Music

Two weeks before hear death,  Sinead O’Connor revealed to fans that she was working on her 11th studio album and contemplating a world tour in support of the untitled work. In her last public post on Facebook, on July 11 O’Connor informed fans that she had recently moved back to London after 23 years and was “very happy to be home.” She also wrote that she finishing an album slated for release next year and plotting a world tour, including stops in the U.S., Europe, New Zealand and Australia. 

O’Connor died on Wednesday morning (July 26) at age 56. In a statement from the London Metropolitan Police — which did not refer to O’Connor by name, as is official policy, but which was confirmed by British press reports to be in reference to the singer — officials said a woman [O’Connor] was found unresponsive at her South London home on Wednesday morning and pronounced dead at the scene. The Police noted that the deceased’s next of kin had been notified of her death and that it is not being treated as suspicious; a coroner’s inquest is to follow.

In a note on Thursday morning (July 27), O’Connor’s management sent their condolences to O’Connor’s family and thanks to their peers for the support over the years. “To our business partners in the industry who have been nothing less than devoted to Sinead and again have shown nothing but love and compassion for her throughout our tenure, that cannot be overstated. Sincere and heartfelt thanks. You know who you are,” they wrote.

“To the wonderful musicians, artists and supporting teams who have been nothing short of incredible in the time that we knew Sinead. Incredible as musicians and incredible as true friends to Sinead. Those that worked with her and those that supported her from the sidelines, thank you,” they added.

67 Management also confirmed that “Sinead was completing her new album, reviewing new tour dates for 2024 and considering opportunities in relation to a movie of her book” at the time of her death. O’Connor released her cathartic memoir, Rememberings, in 2021. “Wonderful plans were afoot at this time. Testament and tribute to those who have put their hearts first for Sinead, to whom we are forever grateful,” managers Kenneth and Carl Papenfus wrote.

“It has been an honour to have worked with Sinead professionally, as musicians, producers and her artist managers over the last nine years, but much, much more than that Sinead was family. May she rest in peace.”

While no additional information is available on the album O’Connor was working on at the time of her death and her management did not respond to requests for additional details on the project, her most recent full-length release was 2014’s I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss. At the time of its release, O’Connor explained the pugnacious title in a now-unavailable post on her official website: “Originally I had a different title, The Vishnu Room, but a few months back when I saw the phrase ‘I’m not bossy, I’m the boss’ and became aware of the Ban Bossy campaign, I wished I could re-name the album, since indeed it can be tricky being a female boss and I think Sheryl [Sandberg]’s campaign is a terribly important one.”

O’Connor said she became aware of the “Ban Bossy” campaign at the time and decided to re-appropriate it, as was her rebellious wont, before finding out that it was too late because the album art for her 10th studio collection had already been printed. “But last week, when the record company received the promo shots, which included the cover shot you now see, they asked could they change the planned cover to the current one, and that allowed me the opportunity of changing the title. Very happy girl,” she said.

Sandberg’s Ban Bossy campaign advocated for the elimination of the word ‘bossy’ to describe leadership qualities in women; Beyoncé was one of the high-profile supporters of the viral movement.

O’Connor had been mostly out of the public eye and had not released significant music in the years since Bossy. She released a cover of gospel great Mahalia Jackson’s “Trouble of the World” in Oct. 2020 to benefit Black Lives Matter. At the time, she told Rolling Stone that she was finishing work on a new album called No Veteran Dies Alone that she planned to release in 2022, and which was to include the Jackson cover.

“I’m writing more about personal matters, being a mother,” she said at the time. “The record is like letters to my children. The songs are very subconscious. I don’t know what the tone of the whole record will be, but that’s what it is so far.” O’Connor is survived by three children; her 17-year-old son, Shane, died by suicide in January 2022.

Just hours after the news broke that Sinead O’Connor had passed at age 56, P!nk found the most fitting way to pay tribute to the powerful, pioneering vocalist whose calling card was emotional poignancy and fierce independence.

On the first U.S. date of her neon-lit, fittingly titled Summer Carnival tour, the acrobatic singer stopped spinning for a few minutes, turned down the bright lights and acknowledged that the world had lost one of its most cherished voices, one that had meant everything to teenage Alicia Moore back before the world knew her power.

“When I was a little girl, my mom grew up in Atlantic City and I used to go down to the Ocean City Boardwalk with my ten dollars and I would make a demo tape… I would make a little cassette tape and imagine it was my demo for the record company,” P!nk told the crowd while standing center stage with piano player Jason Chapman as a hush came over the sold-out baseball stadium.

“And it would always be either ‘Greatest Love of All’ by Whitney Houston or ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ by Sinead O’Connor. So in honor of Sinead, and in honor of my very, very talented friend Brandi Carlile I asked her if she would come out here and sing this song with me.”

The last-minute addition to the tightly scripted and choreographed show featuring the headliner and her opening act was a tall hill to climb at best. O’Connor’s famous rendition of the Prince-penned ballad is one of modern music’s most moving, gut-wrenching love laments. More subdued than the equally untouchable Houston song, “Nothing Compares” is perhaps even more of a vocal challenge because of an implicit, rending emotion that’s impossible to fake.

The heartache in O’Connor’s version, however, could not have been in better hands than P!nk and Carlile’s, however, as the two friends hugged midstage and proceeded to put on a masterclass in impromptu song interpretation. (Keeping in mind, however, that there is plenty of YouTube evidence of both women having sung the song before, so they clearly know its contours.)

“It’s been seven hours and 15 days/ Since you took your love away/ I go out every night and sleep all day/ Since you took your love away,” P!nk sang gently over minimal piano and keyboard accompaniment, her voice floating crisply over the rapt audience.

With tears visible on a number of fans on the stadium’s packed floor, Carlile took over, crooning, “I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant/ But nothing, I said nothing can take away these blues,” the signature crack in her voice adding an extra layer of sorrow on what was already a very sad day for music.

Matching her grit, P!nk leaned into the second verse, wailing, “where did I go wrong?” before they came together to power through the verse, “I went to the doctor and guess what he told me/ Guess what he told me/ He said, ‘Girl you better try to have fun no matter what you do’/ But he’s a fool.”

Carlile then let out a high, lonesome wail as both women appeared to get in their feelings about the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 ballad that turned O’Connor into a global superstar, for good and ill. Neither made the song about them. But what made the song theirs in that moment was the clear conviction that it meant something special to both women, and to all of us, a gift they honored by sharing it with their most adoring fans as the raw feelings were still very fresh.

“You never know what people are going through,” P!nk said after the performance. “It’s not that hard to give people a smile… we’re all learning that lesson together now.”

It was a wise and painful message on what was an otherwise joyous night. And without saying it, they ended by looking deeply into each other’s eyes and beautifully singing the words that will now cement O’Connor’s memory in our hearts and minds forever: “Nothing compares to you.”

Watch video of the performance below.