Shuhada’ Sadaqa (née Sinéad O’Connor) 1966–2023
I went on a major Sinead O’Connor kick in 2022 after seeing the fantastic documentary Nothing Compares at the Hot Docs festival. The truth is, though, that those first two records never fully left my rotation, something I can say about less than a dozen records. They were such a wild study in contrasts, The Lion and the Cobra(1987) is fierce and eerie; I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990) is beautiful, introspective, and vulnerable. As a younger man, I preferred the former; now I prefer the latter, but both are masterpieces.
Nothing Compares (Showtime in US; Crave in Canada; iTunes/Play everywhere) recalls events that are so relevant today that I would have suspected they had been molded to appeal to a contemporary audience had I not been following them in real time. Sinead put anti-racism at the top of her agenda at a time when that wasn’t really a thing. Some will remember that she performed at the Grammy’s with the Public Enemy symbol drawn onto her shaved head, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. And anyone who remembers her at all knows the enormous amounts of hatred that she received, effectively ending the superstar portion of her career, after she ripped up the Pope’s picture on SNL in 1992. But who remembers what she was protesting? It was sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church, and the Vatican’s willful denial of the issue. For this she was castigated. No apologies ever came.
Those contrasting first two records really spoke to who she was: both an uncompromising and indignant fighter and someone terribly naïve and almost completely defenseless to the world she had entered. Nothing Compares chronicles those early years, as it should. It is a powerful confined story, and Sinead’s physical beauty in those years — huge eyes, tiny frame, shaved head, ferocious stare — was nothing less than magnificent.
What came after was tragic: a thirty year battle with mental illness that ended today, for reasons not yet known. She published an autobiography in 2021, which I recommend if you like the movie and want to know more. She reads the audio version herself, and her sense of humor is a delight. But the stories of her childhood…Jesus Christ, they are harrowing.
If you want to listen to her, here’s a sampler of songs from those first two records:
Jackie — the first track on the first album; a new Irish folk/ghost song. An introduction to That Voice.
Nothing Compares 2 U — Her huge hit. A devastatingly sad love song written by Prince that, she reveals in the movie, she was singing to her mother. Probably the best place to start with Sinead’s music is the video of this song.
The Last Day of Our Acquaintance — some of the lines in this song!
Jerusalem / I Want Your Hands on Me / Mandinka / The Emperor’s New Clothes — guitar-driven dance songs; all hits in the UK
Troy — perhaps the most devastating moment in Nothing Compares is learning that this inscrutable, ominous super-power-ballad is actually a literal, if jumbled, description of experiences she went through with her mother. She only sang it in concerts for one year, each time casting the demons of that experience a bit further away. before retiring it.
I Am Stretched on Your Grave — another gothic/Gaelic song, but with the most unexpected combination of instruments. It takes a few listens to appreciate how well they work together to create something new and haunting.
Three Babies — simply one of my favorite songs and favorite performances by any artist. For the longest time, I didn’t know what the three babies represented, and I loved that. I figured they were aspects of her character, or perhaps three experiences she had gone through, but ultimately something that the listener could fill in themselves. They still are that, but in her book, she does explain exactly what they meant to her, and I won’t spoil it. I will say that it makes her passing today, if it could be possible, even more poignant.
May she finally rest in peace
