Sinead OConnors Life in Pictures The New York Times

Table Of Content

• Sinéad O’Connor was found unresponsive in London flat, say police
• The story behind Sinéad O’Connor’s shaved head: ‘It said, ‘Don’t f—k with me”
• Why Sinéad O'Connor kept her head shaved throughout her life
• 2023: Memoir and death of son
• Stories of murdered women are the 'most traumatic' Netflix viewers have ever seen
• Sinéad O’Connor dies aged 56
• Life
• What's Hot

Sinéad O'Connor's shaved head was more than a beauty choice, it was a weighted decision with multiple significant reasons behind it. "That was a huge part of it - I didn't want to be raped, I didn't want to be molested," she shared. "I did not want to dress like a girl, I did not want to be pretty. You know, other girls beat you up if you're pretty, too."

The moving reason late Sinead O’Connor shaved her head after her first record deal... - The Sun

The moving reason late Sinead O’Connor shaved her head after her first record deal....

Posted: Thu, 27 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Sinéad O’Connor was found unresponsive in London flat, say police

She converted to Islam in 2018, adopting the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat, which she used interchangeably with her birth name on social media. On her final concert tour, in 2019, she wore a hijab and abaya, but nothing else had changed – her voice still raised the hair on the back of the neck. After her time in the An Grianán training centre, she went to the liberal Newtown Quaker school. Marie O’Connor died in a car crash when Sinéad was 18, by which time she was singing in a band called Ton Ton Macoute and studying at the Dublin College of Music. At the time of her death, the musician, who changed her name to Shuhada' Sadaqat in 2018 when she converted to Islam, was thought to be spending her time between Co Roscommon, Ireland, and London. Sinéad died at the age of 56 after years of mental health battles, her 'devastated' family confirmed this week.

The story behind Sinéad O’Connor’s shaved head: ‘It said, ‘Don’t f—k with me”

Nonetheless, it was her unswerving commitment to activism and truth-telling as she saw it that kept her in the headlines. The song remained relatively obscure until O’Connor recorded her version for her second album, “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got,” five years later. Propelled by the now-iconic music video, it reached the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in April 1990. The single’s video showed O’Connor – startlingly beautiful, hair cut to within half an inch of her head – crying real tears. The track was written by Prince, but O’Connor’s version, which displayed the clarity and expressiveness of her voice, became the definitive one, and was one of the biggest-selling singles of 1990. Its parent album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, sold 7m copies and was nominated for four Grammys.

Why Sinéad O'Connor kept her head shaved throughout her life

She often seemed fragile, using social media to argue publicly with members of her family. “They wanted me to grow my hair long, wear short skirts and high heels and makeup and write songs that wouldn’t challenge anything,” the singer revealed in an interview with the Sun in 2022. She was looking forward to releasing a new album, No Veteran Dies Alone, in 2021; a single, Trouble of the World, appeared, but the project was halted when she announced her retirement from music, though she quickly changed her mind about that decision.

2023: Memoir and death of son

The Steve Cooney to whom Sinéad O’Connor was married is a musician rather than an actor. After the death of her son in 2022 she was briefly admitted to hospital after posting online that she had 'decided to follow' his path. In 2012 she cancelled a tour after suffering a 'very serious breakdown', and in 2015 revealed she had overdosed at a hotel in Ireland. The Irish Grammy-winning singer, whose cause of death is not yet known, became world famous in 1990 with her heartrending cover of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U. "They wanted me to grow my hair really long and wear miniskirts and all that kind of stuff because they reckoned I'd look much prettier," she says.

Stories of murdered women are the 'most traumatic' Netflix viewers have ever seen

The Dresden Dolls’ Amanda Palmer, who was also part of the concert’s lineup, offered high praise for Waters’ performance on Instagram. “Sing along if you like,” Waters, 28, told the crowd before launching into her mother’s classic 1990 hit. Countering that she was a “desperate attention-seeker”, Hall filed a defamation suit for $5m. The performance has been going viral on social media, with many fans showering Sinead with praise. The Nothing Compares 2 U hitmaker had a shaggy boyish hairstyle throughout the mid to late 90s, and then returned to the style again in the 2010s.

Sinéad O’Connor dies aged 56

"I had grown up in a manner which... I'm sure a lot of women will relate to, where it was dangerous to be a female," O'Connor says. "So, I always had that sense that it was quite important to protect myself -- make myself as unattractive as I possibly could." She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. A wave of stars have since followed the trend, with high-profile women such as Demi Lovato, Kristen Stewart and, most recently, Florence Pugh shaving their heads.

O'Connor's family revealed yesterday (Wednesday, 26 July) the star had passed away at the age of 56. O'Connor went on that beauty also felt "dangerous" to her as she was sexually abused. She wanted to be less feminine and "pretty" in her appearance in a bid to try to protect herself. "And she started, when I had long hair, she would introduce us as her pretty daughter and her ugly daughter. And that's why I chopped my hair off. I didn't want to be pretty," she explained. “I just don’t feel like me when I have hair,” she told The New York Times in 2021. A London coroner’s court confirmed in January that the Grammy winner’s death was due to natural causes.

In a 2017 interview with Dr. Phil, O’Connor revealed the heartbreaking reason she first opted for a short cut while growing up in Dublin. O’Connor added that the music industry also influenced her decision to keep her androgynous look. ‘It was dangerous to be pretty because I was getting raped and molested everywhere I went,’ she said. She chose to keep her hair short for the remainder of her life, speaking in 2017 about her reasons for doing so. O’Connor first shaved her head aged 20 as a way of defying the music executives who wanted her to be more feminine.

It was the bald head that became the avatar of a million dreamy rebellions; the shaved pate that bridged the gap between the angry and the sublime. It is almost impossible to think about Sinead O’Connor, the Irish singer whose death was reported on July 26, or her work, without thinking about her hair. The Irish singer’s shaved head was as much a part of her identity and allure as her sound. ‘I was asked one day would I grow my hair long and wear short skirts because they wanted to sell me on my sexuality. The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support.

Multiple famous women have spoken out about shaving their heads as a way to free themselves from conventional beauty standards and take control over their own image. Britney Spears was reportedly "sick of people touching my hair" when she shaved her head in 2007, while Florence Pugh recently said she "wanted to take vanity out of the picture" by shaving hers earlier this year. During an interview with Dr. Phil, she candidly discussed her mental health struggles and the alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother. “Nothing Compares 2 U” was originally written by Prince for his side project, The Family, and appeared on that band’s eponymous 1985 debut album. Though she’s not a professional singer, Waters appeared to be perfectly at ease as she took the stage barefoot and in a floral print dress during Wednesday’s “Sinéad & Shane at Carnegie Hall,” held in honor of O’Connor and Shane MacGowan.

Nothing Compares 2 U made her one of the highest-profile singers of the early 90s, but she was constitutionally unable to compromise her values. From the start she insisted on co-producing her records, and steered her own musical course with varying results. When seeking a new boyfriend, she invited overtures from male fans; the successful applicant, an Irish drug counsellor, Barry Herridge, became her fourth husband in 2011. If she thought it warranted, she also waded into other musicians’ business, finger-wagging. An open letter criticising Miley Cyrus for appearing naked in a 2013 video provoked a furious response from the younger singer, who said the video had been inspired by the emotional openness of Nothing Compares 2 U. It was there that she received her first guitar and a “punk-rock parka”, gifts from a sympathetic nun.

It was confirmed by O’Connor’s loved ones on Wednesday (July 26) that she had died aged 56. Following the tragic news of her death, we take a look at the real reason why she did it.

“They looked at Sinead’s shaved head and went, ‘Now we know what we are dealing with,'” the star’s first husband and frequent collaborator, John Reynolds, recalled in an interview with the same outlet. Even in the few periods when she grew her hair back, she was often referred to as the “formerly bald” Sinead O’Connor. And as such, she was an integral part of the renegotiation of old stereotypes of gender, sexuality, rebellion and liberation that is still going on today. The Irish musician died on Wednesday, 26 July, after being found at her home in south east London, 18 months after losing her ‘soulmate’ teenage son Shane to suicide. A decades-old video featuring Sinéad O’Connor expertly belting out a cover song while rocking long hair rather than her signature buzz cut has resurfaced following her death aged 56.

As her most distinctive trait, it was also an easy target for those determined to make her a late-night joke. Comedian Arsenio Hall referred to her as “that little bald lady,” while Andrew Dice Clay, perhaps stung by her refusal to appear on SNL alongside him, poked fun at the “bald chick” in a sketch. But even if it wasn’t a statement to O’Connor, the shaved look was undeniably a tool. Contrary to McNeil’s assessment that she “was just making it up as she went along,” there was an element of strategy to O’Connor’s rise through the industry. It featured prominently on most of her albums, including her 1990 masterpiece, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.

As a talented young singer during the' 80s, O'Connor quickly realized how much a woman's appearance impacted how she was received. But once O’Connor created this image and placed it on the public stage, other people were suddenly free to run with it, sinking their claws into it and playing with it, trying to interpret her. She became a supernatural creature (Rolling Stone) and a female version of The Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten (New Musical Express). With her Doc Martens, she was a little too close to the punks who flirted with fascist ideology for some; when she stenciled Public Enemy’s logo onto her head at the 1989 Grammys in solidarity with the band, she was too political for others. Prior to the release of her first album, The Lion and the Cobra, O'Connor was asked whether she would re-grow her hair 'long' and 'wear short skirts'. O'Connor also noted how it was 'dangerous to be pretty' and resulted in her 'getting raped and molested everywhere' she went.