I rarely post in this thread because I don't know much about music or musicians. I'm somewhere on the Autism spectrum and a lot of contemporary music is just a confusing jumble of noise to me. But a few musicians do make sense to my weird brain. Sinead O'Connor was one of them.
I'm surprised nobody has posted a tribute to Sinead O'Connor. Many other musicians get a tribute on this forum when they die. Most of whom I've never heard of. At least O'Connor is well enough known that I've actually heard of her. She's one of the few musicians I know a little about. Maybe she was too controversial to rate a mention here for fear of stirring up religious or political argument. Who knows? I thought she was a fascinating person and I liked much of her music.
Love her or hate her, she was an extraordinarily talented and creative writer and performer, with an incredible voice. I find it difficult to describe her music as entertaining, but it was certainly emotionally or politically provocative. She took a stand against sexual abuse of children in the Catholic church 10 years before anybody else knew about it. She knew it was an issue because she was a victim of it.
I think she was a courageous and intelligent person. Unfortunately, that courage and intelligence was often masked by the way she presented herself. Being completely screwed-up in the head from having lived a very traumatic personal life of physical, psychological and sexual abuse certainly didn't help. Given her fragile state of mind, I'm actually surprised she held herself together for this long. I suspect she's been on the verge of self-destruction for years, but her young son committing suicide last year obviously put her on really shaky footing. As far as I'm aware, the cause of her death hasn't been officially stated. I guess it's possible that she suffered some kind of physical problem (she had a few chronic illnesses) but I strongly suspect her death was self-inflicted as a result of her fractured and vulnerable mental state. If that's the case, it's just so sad in so many ways.
A sad life with a sad end, and a sad loss of an amazing talent, at only 56 years old.
Here's one from her last album. She could still pull off the sexy look at age 47.
