Irish singer Sinead O’Connor dies aged 56
Irish singer Sinead O’Connor has died aged 56, her family has confirmed.
She was best known for her 1990 song Nothing Compares 2 U – the track made her a global star, partly due to its iconic video.
A family statement said: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinead.
“Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”
No cause of death was given.
Live – Tributes to an ‘unmatched talent’
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar tweeted: “Her music was loved around the world and her talent was unmatched and beyond compare.”
Singer Alison Moyet tweeted she had a “voice that cracked stone”, while ex-Stone Roses star Ian Brown said working with her was “a highlight of my musical life”.
Bryan Adams posted a picture of O’Connor and said he “loved” working with her.
Irish UFC star Conor McGregor also shared images and said Ireland had “lost an iconic voice and one of our absolute finest”.
The singer was known for her outspoken views on subjects such as religion, war and feminism.
She infamously tore up a photo of the Pope on Saturday Night Live in 1992 to protest against abuse in the Catholic Church.
O’Connor converted to Islam in 2018 and changed her name to Shuhada Sadaqat, but still performed under her old name.
The singer cancelled gigs in 2021 after announcing she was entering a one-year programme for trauma and addiction.
The following year her 17-year-old son Shane died by suicide.
O’Connor referenced his death in an emotional tweet last week in which she said she was “lost” without him.
She posted a row of crying emojis alongside a photo of the pair and said she had been “living as undead night creature since [his death]”
“He was the love of my life, the lamp of my soul. We were one soul in two halves,” she wrote.
O’Connor on stage in Vancouver in 2020
The singer recorded 10 studio albums and was nominated for eight Grammys, but never topped the huge success of Nothing Compares 2 U – originally written by Prince.
The intense close-up of the singer – and her tear during the video – is instantly recognisable to a generation of fans.
She once said she had shaved her head in response to music bosses pressuring her to be conventionally glamorous.
Sinead O’Connor was ridiculed – but time proved her right
Sinead O’Connor was speaking truth to power long before speaking truth to power was a thing.
In 1990, when she shot to global stardom with her mesmerising version of Nothing Compares 2 U, the Catholic Church still held sway in Ireland.
“Catholic Ireland” was a place where contraception, divorce, homosexual activity and abortion had all been illegal.
For a woman to shave her head and raise it above the parapet to challenge the powerful institutions of church and state was unthinkable.
Who could forget her tearing a picture of Pope John Paul II in half during an appearance on Saturday Night Live in America?
She was ridiculed in the wake of it and faced calls for her music to be banned but her decision to stage a protest against clerical abuse proved prophetic.
Struggling with her own mental health, it was easy for the powerful to write her off as a loose cannon, but time proved her right and justified her brave stance.
In a statement expressing his condolences, Ireland’s president Michael D Higgins spoke of the “authenticity” of her music and that brutal honesty sums up her life.
She spent most of it openly searching for peace and her legion of fans across the world will hope she has now found it.
O’Connor began playing on the streets of Dublin using a guitar given to her by a nun and released debut album The Lion and the Cobra in 1987.
Her last record, I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss, came out in 2014.
“Everyone wants a pop star, see?” she wrote in her memoir two years ago. “But I am a protest singer. I just had stuff to get off my chest. I had no desire for fame.”
She was married four times – the final one ending after 16 days in 2011 – and had four children.
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
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Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
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