Remembering musician and activist Sinéad O'Connor

24:59Remembering musician and activist Sinéad O'Connor

Outspoken Irish singer and activist Sinéad O'Connor died yesterday at the age of 56.

The loss was felt quickly around the world by friends, collaborators and fans alike. Everyone from Russell Crowe and Jamie Lee Curtis to Alanis Morissette, Conor McGregor and Irish President Michael D. Higgins have paid tribute to the late musician, sharing stories of the way both her singing voice and her fearless manner of speaking had inspired them.

Irish-Canadian writer Anakana Schofield, culture writer Niko Stratis and music critic Maura Johnston join guest host Amil Niazi to look back at O'Connor's life and career.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

Amil: Let's talk about that first album, The Lion and the Cobra. It was released in 1987. She was only 20 years old. Another thing that just blows my mind. What was the reaction to Sinead O'Connor when she first arrived on the scene?

Maura: This was the sort of continuation of the MTV age where artists' images were as important as their songs in some ways, as far as getting them out there — especially in America, where MTV had become by then the de facto radio station. But I think also her voice just cut through in such an impressive way. She was fearless, she was defiant and she made music on her own terms. I think that was what made her stand out so much in that increasingly crowded landscape of what was then called "modern rock" in the late '80s…. People who were following the things that were geared toward modern rock were taking notice, and were really appreciating the fact that she was cutting her own profile in this impressive way.

Amil: Anakana, why did she matter so much for you and other Irish women at that time? 

Anakana: Well, it's really important to understand the context of Ireland at that time. First of all, we grew up with Sinéad. I'm very close in age to Sinéad, and yesterday a friend of mine said, "I adored her all my life." She was so critical to us because first of all, music was the male domain largely. She was one of the first women.

The other thing that I think was really important about Sinéad was her physicality, when she took to the stage — she was in her body. She's very muscular. Her voice was very muscular. She demands public reckoning on very difficult and violent truths. We didn't have that kind of space in Ireland in the '80s and '90s, so she gave us enormous courage. I mean, I'm a novelist. There's no way I could have written especially my second book, Martin John, without the influence of Sinéad O'Connor. No question. She comes out of a time where if you spoke up about things, nobody would have believed you. I mean, this is an oppressive, very patriarchal culture that was living under, basically, the iron fist of the church. And, you know, the female body was enemy number one or two — probably one. So that context is very important.

WATCH | Official music video for Nothing Compares 2 U:

Amil: So Niko, in 1990, she goes from this exciting young alt-rock singer and boom, she's a bonafide pop star with Nothing Compares 2 U…. It was just something that once you saw it, you could not forget it. Why was that combination — that voice, that song, that magic that occurred with that video — so powerful?

Niko: Because we hadn't really seen anything like it. Sinéad O'Connor is really one of a kind in so many different ways. It was so striking to see this beautiful woman with the shaved head who doesn't look like so much of what we were sold as pop music at the time. She doesn't fit that bill. And then you hear that voice, this voice that cuts through the fog. It's tender, but it's capable of so much power — and it's always holding itself back. There's all these things happening at one time, and it envelops you in this way that just not a lot of other stuff did.

It reminds me a lot of when I first heard [Tracy Chapman's song] Fast Car, when you get this feeling of, "This is going to change my life forever," you know? There's a lot of stuff I love that I know will never change my life. But the first time you hear Nothing Compares 2 U, it's like, "Oh, this is going to haunt me."... I think that's a really powerful thing, and I think it's because it just stood in such stark contrast to everything else that we were seeing at that time. It was this thing where she was like, "This is who I am." And it was very honest and very earnest, and it was never put on. She was never doing it to further her career or to look like anybody else. She was very staunchly trying to be herself.

Maura: I think you can also point out how sonically striking Nothing Compares 2 U was, especially in the context of the time. I think this is true about Fast Car as well. Pop music in the late '80s, early '90s was very full of stuff because everyone was like, "We have all these synthesizers and studio tricks. We have to put them on every song!" It was the age of big guitar solos. But both of those songs, Fast Car and Nothing Compares 2 U were also just these spaces where you could really focus on what this singer was communicating. I think that's a very powerful thing — and it can really reach a lot of people in a very special way, in a very quick fashion.

Amil: Yes, I love that. Thank you for adding that, Maura. I also found that in her vulnerability was always such strength. So then she becomes hugely famous, and in a flash everything changes again. And it's clear that she is not a typical pop star because at the height of her career, she tears up a picture of Pope John Paul ll on Saturday Night Live in 1992 to protest the Catholic Church's cover up of sexual abuse. Maura, what do you remember about that moment?

WATCH | Sinéad O'Connor on ripping up Pope photo in 1992 SNL performance:

Maura: I remember how angry people were at her. Just furious. The backlash was so severe and stunning … I feel like it was very indicative of how women who tell truths get spat on and shunned. And it wound up that she was right.

Amil: That's right. I was only 10 when that happened, but I do remember what stood out to me as a child was how much she was mocked and belittled. She was a pop culture joke.

Maura: And threatened.

Amil: Anakana, she was also booed at a benefit concert shortly after that performance, and celebrities like Frank Sinatra lashed out with threats of actual violence against this woman. What do you make of that backlash now, 30 years later?

Anakana: Well, I think it's shameful…. It was so acceptable at that time to threaten violence against a woman, whereas if you think about that today — please, God, I hope that if some numpty stood up and said that, they would be challenged. But at that time it was perfectly acceptable. The fact of the matter is Sinéad was way ahead of her time, and she really should have been given a public apology because she was utterly vindicated. She was ridiculed, and here we are 30 years or whatever later, knowing what we know. And did we ever acknowledge that? Absolutely not. Because, of course, it's totally acceptable to ridicule women.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Stuart Berman, Jane van Koeverden and Jess Low.