Sinéad O’Connor in August 2014.Photo:Rob Ball/Redferns via Getty Images
Rob Ball/Redferns via Getty Images
No one compares toSinéad O’Connor.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad,” her familyconfirmed in a statement. “Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”
A rep for O’Connor did not immediately reply to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
With the release of 10 albums, most recently 2014’sI’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss,O’Connor had quite the discography.
Look back at some of the most memorable songs of her career:
“Nothing Compares 2 U”
“Drink Before the War”
On “Drink Before the War,” the turmoil in O’Connor’s voice is palpable. The 1987 protest song is a slow-burner, and touts O’Connor’s frustrations through her anguished lilt: “Well, you tell us that we’re wrong / And you tell us not to sing our song / Nothing we can say will make you see/ You got a heart of stone you can never feel.”
“All Apologies”
“Mandinka”
Three years before O’Connor rose to fame, she released “Mandinka,” the raw second single from her 1987 debut albumThe Lion and the Cobra.
The exhilarating rock number features O’Connor’s towering screams and defiant vocals in what emerges as a carefree love song. “I don’t know no shame/ I feel no pain/ I can’t see the flame," she exclaims in the track’s chorus.
“No Man’s Woman”
In 2000, O’Connor released her fifth studio albumFaith and Courage, which also coincided with the singer publicly coming out as a lesbian. In the same interviewwhere she addressed her sexuality, she commented on the lyrics of “No Man’s Woman,” the grunge-pop lead single from that record, which seemed to contextualize the place she was in her life.
“It talks about a soul, a female soul who does not want to be a girlfriend or a wife, but wants to be single, really, but who is very much in love with the spirit of men and wants to conduct a relationship with the spirit of men. The song also honors the woman’s soul, [which] feels that her teachers will be men, her guides will be men, and her rescuers have been men. Not romantically, though, but spiritually,” she said.
source: people.com
