Biography

A few weeks after her notorious Saturday Night Live appearance, she appeared at a benefit concert with Kris Kristofferson. When her name was announced, the crowd responded with what appeared to be a dead-even split between cheering and booing. Due to this rare reaction, she immediately scrapped her scheduled song (the keyboardist started playing and she waved for him to stop, which he did) and sang "War" again (the song she sang on SNL), then left the stage and broke down crying in Kristofferson's arms.

Was incarcerated in one of the notorious Magdalene Asylums during her teens for shoplifting.

She made news in 1990 when she announced she would refuse to go onstage at the Garden State Arts Center in New Jersey if "The Star Spangled Banner" was performed. The venue heeded her demand. Afterwards she was informed that she will no longer be invited to perform at the Arts Center.

On the 3rd October 1992, she caused a huge international stir when she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II, live on Tim Robbins/Sinéad O'Connor (1992), while shouting "Fight the REAL enemy!" after singing an a capella version of Bob Marley's "War". Almost immediately, NBC received over a thousand phone calls with complaints. To this day, NBC refuses to ever air the incident again, and all subsequent reruns of that show have a pre-show recording of her singing the song. O'Connor also received a permanent ban from the show.

When she won a Grammy in the Best Alternative Music Performance category for "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" (1990), she refused to accept it making her the first recording artist to rebuff N.A.R.A.S. Thus, the title of the song became somewhat prophetic.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm now in the business of making spiritual records and using my voice for that purpose. I'm not going to be singing songs that I made in the past. I closed the door on that incarnation of Sinead O'Connor.

When you live with the Devil you learn there's a God very quickly.

I don't do anything in order to cause trouble. It just so happens that what I do naturally causes trouble. I'm proud to be a troublemaker.

The power of rock'n'roll to change things, to move people, is being murdered by all this worship of fame - Pop Idol, XFactor, all this stuff. What I'm worried about is it's all about the visual, the pyrotechnics, the tits out, shake your ass. It's not about the song. That to me is quite sad.

[observation, 2013] The music business is corrupt. It's full of nothing but vampires and pimps. What was more important that came out of the Miley [Cyrus] thing was being able to conversate about mental health and human rights. The two of us, without meaning it, did quite a good job.