| Stretched on Your Grave presents.... |
| Sinead O'connor |
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| Alternative musician/singer/songwriter Sinead O'connor, was born in Dublin, Ireland on the 8th of December 1966. She grew up in a troubled household full of abuse and a turbulent marriage between her parents. By the time she reached her teenage years, Sinead had been expelled from Catholic school and had been sent to a reform school for shoplifting. Sinead soon found solace in music, teching herself guitar and soon gaining enough confidence to write and sing her own songs. Sinead was soon discovered by the drummer of a band called 'In Tua Nua' whilst singing at a relative's wedding. After getting turned down for a record deal in London by Ensign Records, Sinead embarked on a solo career. She performed solo in coffeehouses and clubs and took voice lessons at the Dublin College of Music. By 1985 she had signed to Ensign Records and moved to London, where she recorded her debut album 'The Lion and the Cobra'.The album was released in 1987 and won copious amounts of praise in the music press spawned the alternative radio hit, 'Mandinka'. Sinead became and Alternative Rock superstar, with her 1990 follow album to 'The Lion and the Cobra', ''i Do Not Want What I Haven't Got', which wielded the Prince penned no.1 single in many countries, 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. Sinead, with her her shvaen head and controversial opinions on contraversial issues were widely publicized, for example, refusing to let the 'Star Spangled Banner' be played before one of her concerts in the US, caused, among other things, Frank Sinatra to exclaim, "If she were a guy, I'd kick her ass!!". Another example is when she refused to play on 'Saturday Night Live' in 1992 with controversial, sexist, mysoginistic, racist, homophobic and apparently comical host, Andrew Dice Clay. When she did play at a later date, she sang a cover of the Bob Marley song, 'War', and tore up a picture of the Pope whilst chanting, "Fight the real enemy, fight Catholic hypocrisy!!", she also supported the IRA, hated U2 and refused accept the four Grammy nominations she recieved for 'I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got'. Sinead's next album, 'Am I Not Your Girl?', was very different from her previous two. It included only covers of old standards like, 'Gloomy Sunday', 'Don't Cry for me Argentina', 'Scarlet Ribbons' and others, it wasn't very successfull and was even more overshadowed by the 'Saturday Night Live' fiasco which followed. Sinead avoided the public eyes for the next two years, studying opera in Dublin, appearing in a production of 'Hamlet' and a film version of Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights', in which she played the narrator, Emily Bronte herself.. She also toured with the 'WOMAD' festival'. She returned in 1994 with a new album, 'Universal Mother', which, although it recieved good reviews, was stigmatized by her controversy ridden recent public past. By the time her 1997 EP, 'Gospel Oak', was released, O'connor had been ordained as a preist in the Latin Tridentine church, and was known as Mother Bernadette Marie, she also planned to release all future works under this name, which she didn't. Sinead, by this time had matured as an artist, and outgrew her enfant terrible image, emerging as a sort of elder steswoman of rock. A greatest hits, entitled, 'So Far....The Best of Sinead O'connor' was released in 1997. During the year 2000, Sinead signed to Atlantic Records and released a new full length album, 'Faith and Courage', which was a huge hit and her biggest since 'I Do Not Want What I haven't Got'. Sinead was recently dropped by Atlantic Records, and recorded an album of 'sexied up' Irish folk tunes called 'Sean Nos Nua', it was released on October 8th, 2002, and October 14th in Australia. Also 'Troy-The Remixes' was released August 12th, 2002. |
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