Yesterday was International Women’s Day, and while Kim ##########’s naked body was trending once again and her essay on body-shaming was a talking point, my eyes and ears were on the ever-bald, always clothed and equally unashamed Sinéad O’ Connor.
Sinéad, in the wake of a terrible year regarding her physical and mental health, and despite several cries for help, was pretty much abandoned by the country she was born in, and she left for the Shores of Americay. There, she’s been healing her heart the only way she knows how, recently sharing a stage with her hero Buddy Guy, and on March 4th joining performers in the Metro, Chicago, to play a charity tribute to David Bowie. Fronting for the Bowie tribute band Sons of the Silent Age, with Bowie’s backing vocalist Ava Cherry, she tore the house down covering ‘Life on Mars’ and ‘Sorrow’. Watching the video I had tears streaming down my face, both for the power of her performance, and for the absolute shame of how one of Ireland’s greatest talents was treated – or rather untreated – by our joke of a health system, and furthermore, by the media.
Sinéad has always been fearlessly outspoken. Being one of the first to openly challenge and lift the veil off the Roman-Catholic church abuse scandal, protesting the gulf war and boycotting the Grammys, helping the homeless as an ordained female priest, and speaking out about sexism in the music industry(which is still alive and well, #FreeKesha). America, especially the black community, gave her a platform from which to speak when she had to go into hiding after pope-gate in 1992. And yet, her own country continually treats her like some sort of embarrassment, a joke to make fun of on social media, a hysterical woman? We have more important issues to click on though, right? Like, what is Kim (not) wearing today?
Never change, Sinéad O’ Connor. Let your heart heal – the world is a sick place and you can’t fix it – but please, never stop singing!
