Sinead O'Connor album cover photo

On her artist profile in one of the streaming platforms, it wrote: “Sinead O’Connor ranked among the most distinctive and controversial pop music stars of the alternative era and was the first and, in many ways, the most influential of the numerous female performers whose music dominated the airwaves throughout the last decade of the 20^th century.”

That’s accurate of who O’Connor is and what she accomplished in popular music. Even those who grew up hearing her on the radio and seeing her visage in music magazines and videos, she struck quite the figure.  A visual contradiction both gorgeous and edgy, young and beautiful with alarmingly green eyes punctuated with a shaved head!

But when she sang, she sounded so right. She turned a side-project song by the great Prince called “Nothing Compares 2 U” and made it the biggest song of 1990. The song has since been the song that’s most associated with her. Who could forget that hypnotic video that almost solely focused on her face whilst she sang? She became an international pop star after that.

But three years before, Sinead was already an alternative music star in her own right. Gen X and new wave listeners would know of “Mandinka” where she’d go from sweet-voiced siren to raspy rocker and sing:

“They’re throwing it all this way / dragging it back to the start / and they say ‘see how the glass is raised?’/I have refused to take part / I told 'them drink something new’/please let me pull something through.”

Kinda foreshadowed how her star trajectory went. But this is not about that.

“The Lion and The Cobra,” the 1987 album where “Madinka” came from demonstrated that Sinead was a deep well of emotions who opens up like a dam when she sings. From moody alt-rock opener “Jackie” to when she delves into themes of personal struggle and self-discovery in haunting “Troy.” Spirituality, religion, social commentary, vulnerability, strength, and empowerment are themes that O’Connor has delved into on said album.

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It's unfortunate that O’ Connor pulled that stunt at that 1992 TV show. But was it really surprising it came from her? The same one who sang about religious and political conflict in an evocative song called “Jerusalem.”

Her career took a nosedive but years after, the highest-ranking figure of the church acknowledged the issue the “Mandinka” raised to make people aware. A lot might not have liked how it looked back then, but she was on the money on that one.

Morrissey recently ripped into musicians posting tributes when he said, “you praise her now only because it is too late. You hadn’t had the guts to support her when she was alive,” said the ex-The Smiths singer.

O'Connor became a pop star, but at her core, she was a protest singer outspoken about her social and political views and she was serious about her spirituality and wanted to find truth through it no matter where it took her.

She was also a beautiful singer who sang with her heart on display and was unafraid to speak her truth. She left us with a heap of music, and one of those is a song called “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

It went: ‘Everyone can see what’s going on / they laugh ‘cause they know they’re untouchable / not because what I said was wrong…whatever it may bring / I will live by my own policies / I will sleep with a clear conscience / I will sleep in peace.’

Rest easy lioness, you’re with the angels now.