Sinéad O'Connor
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| Sinéad O'Connor | ||
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 Sinéad O'Connor on the I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got album
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor | |
| Born | December 8, 1966 (age 40) | |
| Origin | Dublin, Ireland  |
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| Genre(s) | Rock Pop Alternative |
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| Occupation(s) | Singer / Songwriter | |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Keyboards, Percussion, Low whistle | |
| Years active | 1987 - present | |
| Label(s) | Ensign (1987-1997) Atlantic (2000) Vanguard (2002-2005) Chocolate and Vanilla (2005-) |
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| Website | Official Website | |
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor (born December 8, 1966) is a Grammy Award winning Irish singer and songwriter.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
O'Connor was born in Dublin and was named after Sinéad de Valera, wife of Irish President Éamon de Valera and mother of the doctor presiding over the delivery, and Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. She was the middle of five children, sister to Joseph, Eimear, John, and Eoin. Joseph O'Connor is now a notable novelist.
Her parents were Jack O'Connor, a structural engineer later turned barrister, and Marie O'Connor. The couple married young and had a troubled relationship, splitting up when O'Connor was eight. The three eldest children went to live with their mother, where O'Connor claims they were subjected to frequent physical abuse. Her song "Fire on Babylon" is about the effects of her own child abuse, and Sinead has consistently advocated on behalf of abused children. Jack O'Connor's efforts to secure custody of his children in a country which routinely gave custody to the mother and prohibited divorce caused him to become chairman of the Divorce Action Group and a prominent public spokesman. At one point, he even debated his own wife on the subject on a radio show.
In 1979, Sinéad O'Connor left her mother and went to live with her father and his new wife. However, her shoplifting and truancy led to her being placed in a reform school at age 15, the Grinan Training Centre run by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity. In some ways, she thrived there, especially in writing and music, but she also chafed under the imposed conformity. Unruly students there were sometimes sent to sleep in the adjoining nursing home, an experience which made her later comment "I have never — and probably will never — experience such panic and terror and agony over anything". (Rolling Stone, April 1988)
One of the volunteers at Grinan was sister of Paul Byrne, drummer for the band In Tua Nua, who heard O'Connor singing "Evergreen" by Barbra Streisand. She recorded a song with them called "Take My Hand" but they felt that at 15, she was too young to join the band.
In 1983, her father sent her to Newtown School, an exclusive Quaker boarding school in Waterford, an institution with a much more permissive atmosphere than Grinan. With the help and encouragement of her Irish language teacher, Joseph Falvy, she recorded a four-song demo, with two covers and two of her own songs which would later appear on her first album.
Through an ad she placed in Hot Press in the summer of 1984, she met Columb Farrelly. Together they recruited a few other members and formed a band called Ton Ton Macoute, named for the zombies of Haitian myth. In the autumn, the band moved to Waterford briefly while O'Connor attended Newtown, but she soon dropped out of school and followed them to Dublin, where their performances gained them positive attention. Their sound was inspired by Farrelly's interest in witchcraft, mysticism, and world music, though most observers thought O'Connor's singing and stage presence was the band's driving force.
On February 10, 1985, O'Connor's mother died in a car accident. O'Connor was devastated despite her strained relationship with her mother. Soon afterward she left the band, which stayed together despite O'Connor's statements to the contrary in later interviews, and moved to London.
O'Connor has said in interviews that the song "Scarlet Ribbons" (music by Evelyn Danzig and lyrics by Jack Segal) helped her through some very tough times as a child. She later recorded the song.
[edit] Musical career
O'Connor's time as singer for Ton Ton Macoute brought her to the attention of the music industry and she was signed by Ensign Records. She also acquired an experienced manager, Fachtna O'Ceallaigh, former head of U2's Mother Records. Soon after she was signed she embarked on her first major project, providing the vocals for the song "Heroine", which she cowrote with U2's guitarist The Edge for the soundtrack to the film Captive. While she was building bridges she was also burning them. O'Ceallaigh, who had been fired by U2 for complaining about them in an interview, was outspoken with his comments about music and politics, and O'Connor began to adopt the same habits, making controversial comments about the IRA and even directing negative remarks towards U2, who were admirers of her music.
Things were contentious in the studio as well. She was paired with veteran producer Mick Glossop, whom she later derided as "a fucking old hippy". They had differing visions regarding her debut album and four months of recordings were scrapped. During this time she became pregnant by her session drummer John Reynolds (who went on to drum with the band Transvision Vamp) and the record company pressured her to get an abortion. Thanks largely to the persuasion of O'Ceallaigh, the record company allowed O'Connor, 20 years old and by then seven months pregnant, to produce her own album.
O'Connor's first two albums (1987's The Lion and the Cobra and 1990's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got) gained considerable attention and mostly positive reviews. She was praised for her unique voice and her original songs. She was also noted for her appearance: her shaved head, angry expression, and sometimes shapeless or unusual clothing.
The Lion and the Cobra was not embraced by the pop mainstream on a large-scale basis, but the album did eventually hit gold record status and earned a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy nomination. The single "Mandinka" was a big college radio hit, and "I Want Your (Hands on Me)" received both college and urban play in a remixed form that featured rapper MC Lyte. The orchestral "Troy" was released as a single in the UK and today is regarded as something of an O'Connor classic. A club mix of "Troy" would become a gigantic US dance hit in 2002.
The following year O'Connor joined The The frontman Matt Johnson as a guest vocalist on the band's album Mind Bomb, which spawned the duet "Kingdom of Rain."
I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got contained her international breakthrough hit "Nothing Compares 2 U", a song written by Prince and originally recorded and released by a side project of his, The Family. Aided by a memorable and well received video by John Maybury which consisted almost solely of O'Connor's face as she performed the song, it became a massive international hit, reaching #1 in several countries. In Ireland it hit the top spot in July 1990 and remained there for eleven weeks; it is the eighth most successful single of the decade there. It had similar success in the UK, charting at #1 for three weeks, and in Germany (#1 for eleven weeks). In Australia it reached #1 on the Top 100. It also claimed the #1 spot on the Hot 100 chart in the USA. She also received Grammy nominations including Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She eventually won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance but boycotted the award show protesting against its extreme commercial nature.
Public Enemy's Hank Shocklee remixed the album's next single, "The Emperor's New Clothes," for a 12-inch that was coupled with the Celtic funk of "I Am Stretched On Your Grave." Pre-dating but included on I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got was also "Jump in the River," which originally appeared on the Married to the Mob soundtrack; the 12-inch version of the single had included a remix featuring performance artist Karen Finley in her signature X-rated form.
Also in 1990 she joined many other guests for former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin. (In 1996, she would guest on Broken China, a solo album by Richard Wright of Pink Floyd.) In 1991 her take on Elton John's "Sacrifice" was acclaimed as one of the best efforts on the tribute album Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin.
In 1992, she contributed a cover of "You Do Something to Me" to the Cole Porter tribute/AIDS fundraising album Red Hot + Blue. This was followed by the release of Am I Not Your Girl?, an album of standards and torch songs that she had listened to while growing up. Her interpretations were considered to run from sublime to overwrought to bizarre, and coupled with the controversy regarding incidents at both the Garden State Arts Center and during a performance on Saturday Night Live (see below), the record lost for her much of the commercial momentum her career had built up until then.
Also in 1992 she contributed backing vocals on the tracks "Come Talk To Me" and "Blood of Eden" on the studio album Us by Peter Gabriel.
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 6 years old. She spent the following months studying Bel Canto singing with teacher Frank Merriman at the Parnell School of Music. In an interview with The Guardian published May 3, 1993 she reported that her singing lessons with Merriman were the only therapy she was receiving, describing Merriman as "the most amazing teacher in the universe."[1]
The 1993 soundtrack to film In the Name of the Father featured "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart," with significant contributions from Bono of U2.
1994's more conventional Universal Mother did not succeed in restoring her mass appeal, though its opener, "Fire On Babylon," remains a fan favourite. She toured with Lollapalooza in 1995, but dropped out when she became pregnant. O'Connor was replaced on the bill by Elastica. The Gospel Oak EP followed in 1997, and featured songs based in an intimate acoustic setting. It too, failed to recapture previous album successes.
Faith and Courage was released in 2000 and was largely regarded as a return to form, including the single "No Man's Woman," and featured contributions from Wyclef Jean of the Fugees and Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. Many songs on the album centre around the theme of healing. On the eve of its release she came out as a lesbian, and then retracted the statement.
Her 2002 album, Sean-Nós Nua, marked a departure in that O'Connor interpreted or, in her own words, "sexed up" traditional Irish folk songs, including several in the Irish language.[2] In 2003, she contributed a track to the Dolly Parton tribute album Just Because I'm a Woman, a cover of Parton's "Dagger Through the Heart". That same year, she also released a double album, She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty. The album contained one disc of demos and previously-unreleased tracks and one disc of a live concert recording. Directly after the album's release, O'Connor announced her retirement from music.[3]
Ultimately, after a brief period of inactivity and a bout with fibromyalgia, this proved to be short-lived - O'Connor stated in an interview with Harp magazine that she only intended to retire from making mainstream pop/rock music, and after dealing with her fibromyalgia, chose to move into other musical styles. [1] The reggae album Throw Down Your Arms appeared in late 2005 and was greeted with very enthusiastic reviews, critics considering it one of O'Connor's best albums. It was based on the Rastafarian culture and lifestyle, O'Connor having spent time in Jamaica in 2004. She performed the single "Throw Down Your Arms" on The Late Late Show in November. She also made comments critical of the war in Iraq and the role played in it by the Ireland's Shannon Airport.
On 8 November 2006, O'Connor performed seven songs from her upcoming album in an intimate setting at The Sugar Club in Dublin. Thirty fans were given the opportunity to win pairs of tickets to attend along with music industry critics, where she was very well received. The performance was recorded and filmed for future release on her website.
O'Connor recently released two songs from her upcoming album Theology to download for free from her official website - If You Had a Vineyard and Jeremiah (Something Beautiful). The album is a collection of spiritual songs written by O'Connor and will be released in June 2007.
[edit] Garden State Arts Center controversy
On August 24, 1990, O'Connor was scheduled to perform at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey. The practice of the venue was to play a recording of the American national anthem before the show began. O'Connor, who said she was unaware of this practice until shortly before the show was to begin, refused to go on if the anthem was played. Venue officials acquiesced to her demand and omitted the anthem, and so O'Connor performed, but they later permanently banned her. O'Connor said that she had a policy of not having the national anthem of any country played before her concerts and meant "no disrespect" but that she "will not go on stage after the national anthem of a country which imposes censorship on artists. It's hypocritical and racist." The incident made tabloid headlines and O'Connor came in for heavy criticism and her songs were banned from a number of radio stations. Frank Sinatra, who performed at the Center the next night, said he wished he could "kick her in the ass."
[edit] Saturday Night Live controversy
O'Connor's career received a significant blow — especially in the United States — on October 3, 1992, when she appeared on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest, on a show hosted by Tim Robbins. She was singing an a cappella version of Bob Marley's "War" to protest sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church,[4] and added a lyric about "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.[5] Almost immediately, NBC's switchboard was jammed with thousands of complaints. To this day, NBC refuses to allow the footage to be rebroadcast. Instead, they show footage from the dress rehearsal where she smiles and bows after finishing the song.
The reaction to Sinéad's action was swift. In the resultant media furor, O'Connor was booed off stages and verbally abused by audiences. Her records were destroyed, and radio stations refused to play her songs.
Two weeks after Sinéad's infamous Saturday Night Live appearance, she was set to perform "I Believe in You" at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary tribute concert in Madison Square Garden. She was greeted by a thundering mixture of cheers and jeers. During the booing, Kris Kristofferson told her not to "let the bastards get you down." Sinéad replied "I'm not down." The noise eventually became so loud that Sinéad saw no point in starting the scheduled song, and called to the keyboard player to stop (which he did), and Sinéad started to deliver a shouted rendition of "War". This time, she didn't finish the song, and she left the stage in tears. Kris Kristofferson comforted her.
Saturday Night Live had no foreknowledge of O'Connor's plan and has resisted invitations to rebroadcast the incident (however, it is available on volume four of Saturday Night Live — 25 Years of Music DVD, one of the program's compilation video sets). When Comedy Central occasionally rebroadcasts the episode, the incident is replaced with Sinéad holding up a picture of a smiling black child. This is the rehearsal performance as she originally planned to perform. As part of SNL's apology to the audience, during his opening monologue the following week, host Joe Pesci held up the photo, taped back together. On Madonna's next appearance on SNL, after singing "Bad Girl", she held up a photo of Joey Buttafuoco and, saying "fight the real enemy," tore it up.
This was not even O'Connor's first go-around with Saturday Night Live; earlier she had refused to appear on a show hosted by "misogynistic" comedian Andrew Dice Clay. Rather, she had agreed to appear on a later episode hosted by Kyle MacLachlan.
On September 22, 1997, O'Connor was interviewed in Vita, an Italian weekly newspaper. In the interview, she asked the Pope to forgive her. She claimed that the tearing of the photo was "a ridiculous act, the gesture of a girl rebel." She claimed she did it "because I was in rebellion against the faith, but I was still within the faith." She went on to quote Saint Augustine, by saying, "Anger is the first step towards courage."[6] However, O'Connor remains unrepentant about the incident. In a 2002 interview with Salon.com, when asked if she would change anything about the October 3, 1992 SNL appearance, she replied, "Hell, no." [2]
Despite popular rumours, neither Sinéad O'Connor nor Saturday Night Live were ever fined $2.5 million for the stunt.
[edit] Ordination
In the late 1990s, O'Connor was controversially ordained into the schismatic Independent Catholic group by Irish Bishop Michael Cox, in disregard of the prohibition on the ordination of women within Roman Catholicism.[7] As a result she became excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Bishop Cox contacted her to offer ordination following her appearance on the RTÉ's Late Late Show, during which she told the presenter, Gay Byrne, that had she not been a singer, she would have wished to have been a Catholic priest (despite that in the Roman Catholic Church, women are not permitted to enter the priesthood). After her service of ordination, she indicated that she wished to be called Mother Bernadette Mary.
In 2003 she announced that she was going to leave the music industry [3] and train to be a catechist (teacher of the Catholic religion to school children).
In 2005 she performed at Madison Square Garden at the Jammy Awards and announced plans to release a reggae-influenced album, named Throw Down Your Arms, in October 2005. ABC Radio News, announcing her new album, reported that she has found solace in the Rastafarian faith, and that the religion "saved her life."
In a 2005 interview by the reggae artist Burning Spear in Andy Warhol's Interview magazine, she reported that her mission is to "rescue God from religion."[8]
[edit] Personal life
O'Connor has been married twice. Her first marriage was to John Reynolds, a record producer, writer and musician who co-produced several albums, including her fourth, Universal Mother, in 1994. Her second marriage was to Nicholas Sommerlad, a journalist said to be related to the Queen of Sweden (whose maiden name is Sommerlath), in 2002 but they separated in 2003. She has also previously dated Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis; the band's song "I Could Have Lied" was written about his sudden break up with O'Connor.
In a 2000 interview in Curve, O'Connor outed herself as a lesbian, "I'm a lesbian ... although I haven't been very open about that and throughout most of my life I've gone out with blokes because I haven't necessarily been terribly comfortable about being a lesbian. But I actually am a lesbian." [4] However, soon after in an interview in The Independent, she stated, "I believe it was overcompensating of me to declare myself a lesbian. It was not a publicity stunt. I was trying to make someone else feel better. And have subsequently caused pain for myself. I am not in a box of any description." In a magazine article and in a programme on RTÉ (Ryan Confidential, broadcast on RTÉ 1 on May 29, 2003), she stated that while most of her sexual relationships had been with men, she has had three relationships with women. " In a May 2005 issue of Entertainment Weekly, she stated, "I'm three-quarters heterosexual, a quarter gay. I lean a bit more towards the hairy blokes." [5]
She has four children: a son, Jake Reynolds, by her first husband; a daughter, Róisín Waters, by The Irish Times columnist John Waters; and another son, Shane (whose father is the music producer Dónal Lunny). O'Connor gave birth to her fourth child, Yeshua Francis Neil, on December 19, 2006 . The baby's father is her former partner Frank Bonadio. O'Connor formally announced in the Irish Independent that the two had broken up as of the weekend of February 17, 2007 citing difficulties between Bonadio and his former wife, singer Mary Coughlan. Sinead has bought a large rambling Victorian house overlooking the sea at Bray, on the outskirts of Dublin. Close to the home Bonadio shares with his children and just around the corner from Mary Coughlan's apartment.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
| Year | Album | UK | US | Australian Charts | Worldwide Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | The Lion and the Cobra | 27 | 36 | - | 2,500,000 |
| 1990 | I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7,000,000 |
| 1992 | Am I Not Your Girl? | 6 | 27 | 17 | 1,500,000 |
| 1994 | Universal Mother | 19 | 36 | 31 | 1,500,000 |
| 1997 | Gospel Oak EP | 28 | 128 | - | 250,000 |
| 1997 | So Far... the Best of Sinéad O'Connor | 28 | - | - | 2,000,000 |
| 2000 | Faith and Courage | - | 55 | 18 | 500,000 |
| 2002 | Sean-Nós Nua | - | 139 | 66 | 225,000 |
| 2003 | She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty | - | - | - | 100,000 |
| 2005 | Collaborations | - | - | - | 500,000 |
| 2005 | Throw Down Your Arms | - | - | - | 250,000 |
| 2007 | Theology | - | - | - | (to be released the 22 June) |
[edit] Singles
| Year | Song | UK singles | US Hot 100 | US Modern Rock | US Dance | Australian Charts | Irish Charts | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | "Heroine" (The Edge featuring Sinéad O'Connor) | 89 | - | - | - | - | - | Captive OST |
| 1988 | "Mandinka" | 17 | - | - | 14 | - | 6 | The Lion & The Cobra |
| 1988 | "I Want Your (Hands On Me)" | 77 | - | 26 | 20 | - | - | The Lion & The Cobra |
| 1988 | "Jump In the River" (Sinéad O'Connor & Karen Finley) | 81 | - | 17 | - | - | 29 | - |
| 1990 | "Nothing Compares 2 U" | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | 1 | I Do Not Want... |
| 1990 | "The Emperor's New Clothes" | 31 | 60 | 1 | - | 20 | 5 | I Do Not Want... |
| 1990 | "Three Babies" | 42 | - | - | - | - | 19 | I Do Not Want... |
| 1990 | "I Am Stretched On Your Grave" | - | - | - | 27 | - | - | I Do Not Want... |
| 1991 | "My Special Child" | 42 | - | - | - | - | 6 | - |
| 1991 | "Silent Night" | 60 | - | - | - | - | 12 | - |
| 1992 | "Visions of You" (Jah Wobble and the Invaders of the Heart featuring Sinéad O'Connor) | 35 | - | - | - | - | - | Rising Above Bedlam |
| 1992 | "Success Has Made a Failure Of Our Home" | 18 | - | 20 | - | 37 | 11 | Am I Not Your Girl? |
| 1992 | "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" | 53 | - | - | - | - | - | Am I Not Your Girl? |
| 1994 | "You Made Me the Thief Of Your Heart" | 42 | - | 24 | - | 43 | 4 | In the Name Of the Father soundtrack |
| 1994 | "Thank You For Hearing Me" | 13 | - | - | - | - | - | Universal Mother |
| 1994 | "Fire On Babylon" | - | - | - | - | - | - | Universal Mother |
| 1995 | "Famine" / "All Apologies" | 51 | - | - | - | - | - | Universal Mother |
| 1995 | "Haunted" (Shane MacGowan & Sinéad O'Connor) | 30 | - | - | - | - | 6 | - |
| 1997 | "This Is a Rebel Song" | 60 | - | - | - | - | 29 | Gospel Oak |
| 1997 | "This Is To Mother You" | - | - | - | - | - | - | Gospel Oak |
| 2000 | "No Man's Woman" | - | - | - | - | - | - | Faith and Courage |
| 2000 | "Jealous" | - | - | - | - | 58 | - | Faith and Courage |
| 2002 | "Troy (The Phoenix From the Flame)" (remix) | 48 | - | - | 3 | - | - | - |
| 2003 | "Tears From the Moon" (Conjure One featuring Sinéad O'Connor) | 42 | - | - | 3 | - | - | - |
| 2003 | "Guide Me God" (Ghostland featuring Sinéad O'Connor and Natacha Atlas) | - | - | - | 20 | - | - | - |
| 2003 | "1000 Mirrors" (Asian Dub Foundation featuring Sinéad O'Connor) | - | - | - | - | - | - | Enemy of the Enemy |
| 2003 | "Special Cases" (Massive Attack featuring Sinéad O'Connor) | 15 | - | - | - | - | 100th Window |
[edit] References
- ^ O'Kane, Maggie. "'I fit in here,' Sinead O'Connor says of her return to Dublin", The Guardian, 1993-05-03.
- ^ Simpson, Dave. "Sinead O'Connor (review)", Arts, Guardian Unlimited, 2002-11-11. Retrieved on October 24, 2006.
- ^ Kaufman, Gil. "Sinead O'Connor To Retire ... Again. Controversial singer says this time is the last.", MTV.com, 2003-04-25. Retrieved on October 24, 2006.
- ^ Tapper, Jake. "Sinéad was right", Arts & Entertainment, Salon.com, 2002-10-12. Retrieved on October 24, 2006.
- ^ "Simulating Sinead O'Connor-- Sinead O'Connor Rips It Up", Vol. 33, NOT BORED!, 2001-10, pp. ISSN 1084-7340. Retrieved on October 24, 2006.
- ^ "El Mundo Visto Desde Roma", Zenit, 1997-09-21. Retrieved on October 24, 2006.
- ^ "O'Connor becomes a 'priest'", Entertainment,, BBC News,, 1999-05-04. Retrieved on October 24, 2006.
- ^ Burning Spear. "Sinead O'Connor: have time off and a dose of Jamaican spirit chilled out the Irish spitfire? Not bloody likely", Interview, 2005-09. Retrieved on October 24, 2006.
[edit] Further reading
- Guterman, Jimmy. Sinéad : Her Life and Music. Warner Books, 1991. ISBN 0-446-39254-5.
- Hayes, Dermott. Sinéad O'Connor: So Different. Omnibus, 1991. ISBN 0-7119-2482-1.
[edit] External links
- Official Sinéad O'Connor website
- The Sinéad O'Connor Site
- Sinead O'Connor - The Ultra Modern Ancient Gaelic Mystic
- MySpace
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