O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE, LONDON After a turbulent time out of the spotlight, and her recent conversion to Islam, the Irish singer retains the power to stun an audience into silence Throughout her every transformation, be it musical or visual, Sinéad O’Connor has remained instantly recognisable – irreducibly herself. Wrapped in a black PVC mini-dress and sporting a bobbed wig on the cover of her last album, _I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss_ (a long-ago 2014), the Irish singer was still identifiable as the shaven-headed young woman from the all-conquering Nothing Compares 2 U video, and as the pop star who tore up a picture of the pope on live US television in 1992. A few days after her 53rd birthday, taking the stage on the only mainland UK date of her current tour, O’Connor is barefoot, clad in a black abaya with a subtle geometric check, and wearing a hijab – still unmistakable, despite a change in religion, two changes of name, some assertions of non-binary sexuality and a three-and-a-half-year process of regaining good mental health. Just as the Cassandra of Greek myth was doomed to tell the truth and not be believed, O’Connor’s 1992 declarations about abuse in the Catholic church are now a very public scandal. Continue reading...
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