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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.

Singer-songwriter Sinead O'Connor performs on stage at Vogue Theatre on February 01, 2020 in Vancouver, Canada
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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


David Blevins - Senior Ireland correspondent

David Blevins

Senior Ireland correspondent

@skydavidblevins

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.

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‘Love you bro’: Zayn Malik’s tribute to Liam Payne at first show since former bandmate’s death

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'Love you bro': Zayn Malik's tribute to Liam Payne at first show since former bandmate's death

Zayn Malik paid tribute to former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne as he kicked off his solo tour.

Payne died last month of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage” after falling from a third-floor balcony in Buenos Aires, according to a post-mortem.

Images from Leeds’s O2 Academy on Saturday showed Malik – who delayed his Stairway To The Sky tour due to Payne’s funeral on Wednesday – shared a tribute.

A message was displayed with a heart on a large blue screen behind the singer reading: “Liam Payne 1993-2024. Love you bro.”

The 31-year-old also previously postponed the US leg of the tour after the “heartbreaking loss”.

He later rescheduled the Edinburgh shows, which had been planned for 20 and 21 November, to December due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

Following Payne’s death, Malik said he “never got to thank” him for his support during some of the “most difficult” times.

“I will cherish all the memories I have with you in my heart forever,” he said in a post on Instagram.

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Malik rose to fame in 2010 when Simon Cowell teamed him up with Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan on talent show The X Factor.

Malik left the band in 2015 and all members went on to pursue their own solo careers.

An investigation has been launched into Payne’s death by prosecutors and three people have been charged in connection with the incident.

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Kanye West accused of sexual assault on set of music video in new lawsuit

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Kanye West accused of sexual assault on set of music video in new lawsuit

Rapper Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – has been accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that alleges he strangled a model on the set of a music video.

Warning: This story contains details that readers may find distressing

The lawsuit alleges the musician shoved his fingers in the claimant’s mouth at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in 2010, in what it refers to as “pornographic gagging”, Sky News’ US partner network NBC News reported.

The model who brought the case – which was filed on Friday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York – was a background actor for another musician’s music video that Ye was guest-starring in, NBC said, citing the lawsuit.

She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the 47-year-old.

A representative for Ye was approached for comment by NBC News on Saturday.

The New York City Police Department said it took “sexual assault and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors”.

The lawsuit alleges that a few hours into the shoot, the rapper arrived on set, took over control and ordered “female background actors/models, including the claimant, to line up in the hallway”.

The rapper is then believed to have “evaluated their appearances, pointed to two of the women, and then commanded them to follow him”.

The lawsuit adds the claimant, who was said to be wearing “revealing lingerie”, was uncomfortable but went with Ye to a suite which had a sofa and a camera.

When in the room, Ye is said to have ordered the production team to start playing the music, to which he did not know his lyrics and instead rambled, “rawr, rawr, rawr”.

The lawsuit claims: “Defendant West then pulled two chairs near the camera, positioned them across from each other, and instructed the claimant to sit in the chair in front of the camera.”

While stood over the model, the lawsuit clams Ye strangled her with both hands, according to NBC.

It claims he went on to “emulate forced oral sex” with his hands, with the rapper allegedly screaming: “This is art. This is f****** art. I am like Picasso.”

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Universal Music Group is also named in the lawsuit as a defendant and is accused of failing to investigate the incident.

The corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment by NBC.

Jesse S Weinstein, a lawyer representing the claimant, said the woman “displayed great courage to speak out against some of the most powerful men and entities within the entertainment industry”.

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Joy star James Norton on the ‘postcode lottery’ of IVF – and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first ‘test-tube baby’

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Joy star James Norton on the 'postcode lottery' of IVF - and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first 'test-tube baby'

Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.

In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.

The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.

James Norton stars in Joy. Pic: Kerry Brown/ Netflix
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In the UK, statistics show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade

Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.

“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.

“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”

Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. Pic: Netflix/ Kerry Brown
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Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. All pics: Netflix/ Kerry Brown

Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.

But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.

Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.

The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.

James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie star in Joy. Pic: Kerry Brown/ Netflix
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Norton portrays scientist Bob Edwards, while McKenzie plays embryologist Jean Purdy

While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.

“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.

“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”

In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.

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Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough

“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”

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In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.

“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”

Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November

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