Sinead O’connor
Sinead O’Connor Reveals Her 17-Year-Old Son Was Found Dead After Going Missing
Sinead O’Connor has revealed that her 17-year-old son Shane was found dead after going missing. The singer mourned the loss on Twitter. “My beautiful son, Nevi’im Nesta Ali Shane O’Connor, the very light of my life, decided to end his earthly struggle today and is now with God,” she wrote. “May he rest in peace and may no one follow his example. My baby. I love you so much. Please be at peace” My beautiful son, Nevi’im Nesta Ali Shane O’Connor, the very light of my life, decided to end his earthly struggle today and is now with God. May he rest in peace and may no one follow his example. My baby. I love you so much. Please be at peace: — Sinead The 1 And Only (@OhSineady) January 8, 2022 The tragic news comes after Sinead O’Connor tweeted messages begging for her son to go to a police stat...
Dear Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame: Induct Sinead O’Connor Already!
There is a reason Sinead O’Connor is consistently compared to Joan of Arc. Sinead is amongst the countless artists in history so ahead of her time, consistently misunderstood and underappreciated, and somehow without the recognition, she deserves. But she’s still here, and you have the power to give it to her with a Rock Hall induction. I am writing to ask you to do the right thing. In October 1992, Sinead O’Connor ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live after an impassioned a capella performance of Bob Marley’s “War,” stating into the camera: “Fight the real enemy.” She chose this very moment, shortly after the release of her third album and at the height of her career, to make a bold public protest. She had not told the producers of the show she intended to do this ...
The 90 Greatest Albums of the ’90s
This article originally appeared in the September 1999 issue of SPIN. “You must be high.” We heard that a lot during the time we spent preparing this issue. Which is understandable. Pronouncing the 90 greatest albums of the ’90s is a somewhat presumptuous thing to do. When you’re measuring the music this decade is offering to history—the sounds we partied with, copulated to, fought about, and wept over—everyone has an opinion. That ours should be more valid than yours is debatable. But hey—it’s our magazine. What, then, you ask, constitutes “greatest”? Don’t even start. Suffice it to say that, after much heated discussion and countless veiled insults, it came down to the factors of both remarkable artistry and cultural shock value. Sometimes a record’s knock-you-off-your-Skechers impa...
Sinéad O’Connor: Rememberings
Trial lawyers say whoever tells the best story wins. And love her or hate her, in her memoir Rememberings, Sinéad O’Connor tells a case-winning story of her life. Of the Americans under 30 who even know her name, most probably have it archived with #pretty, #skinhead #onehitwonder, #SNL and #meltdown. Three of these hashtags derive from the event that shit-canned her career: when the global pop star closed out a gig on Saturday Night Live by displaying a photo of the Holy Father of the Roman Catholic Church, declaring “Fight the real enemy!” then tearing the photo — and her life — in two. This is lost in translation to YouTube, but in 1992, that Pope-icide really wasn’t a crowd-pleaser. “Total stunned silence in the audience,” she writes, going on to report not seeing a single person...
The 100 Greatest Rock Stars Since That Was A Thing
Three of the 100 are in this picture! The Rolling Stones, in 1964, from left to right: Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Brian Jones. The problem with lists like this is they are invariably bullshit. So our prime objective was to make sure we didn’t do a bullshit list. I’m not saying we did a scientific one either. Because that isn’t possible — actually, it is, if you wanted some compilation of who sold the most records/concert tickets/has the most fans/got the most death threats, etc., and someone could come up with a bunch of very empirical metrics and create a “heat index” or something, and could deliver an actual scientific ranking! But we, um, didn’t do that. In fact we didn’t even, technically, do the “we...
Sinead O’Connor Says She’s Quitting Music Again to Become a Writer
Earlier this month, Sinead O’Connor announced that she would be retiring from recording, touring, and promoting her music effective immediately, only to take it back days later. But on Thursday, O’Connor did a U-turn to her U-turn and now said that she’s done with music. In a statement posted on Twitter, O’Connor said that she has had “two minds” about this decision but that it is time to say goodbye to music and will embark on a new career as a writer. Her acclaimed new memoir, Rememberings, is out now. O’Connor’s final album, No Veteran Dies Alone, will still arrive in April 2022 but there won’t be any promo or accompanying tour. Within her Twitter announcement, the singer-songwriter tells that she is happy to have left her career on a good note, “standing up against the i...
Sinead O’Connor Reverses Course and Isn’t Retiring
Sinead O’Connor isn’t retiring after all. A few days after saying that she was giving up touring and recording, the singer-songwriter (and now author), O’Connor had a change of heart. In a tweet, she explained her decision. “Good news. Fuck retiring. I retract. Am not retiring. I was temporarily allowing pigs in lipstick to fuck my head up… here’s my statement….. in the form of these three photos. It’s ‘colourful’ but that’s me : ) #LetOConnorBeOConnor,” it said. The tweet also included a fairly lengthy three photograph statement where she outlined her decision, including saying how it has been difficult for her to talk about the past in the length, including a harrowing incident she says happened with Prince. She also hit out at the British media, saying, “Abuse which takes the form of in...
Sinead O’Connor Announces Retirement From Recording and Touring
In a move that caught a lot of people off guard, Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor announced via her Twitter account on Friday that she would be retiring from recording, touring, and promoting her music effective immediately. Of course, she still has No Veteran Dies Alone releasing next year, but it sounds like her final album won’t be getting a tour or round of promotion along with it. The “Nothing Compares 2 U” singer recently made headlines for detailing how Prince terrorized her despite writing the chart-topping hit ahead of the release of her memoir, Rememberings. Now in the wake of the book’s release, the iconic vocalist realized she could be her “own boss” and decided she wasn’t going to wait for anyone else to tell her when it was time to walk away. “This is to...
Sinead O’Connor Details Alleged Prince Abuse: ‘Violent Abuser of Women’
Sinead O’Connor and Prince had a checkered history despite the latter penning the former’s biggest hit, at least according to O’Connor. Some time ago, O’Connor alluded to some problematic behavior, said that they didn’t get along, and promised that she’d reveal all in her memoir that was years in the making. Now, in a New York Times profile, O’Connor accuses Prince of terrorizing her. After “Nothing Compares 2 U” became a runaway hit, O’Connor says that Prince invited her up to the Hollywood mansion where he was living at the time and proceeded to rip her for swearing in interviews and forced his butler to serve her soup even though she didn’t want it. But the most disturbing accusation, according to the Times, is when Prince “sweetly suggested a pillow fight, only to thump ...
The 35 Best Albums of the Last 35 Years
Let’s face it: With most “Best Albums” lists, you know the broad strokes of the ranking before you even click. Part of that predictability is understandable: Most iconic records earn their reputation. But these rankings shouldn’t be fossilized, and a shit-ton of amazing LPs have been shoved aside in the pursuit of maintaining the status quo. We didn’t ignore the unimpeachable on our list — you’ll see plenty of the staples you’ve come to expect. But we also hope we’ll spark your curiosity and encourage you to hunt for a title you may have missed over the last 35 years. 35. Bruce Springsteen – Tunnel of Love (1987) CREDIT: Columbia Records How does one follow up a rock album that recalibrates stadium sound systems and offers a stark look at hard times in America? With love songs, of course. ...
The Canonization of Saint Sinead
“Children say that people are hung sometimes for speaking the truth.”Joan of Arc, 1400s “Put your fucking seatbelts on ’cause I haven’t finished yet.”Sinead O’Connor, SPIN 1992 Sometime in Fall 1987, in the dark, late night of a Manhattan short-term office rental, SPIN founder and editor-in-chief Bob Guccione Jr. was digging through trash. This was a common occurrence. Once his editors had gone home he’d rummage for promo cassettes of new music discarded as actual, literal rubbish. He played one particular tape, The Lion and The Cobra, its title taken from Psalm 19:13: “You will tread upon the lion and the cobra, you will trample the great lion and the serpent,” all night long while he worked, till five in the morning. The artist was a complete unknown named Sinead O’Connor. The next ...
Sinéad O’Connor Returns With Powerful Cover of Mahalia Jackson’s ‘Trouble of the World’
Sinéad O’Connor is back with her first song since contributing “Trouble Soon Be Over” to the 2015’s Tribute To Blind Willie Johnson compilation. Her latest song is another cover — Mahalia Jackson’s “Trouble of the World” — with all profits from the song’s sales set to be donated to Black Lives Matter charities. “[F]or me the song isn’t about death or dying,” O’Connor said in a statement. “More akin, a message of certainty that the human race is on a journey toward making this world paradise and that we will get there.” Not only is her rendition moving, but the black-and-white video will move you to your core. Showing images from the Black Lives Matter protests, O’Connor is also seen walking the streets wearing a “Black Lives Matter” sweatshirt and holding a sign wi...
