Summing up in a few words the legacy of the talented and controversial Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor, whose death at age 56 was announced by her family on Wednesday, is practically impossible.
However, the main events that marked his life seem connected by pain and controversy, a kind of thread that allows him to travel through his existence, marked by his indomitable spirit, an overflowing talent and success, that which he achieved on international stages and from which, apparently, he tried to flee.
These are some of the episodes, among many, for which the singer of hits such as Nothing Compares 2 U and Drink Before the War, who sold millions of records worldwide and protested against church abuse, war and misogyny, will be remembered.
A stormy childhood
"I suffer from a condition called complex post-traumatic stress disorder that is the result of things I had to go through growing up," the artist said in her memoir titled Rememberings, published in 2021.
Sinead O'Connor performs in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on September 28, 2014.Getty Images
Sinéad O'Connor was born in Glenageary, County Dublin, the capital of Ireland, on December 8, 1966.
Her mother died when she was just a teenager and suffered the torments of growing up in a home where, she said on many occasions, abuse abounded. He confessed in several interviews that this had a devastating effect on his mental health. Living with his father, he said, was never possible.
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At the age of 15, she was forced to spend 18 months in a nursing home when she was caught shoplifting and repeatedly missing school.
Music seems to have been the lifeline he sought to stay afloat: in 1984 he created the band Ton Ton Macoute and there began his unsuspected path to stardom.
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Stardom with Nothing Compares 2 U, written by Prince
Nothing Compares 2 U (Nothing compares to you), from 1990, the famous song composed by the late American singer and guitarist Prince, made it world famous and unleashed one of its best known controversies.
The song, which occupied number one on the charts that year, made her a familiar face within the pop scene.
"The media called me crazy because I wasn't acting like a pop star was supposed to," she once said. "It seems to me that being a pop star is almost like being in a kind of prison. You have to have the image of a good girl."
Her relationship with Prince was also bitter.
The singer said that "at that time [the American artist] had several protégés and I had recorded his song without having anything to do with him."
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"[Prince] invited me to his home in Los Angeles and started scolding me for swearing in interviews. When I told him to go to the c..., he got very angry and became quite physically threatening [...] There were some knocks. The only thing I could do was spit it out," he confessed.
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He refused to play the U.S. anthem.
In 1990, another scandal under his name dominated the headlines of major newspapers. O'Connor, now an established figure, told organizers of a concert at the Garden State Arts Center in New Jersey that he didn't want the U.S. anthem played before she took the stage.
As a result, his music was banned from several New York radio stations.
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Of that incident, he once commented: "Honestly, I don't harbor any disrespect for the United States or Americans, but I have a policy that no national anthem be played before my concerts in any country, not even my own, because they have nothing to do with music in general."
A boycott of the Grammy Awards
O'Connor boycotted the celebration of the Grammy Awards ceremony in 1991 by refusing to accept the award for Best Alternative Album because, he said, it was an event that had little to do, in his opinion, with art and was pure commercialism.
Sinéad O'Connor tears up a photo of Pope John Paul II during NBC's Saturday Night Live in 1992.
The photo of the pope who broke on television
In 1992, at age 25, when she was sailing on the crest of success, the singer shook the world by breaking live, during the broadcast of NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL), an image of Pope John Paul II to protest – she explained later – against the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church.
O'Connor was the show's musical guest just over a year after the resounding success of Nothing Compares 2 U, and was making her second appearance on the popular Saturday comedy and music slot that airs near midnight.
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"I'm not sorry for what I did. It was brilliant," he said years ago when recalling the event. "But it was very traumatizing."
Her protest put her in the crosshairs of criticism from the likes of Madonna and Frank Sinatra, who said: "He should leave the country. Their behavior is unforgivable [...] For their sake, it's better that we never meet."
The incident was followed by "10 very lonely years," O'Connor said.
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Your child's suicide
Last year, the singer was dealt a devastating blow: the body of one of her four children, aged 17, was found by authorities in the Bray area of County Wicklow, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Dublin, on January 7, 2022. He had taken his own life.
"My beautiful son, Nevi'im Nesta Ali Shane O'Connor, the very light of my life, decided to end his earthly struggle today and is now with God," he said in a statement that day.
After that tragedy she was placed on suicide watch. His life was never the same again.
With information from TODAY, DublinLive and TMZ