Zoom Image
Sinead O'Connor 2012 in Ireland
Photo: David Corio / Redferns / Getty Images
When you start watching Sinead O'Connor's interviews and TV show appearances on YouTube, you are appropriately moved and somewhat disturbed less than an hour later. The singer, who has now died at the age of 56, showed all facets on television - from at least 1989 to 2021.
1992: Of course, there's this legendary and now so much-talked about performance on "Saturday Night Live" in which O'Connor sings the Bob Marley song "War" and changes the lyrics: it becomes an indictment of child abuse, in the end she tears up the image of the Pope and calls on children to fight.
1990: A completely different performance, a completely different topic – but also a lot of wisdom: At the age of 23, the singer speaks of herself as an old woman in an interview. And she was apparently deadly serious. After all, she is a mother and has money. In any case, this is their own justification for the self-description.
O'Connor says "I don't know" quite often in the interview, but actually knows what she has to say. And it doesn't make it easy for the interviewer, who unfortunately can only be heard off-screen. He asks: "Has much changed in your life in recent years?" And she: "Yes, of course, everyone's life changes." She also doesn't think that musicians should talk about politics just because they make music. She herself does not know enough to be able to talk about the situation in Ireland, for example. At 23, the singer actually shows more foresight than some in their entire lives.
1999: Gosh, she's tough in this clip. O'Connor wears her hair short, but not shaved off – and most importantly, she wears a priest's robe and a huge cross around her neck. She was ordained a priestess by the Latin Tridentine Church, a sect-like free church according to the BBC. She says: "I became a priestess because I believe in the Church". This is hard to believe from today's perspective, but as always, she seems very convinced, of course.
After answering five minutes of questions about her motivation, the consecration, the reactions and what lies ahead, she asks in an ironic tone if she can sing her song now – after making it clear at the beginning of the interview that she doesn't want to be treated like a teenager.
2017: At the age of 50, you can see the singer leaf through a TV psychologist pretty much everything that lies dormant in her depths. There wasn't much that was beautiful. She even comments on a video she recorded of herself a few years earlier, in which she accuses her family of leaving her alone in a state of absolute mental exhaustion.
It's disturbing to see that and at the same time insanely impressive. There is no shame at all. Whether that was good for her or bad, she showed herself. That's what makes her a big rebel in this clip. Because even if mental illness is talked about more openly today, Sinéad O'Connor was already three levels ahead.
2021: Two years ago, she gave an interview on the occasion of the publication of her memoirs, wearing a headscarf. She is now a Muslim. In this interview, O'Connor calls her childhood Ireland "a theocracy" and says that it is to blame for how children are abused at home.
Even as a small child, she decided to tell everyone about what had been done to her and her siblings. Abuse and violence in many forms: physical, sexual, psychological. She kept this promise to herself with this interview.