Opinion Express View: Sinead O’Connor’s story

What was Sinead O’Connor guilty of? Offending, ostensibly, religious sentiments on live television, or refusing to be a conventional “pop star”? Even before she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II during a performance on Saturday Night Live in 1992, the Dublin-born singer, who died at the age of 56 in London this week, refused to fit into the box that the music industry had made for her. Like when she shaved her head to defy the record executives who wanted her to wear miniskirts and play the part of a “woman entertainer”. The deliberate shedding of what is deemed to be a marker of feminine allure was a clear signal that O’Connor wouldn’t play by the rules.

This meant, among other things, breaking the silence around allegations of child sexual abuse in the church, calling out the music industry’s objectification of women and refusing to let the US national anthem play before her performances. Her powerful voice and moving cover of the Prince song “Nothing Compares 2 U” in her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got had made her a star. She could have had it easy. Instead, she chose the harder path of sticking to her convictions, drawing attention to injustice and refusing to become a commodity that could be polished and sold. The backlash was swift and cruel. Years later, O’Connor said the SNL moment hadn’t ruined her career, only those of the corporate fat cats who would have gotten fatter off the profits that she might have made for them. She had never wanted to be a star, only a performer.

Advertisement

In the many principled stances that she took over the course of her tumultuous life, O’Connor blazed a trail that others now walk down on. In Taylor Swift’s fight to regain control over her creative output, Kesha’s case against the music producer who sexually assaulted her and Billie Eilish’s early eschewal of feminine clothing are echoes of the battles O’Connor fought long ago.