Vale Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Will Ever Compare To Her

By Guy James Whitworth

I saw a meme on Twitter this morning that said, “In a world of Kylies, be a Sinead.” Well to use a traditional Aussie saying, yeah, but nah, that’s not the correct legacy of the singer, songwriter, and, I will now argue, Queer icon Sinead O’Connor. She was always a fierce protector of the underdog, she never punched down, and she wouldn’t want any of us too either. 

The anger, authenticity and passion in Sinead O’Connor’s 1987 debut album The Lion and the Cobra was utterly breathtaking, however, it is the songwriting and the vocals (oh, that incredible voice) that really made the album stand out from all the other pop fluff and frivolity released in the late ‘80’s. It was clear from the get-go that Sinead was different and stood out dramatically from the poptastic wannabes of that time. 

Indeed, early on in her career, Sinead made an appearance on a late-night TV show where the casually misogynistic host mocked the aforementioned Ms Minogue and, rather jarringly, Sinead stopped him and told him off, standing up for Kylie and reprimanded him publicly for his sexist ways. 

A Quarter Gay

To put it simply, Sinead took no shit from anyone, no matter what the optics of that happened to be. With this lack of filter, it’s no surprise controversy would often overshadow the amazing achievements of her impressive career. 

As is often the way with non-girly pop-girls, in the early stages of her music career a lot of speculation was made about Sinead’s sexuality, which she would never comment on. In 2000 she came out as lesbian, but then in 2005 she amended that to “three-quarters heterosexual and a quarter gay”. Certainly, her big relationships in life appear to be with men, but was Sinead O’Connor Queer? Totally and absofuckinglutely. 

Anyone who has lived their life as ‘othered’ and been persecuted by mainstream hetero-normative society as she has can claim the crown of Queerdom — and that is without even acknowledging her massive LGBTQIA+ following. 

Fighting Misogyny

Did she have sexual relationships with women?  Who gives a fuck? That’s always been her business and no one else’s. She shaved her head, wore army boots and spent her entire life doing her best to fuck the patriarchy, expose the sexual abuse of minors by the Catholic church and highlight society’s lack of tolerance around neuro-diversity.

Certainly, under a modern lens, a lot of the abuse she copped from the media can now be seen with hindsight as good old misogyny. She was endlessly labelled as an “angry woman” whereas, in reality, she was a gifted, powerful and fearless woman with a courageous voice and, well, we all know how society treats those women. 

However, times are a-changing because of strong female icons like Sinead and surely the world would be in a better state if we had more angry women in positions of leadership rather than just overconfident men.

We all have many options and role models, none of us have to be a Sinead — Kylie is just as good an option — but knowing who Sinead was and what she stood for would make us all better people. At the end of the day Sinead’s music will be her legacy and what she leaves behind in her back catalogue is powerful, beautiful, brave, angry and authentic, just like her.