortly before the release of “Faith And Courage” in Dublin, she was wearing a clergyman's collar and coming to pei before being ordained a priest of the microscopic “Irish Orthodox, Catholic and Apostolic Church”, one of the few that accepts the ordination of women. Following the repeated scandal of child abuse in the Church, she distanced herself a few years later. Nevertheless, she released an album entitled “Theology” in 2007. Always in search of truth, she first felt drawn to Buddhism (she even wrote “The Vishnu Room” in 2014), then converted to Islam in 2018, taking the name Shuhada Davitt and even broadcasting a photo of herself wearing the hijab, provoking reactions in various directions far fetched from the music.

In parallel with her spiritual quest, the singer retained a unique timbre of voice until the end of her life, which, in addition to her own compositions, enabled her to sing psalms, suras or the Dhammapada and even the telephone directory provoking the same thrills.

Sadly, Sinéad O'Connor, who suffered from chronic psychic problems (and we can understand why), left us unexpectedly in July 2023. Her death was described as “natural” by the London police, but she had attempted suicide twice, in 2007 and 2015. Despite the tragedy of her life, the artist left us a string of moving, heart-rending songs...

(MH with AK - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir
Photo: Sinead O'Connor on stage at Forest-National in Brussels (Belgium) on October 29, 1990.