Sinéad O’Connor

Sinéad O’Connor is a particularly famous Irish singer, known all over the world for her hits, as well as for her political commitment and her marginal attitude. A woman of character and anti-conformist, Sinéad O’Connor is a great artist, with dissolute morals, who has never ceased to make headlines with her musical talent, as well as her attitude against the tide. An artist to know absolutely!

Sinéad O’Connor’s Career

A childhood marked by divorce and traumatic physical abuse

Sinéad O’Connor was born in Dublin on December 8, 1966, into a Dublin family of five children. His father, Jack O’Connor, is a lawyer who decides to become an engineer, while his wife, Mari O’Connor, looks after the children as a housewife. However, arguments punctuate the life of the O’Connor couple, who finally decide to divorce.

At that time, Sinéad was only 8 years old.

She moved in with her mother, along with her brothers and sisters, and lived a difficult childhood, marked by physical abuse, which Sinéad O’Connor would later echo in one of his songs.

In 1979, Sinéad O’Connor decided to leave his mother’s home to join his father and his new wife. Nevertheless, Sinéad is not an easy child, and seems to punctuate his daily life with all kinds of theft, truancy, and other petty theft as a teenager. Faced with this situation, her father places her in a Catholic school run by the Sisters of Notre-Dame-de-la-Charité. It was there that she discovered a real passion for music.

In 1983, she moved to Newtown School, a boarding school where she met Joseph Falvy, an Irish language teacher, who offered to record a demo of 4 songs. The latter has indeed understood that Sinéad is a very talented young girl, who is worth being assisted in her musical approach.

Sinéad O’Connor embarks on a musical career…

In 1984, things picked up speed: Sinéad met Columb Farrelly, with whom she recruited several members to form a group called “Ton Ton Macoute”. The band played in Waterford and then in Dublin, playing in pubs and on a few stages. By the force of things, Sinéad abandons her schooling for good, to the great displeasure of her father who had tried to give her a good education.

On February 10th 1985, Sinéad learned of her mother’s death in a car accident. Sinéad’s mother was overwhelmed by grief, despite her previously strained relationship with her. Faced with these events, Sinéad decided to leave the group and set sail for London. There she meets Anthony Kiedis, the leader of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom she has a brief affair.

She signs her first contract with a record company, and records her first song called “Heroine”, co-written with the famous guitarist The Edge, member of the band U2. The single was a real success, and Sinéad released the album “The Lion and the Cobra”, then “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got”. Very quickly, Sinéad O’Connor asserts herself as an artist against the current, very politically committed, and particularly marginal. Her look seduced an audience more and more attracted by this anti-conformist woman, who doesn’t hesitate to attack the church by tearing a photo of Pope John Paul II in the middle of a concert, or by criticizing the IRA’s actions.

His second album went gold, thanks to a cover of the song “Nothing Compares To You”, written by Prince. It was number 1 in the charts in Ireland, Germany and Great Britain for several months, and was a more dazzling success than the original song.

Sinéad O’Connor becomes a great musical figure..

Her notoriety is now international, and she takes part in many concerts, such as “The Wall Live in Berlin”, where she surrounds herself with the greatest like Roger Waters, member of the Pink Floyd.

In the same year, she marries John Reynolds, her producer, for the first time, and has a child, Jake Reynolds. However, she divorces him just as quickly, and then the adventures continue.

In 1992, she collaborates with Peter Gabriel, then records with U2 the soundtrack of the film “In the Name of the Father”.

In 1994, his new album “Universal Mother” was released, followed by “Fire on Babylon”. In 2000, she released another opus “Faith and Courage”, a sort of anthology of songs from the traditional Irish repertoire. This album was particularly well-received in Ireland, although slightly shunned by other countries.

Sinéad remarried in 2001 to Nicolas Sommerlad, a journalist, whom she divorced in 2002. She then met producer Dónal Lunny, with whom she had a daughter and then a son, and had one last child with her former partner, Frank Bonadio.

She recorded a new album in 2006, this time dedicated to Jamaican reggae, then released another album in 2009, called Theology.

Discography

• 1987 – The Lion and the Cobra
• 1990 – I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got
• 1992 – Am I Not Your Girl?
• 1994 – Universal Mother
• 1997 – Gospel Oak EP|Gospel Oak
• 1997 – So Far… the Best of Sinéad O’Connor
• 2000 – Faith and Courage
• 2002 Sean-Nós Nua
• 2003 – She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty
• 2005 – Collaborations (Sinéad O’Connor album)
• 2005 – Throw Down Your Arms
• 2007 – Theology
• 2009 – Theology: Live at The Sugar Club
• 2009 – I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got