Sinéad O’Connor is a particularly famous Irish singer, known the world over for her hits, as well as for her political commitment and outspoken attitude. A woman of character and anti-conformism, Sinéad O’Connor is a great artist with dissolute morals, who has never ceased to make headlines for her musical talent and her contrarian attitude. A must-see artist!
Sinéad O’Connor was born in Dublin on December 8, 1966, into a Dublin family of 5 children. His father, Jack O’Connor, is a lawyer who decides to retrain as an engineer, while his wife, Mari O’Connor, looks after the children as a housewife. However, O’Connor’s life was full of disputes, and they finally decided to divorce.
At the time, Sinéad was just 8 years old.
She moved in with her mother and siblings, and experienced a painful childhood marked by physical abuse, which Sinéad O’Connor would later echo in one of her songs.
In 1979, Sinéad O’Connor decided to leave her mother’s home to join her father and his new wife. Nevertheless, Sinéad is not an easy child, and her daily life seems to be punctuated by theft of all kinds, truancy and other adolescent petty theft. Faced with this situation, her father placed 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 transferred to the Newtown boarding school, where she met Joseph Falvy, an Irish language teacher, who suggested she record a 4-song demo. He understands that Sinéad is a very talented young woman, who deserves to be assisted in her musical journey.
In 1984, things gathered pace: Sinéad met Columb Farrelly, with whom she recruited several members to form a group called “Ton Ton Macoute”. The band goes to Waterford and then Dublin, playing in pubs and on a few stages. By force of circumstance, Sinéad dropped out of school for good, much to the dismay of her father, who had made every effort to give her a good education.
On February 10, 1985, Sinéad learned that her mother had died in a car accident. The latter is now overwhelmed by grief, despite his previously strained relationship with her. Faced with these events, Sinéad decides to leave the group and set sail for London. There she met Anthony Kiedis, frontman of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom she had a brief affair.
She signs her first record deal, and records her first song, “Heroine”, co-written with U2 guitarist The Edge. The single was a huge hit, and Sinéad went on to release the album “The Lion and the Cobra”, followed by “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got”. Sinéad O’Connor quickly established herself as a politically committed, maverick artist. Her look appealed to a public increasingly attracted by this anti-conformist woman, who didn’t hesitate to attack the church by tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II in the middle of a concert, or criticizing the actions of the IRA.
His second album went gold, thanks to his cover of the Prince song “Nothing Compares To You”. It reached number 1 in the charts in Ireland, Germany and the UK for several months, and was even more successful than the original song.
Her reputation is now international, and she takes part in numerous concerts, such as “The Wall Live in Berlin”, where she is joined by such greats as Pink Floyd member Roger Waters.
That same year, she married her producer John Reynolds for the first time, with whom she had one child, Jake Reynolds. However, she quickly divorced her husband and began a series of adventures.
In 1992, she collaborated with Peter Gabriel, then recorded the soundtrack to the film “Au Nom du Père” with U2.
1994 saw the release of his new album, “Universal Mother”, 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. The album was particularly well received in Ireland, though slightly shunned in other countries.
In 2001, Sinéad remarried 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 a final child with his 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.
