Sinead O'Connor

1966年， Sinead O Connor 在都柏林出生。十九歲時(shí)就開始了她的歌手生涯。 自1987年出道以來，她一直保持著自主表達(dá)情感的女強(qiáng)人形象。 在全球各種公共場(chǎng)合，她直率的稟性常常表現(xiàn)為傲慢無(wú)禮，但這類勇敢行為最終為她贏得了無(wú)數(shù)崇拜者。 她的第 2張專輯《I Do Not Want What I Havent Got》在世界范圍內(nèi)取得了成功。她的音樂植根于合成搖滾、 克爾特民歌與瘋克音樂，而她在嗓音運(yùn)用的力度強(qiáng)弱上與 Peter Gabriel 一脈相承。
Sinead 早期的作品比較偏重于發(fā)泄，情緒比較激昂，經(jīng)常有電吉他、貝司的伴奏。
1990年初推出的單曲《Nothing Compares 2U》是 O Connor 事業(yè)上的轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)，這首由Prince原唱的歌經(jīng)過 Nellee Hooper 莊重華貴的編曲、O Connor 投入的演唱和極佳的音樂錄像帶創(chuàng)意成為了一首全球熱門歌曲， 她的聲譽(yù)迅速提高并吸引了一大批她的歌迷。同年推出的專輯 《I Do Not Want What I Havent Got》幾乎在各地的排行榜上都名列榜首，銷量為 600 萬(wàn)張。
1991 年全年 O Connor只出版了兩首單曲，其中一首《My Special Child》表達(dá)了年前流產(chǎn)事件之后的情感，這也是她在 1994 年的專輯《Universal Mother》中懺悔情緒流露的一個(gè)前兆。1992 年，這位任性的歌手出版了一張翻唱專輯《Am I Not Your Girl?》，這張翻唱大樂隊(duì)風(fēng)格爵士舊作的唱片的商業(yè)成績(jī)令人失望， 評(píng)價(jià)毀譽(yù)參半，不過總算使 OConnor的名字重現(xiàn)出現(xiàn)在英美兩國(guó)的排行榜上，但很快這點(diǎn)成績(jī)便被她無(wú)力的行為抵消。
1993 年，O Connor 因揭露其母親（死于1985 年）在她兒童時(shí)代對(duì)她的施虐行為而與父親和兄弟的關(guān)系決裂，9月，她因精神崩潰而企圖自殺。 經(jīng)歷了這一段坎坷之后，她開始變得樂觀起來，并重新開始寫歌和錄音工作。
這之后， O Connor開始淡出演藝圈，這看起來像是個(gè)明智之舉，因?yàn)樗�那備受�?zhēng)議的言行太容易抹殺其在音樂上的成績(jī)， 如果她能取走她身上的“魔障” （1996年她的孩子的出生可能是導(dǎo)致其有所收斂的因素），她將獲得應(yīng)有的尊敬。 1997 年，她出版了一張精選集《So Far... The Best Of》。
2000年，Sinead發(fā)行了新專輯《Faith And Courage》，經(jīng)過了幾年的沉寂，她這次能給我們帶來更多的好歌和驚喜。
Sinéad O'Connor ranked among the most distinctive and controversial pop music stars of the 1990s, the first and in many ways the most influential of the numerous female performers whose music dominated airwaves throughout the decade. Brash and outspoken — her shaven head, angry visage, and shapeless wardrobe a direct challenge to the popular culture's long-prevailing notions of femininity and sexuality — O'Connor irrevocably altered the image of women in rock; railing against long-standing stereotypes simply by asserting herself not as a sex object but as a serious artist, she kick-started a revolt which led the way for performers ranging from Liz Phair to Courtney Love to Alanis Morissette.
O'Connor was born in Dublin, Ireland, on December 8, 1966. Her childhood was often traumatic: her parents divorced when she was eight, and she later claimed that her mother, who was killed in a 1985 automobile accident, frequently abused her. After being expelled from Catholic school, O'Connor was arrested for shoplifting and was shuttled off to a reformatory; at the age of 15, while singing a cover of Barbra Streisand's "Evergreen" at a wedding, she was spotted by Paul Byrne, the drummer for the Irish band In Tua Nua (best known as protégés of U2). After co-writing the first In Tua Nua single, "Take My Hand," O'Connor left boarding school in order to focus on a career in music, and began performing in area coffeehouses; she later studied voice and piano at the Dublin College of Music, and supported herself delivering singing telegrams.
Upon signing a contract with Ensign Records in 1985, O'Connor relocated to London; the following year she made her recorded debut on the soundtrack of the film The Captive, appearing with U2 guitarist the Edge. After scrapping the initial tapes for her debut LP on the grounds that the production was too Celtic, she took the producer's seat herself and began re-recording the album, dubbed The Lion and the Cobra in reference to Psalm 91; the result was one of the most acclaimed debut records of 1987, with a pair of alternative radio hits in the singles "Mandinka" and "Troy." Almost from the outset of her career, however, O'Connor was a controversial media figure; in interviews following the LP's release, she defended the actions of the IRA, resulting in widespread criticism from many corners, and even burned bridges by attacking longtime supporters U2, whose music she declared "bombastic."
However, O'Connor remained a cult figure prior to the release of 1990's chart-topping I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, a harrowing masterpiece sparked by the recent dissolution of her marriage to drummer John Reynolds. Boosted by the single and video "Nothing Compares 2 U," originally penned by Prince, the album established her as a major star, but again controversy followed as tabloids took aim at her romance with black singer Hugh Harris while continuing to attack her outspoken politics. On American shores, O'Connor also became the target of derision for refusing to perform in New Jersey if "The Star Spangled Banner" was played prior to her appearance, a move which brought public criticism from no less than Frank Sinatra, who threatened to "kick her ass"; she also made headlines for pulling out of an appearance on the NBC program Saturday Night Live in response to the misogynist persona of guest host Andrew Dice Clay, and even withdrew her name from competition in the annual Grammy Awards despite four nominations.
O'Connor also continued to confound expectations with her third album, 1992's Am I Not Your Girl?, a collection of pop standards and torch songs that failed to live up to either the commercial or critical success of I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got. However, any discussion of the record's creative merits quickly became moot in the wake of her most controversial and damaging action yet: after finally appearing on Saturday Night Live, O'Connor ended her performance by ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II, resulting in a wave of condemnation unlike any she'd previously encountered. Two weeks after the SNL performance, she appeared at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at New York's Madison Square Garden, and was promptly booed off the stage.
Now a virtual pariah, O'Connor's retirement from the music business was subsequently reported, although it was later claimed that she had merely returned to Dublin with the intent of studying opera. She kept a low profile for the next several years, starring as Ophelia in a theatrical production of Hamlet and later touring with Peter Gabriel's WOMAD festival. She also reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown and even made a half-hearted attempt at suicide. In 1994, however, O'Connor returned to pop music with the LP Universal Mother, which, despite good reviews, failed to relaunch her to superstar status; the following year she announced that she would no longer speak to the press. The Gospel Oak EP followed in 1997, and in mid-2000 O'Connor issued Faith and Courage, her first full-length effort in six years. Sean-Nós Nua followed two years later, and was widely hailed for its return to the Irish folk tradition as its inspiration.
O'Connor used the press exposure from the album to further assert her pending retirement from music. In September 2003, the two-disc She Who Dwells... appeared through Vanguard. It collected rare and previously unreleased studio tracks, as well as live material culled from a late 2002 date in Dublin. The album was positioned as O'Connor's swan song, though official word was not forthcoming. Collaborations followed in 2005, a compilation of appearances on other artists' records throughout her long career. Later that year she released Throw Down Your Arms, a collection of reggae classics from the likes of Burning Spear, Peter Tosh, and Bob Marley that managed to reach the number four spot on Billboard's Top Reggae Albums chart. O'Connor returned to the studio the following year to begin work on her first album of all-new material since Faith and Courage. The resulting Theology, inspired by the complexities of the world post-9/11, was released in 2007 through Koch Records on the artist's own imprint, That's Why There's Chocolate and Vanilla.