Sinead O Connor - Biography

Last Editor: clubs.union				Sinead O Connor Biography -   Name : Sinead O Connor Profession : Singer Birth Details : born December 8, 1966

Sinead O Connor Trivia -

N/A

Sinead O Connor Detailed Biography -

Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor (born December 8, 1966) is a critically acclaimed Irish pop music singer and songwriter. In addition to her music, she is known for her unconventional appearance (she often has her head shaved) and controversial opinions. O'Connor was born in Dublin and was named after Sinéad de Valera, wife of Irish President Eamon de Valera and mother of the doctor presiding over the delivery, and Saint Bernadette of Lourdes. She was the middle of five children, sister to Joseph, Eimear, John, and Eoin. Joseph O'Connor is now a notable novelist. Her parents were John O'Connor, a structural engineer later turned barrister, and Marie O'Connor. The couple married young and had a troubled relationship and split up when O'Connor was eight. The three eldest children went to live with their mother, where O'Connor claims they were subject to frequent physical abuse. John O'Connor's efforts to secure custody of his children in a country which routinely gave custody to the mother and prohibited divorce caused him to become chairman of the Divorce Action Group and become a prominent public spokesman. At one point, he even debated his own wife on the subject on a radio show. In 1979, Sinéad O'Connor left her mother and went to live with her father and his new wife. However, her shoplifting and truancy caused her to end up in a reform school at age 15, the Grinan Training Centre run by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity. In some ways, she thrived there, especially in writing and music, but she also chafed under the imposed conformity. Unruly students there were sometimes sent to sleep in the adjoining nursing home, an experience which made her later comment "I have never — and probably will never — experience such panic and terror and agony over anything". (Rolling Stone, April 1988) One of the volunteers at Grinan was sister of Paul Byrne, drummer for the band In Tua Nua, who heard O'Connor singing "Evergreen" by Barbra Streisand. She recorded a song with them called "Take My Hand" but they felt that at 15, she was too young to join the band. In 1983, her father sent her to Newtown School, an exclusive Quaker boarding school in Waterford, an institution with a much more permissive atmosphere than Grinan. With the help and encouragement of her Gaelic teacher, Joeseph Falvy, she recorded a four song demo, with two covers and two of her own songs which would later appear on her first album. Through an ad she placed in Hot Press in the summer of 1984, she met Columb Farrelly. Together they recruited a few other members and formed a band called Ton Ton Macoute, named for the zombies of Haitian myth. In the autumn, the band even moved to Waterford briefly while O'Connor attended Newtown, but she soon dropped out of school and followed them to Dublin, where their performances gained them positive attention. Their sound was inspired by Farrelly's interest in witchcraft, mysticism, and world music, though most observers thought O'Connor's singing and stage presence was the band's driving force. On February 10, 1985, O'Connor's mother died in a car accident. O'Connor was devastated despite her strained relationship with her mother. Soon afterward she left the band, which stayed together despite O'Connor's statements to the contrary in later interviews, and moved to London. O'Connor's time as singer for Ton Ton Macoute brought her to the attention of the music industry and she was signed by Ensign Records. She also acquired an experienced manager, Fachtna O'Ceallaigh, former head of U2's Mother Records. Soon after she was signed she embarked on her first major project, providing the vocals for the song "Heroine", which she cowrote with U2's guitarist The Edge for the soundtrack to the film Captive. While she was building bridges she was also burning them. O'Ceallaigh, who had been fired by U2 for complaining about them in an interview, was outspoken with his comments about music and politics, and O'Connor began to adopt the same habits, making controversial comments about the IRA and even directing negative remarks towards U2, who were admirers of her music. Things were contentious in the studio as well. She was paired with veteran producer Mick Glossop, whom she later derided as "a fucking old hippy". They had differing visions regarding her debut album and four months of recordings were scrapped. During this time she became pregnant by her session drummer John Reynolds (formerly of the band Transvision Vamp) and the record company pressured her to get an abortion. Thanks largely to the persuasion of O'Celallaigh, the record company allowed O'Connor, 20 years old and by then seven months pregnant, to produce her own album. O'Connor's first two albums (1988's The Lion & the Cobra and 1990's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got) gained considerable attention and mostly positive reviews. She was praised for her unique voice and her original songs. She was also noted for her appearance: her shaved head, angry expression, and sometimes shapeless or unusual clothing. The Lion & The Cobra was not embraced by the pop mainstream, although "Mandinka" was the lead single, and a remix of "I Want Your (Hands On Me)" became a moderate hit when rapper MC Lyte added verse to it. I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got contained her biggest hit single, "Nothing Compares 2 U", a song written by Prince and arranged for her by him. The track hit #1 in Ireland in July 1990 and remained there for eleven weeks; it is the eighth most successful single of the 1990's there. It had similar success in the UK, charting at #1 for three weeks, although it was less popular in mainland Europe. In the USA it also claimed the #1 spot on the Hot 100 chart. Public Enemy's Hank Shocklee remixed "The Emperor's New Clothes" that was coupled with the Celtic funk of "I Am Stretched On Your Grave." Pre-dating but included on I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got was "Jump In The River" (which originally appeared on the Married To The Mob soundtrack); the 12-inch version of the single included a remix featuring performance artist Karen Finley in signature X-rated form. In 1990 she joined many other guests for former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin. (Later, in 1996 she guested on Broken China, a solo album by Richard Wright of Pink Floyd.) In 1992, she contributed a cover of "You Do Something To Me" to the Cole Porter tribute/AIDS fundraising album Red Hot + Blue. This was followed by the release of Am I Not Your Girl?, an album of standards and torch songs that she had grown up listening to. Her interpretations ran from sublime to overwrought to bizarre, and - coupled with her Garden State Arts Center controversy (see below) - the record lost for her much of the commercial momentum her career had built up until then. The 1993 soundtrack to film In the Name of the Father featured "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart," with significant contributions from Bono of U2. 1994's more conventional Universal Mother did not succeed in restoring her mass appeal, though its opener, "Fire On Babylon," remains a fan favorite. She toured with Lollapalooza in 1995, but dropped out when she became pregnant. O'Connor was replaced on the bill by Elastica. Faith And Courage from 2000, largely regarded as a return to form, included the single "No Man's Woman" and featured contributions from Wyclef Jean of the Fugees and Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. On the eve of its release she "came out" as a lesbian, and then confusingly retracted the statement. Her 2002 album, Sean-Nós Nua, marked a departure in that O'Connor interpreted traditional Irish folk songs, including several in the Irish language. She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty was a live album that soon followed, at which point O'Connor announced her retirement from music. This proved to be a short-lived retirement, as the reggae album Throw Down Your Arms appeared in 2005, greeted with very enthousiastic reviews, considering it one of O'Connor's best albums. It was based on the Rastafarian culture and lifestyle, O'Connor having spent time in Jamaica in 2004. She performed the single "Throw Down Your Arms" on The Late Late Show in November, but was not well received, embarrassing host Pat Kenny and placing her bare feet on the chair beside her. She also made negative comments about the war on Iraq and the role the Irish airport Shannon played in it.