OK, I am making a confession here. I am secretly (ok, guess not anymore) in love with Sinead O'Connor. I love Sinead. I just want to cuddle that little ragamuffin like a little stuffed teddy bear.
Seriously.
I am pretty confident that I will not have the experience of hearing someone sing live as I have with Ms. O'Connor. I have now seen/heard her perform live three times, and that is not nearly enough. I don't know if I would ever get tired of listening to her. It is sometimes cliched I think to say, "I got goosebumps when I heard that." Well, I got goosebumps the first time I heard Sinead O'Connor sing live a cappella. We went to see her at The University of Texas at Austin in a rather small venue, so were not too far from the stage. She had a phenomenal band, but on a few songs, she came out alone and blew my mind.
Sinead is still, regrettably known for her stint nearly 20 years ago!!! of tearing the picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live in 1992. That is not an exaggerated statement. The next day at work, still in complete euphoria from the music the night before, I went around trying to relate the experience. Without fail, everyone I talked to said, "Sinead? the one who tore the picture of the Pope?" Not kidding.
Now, for my part, when she did that stunt, I was "outraged." I wasn't even Catholic, but I remember thinking, "that stupid, uppity bald b***h, who the hell does she think she is." She was supposed to perform soon afterwards at UT in fact, where I was a student at the time, and she did not show. I remember having a wonderful sense of leedvermaak, (a fancy Dutch word I had just learned for schadenfreude), thinking, "ha, where's your hero now, you skin-headed lesbos." Yes, I probably said something that stupid. I was a moron.
Well, I have grown up some since, and hopefully matured a bit. In the meanwhile, I have become one of Sinead's biggest fans and (before today) secret admirers. I have seen many interviews with her and have pretty much every CD she has produced, and beyond everything, I have respect for her. She has suffered from mental illness (a form of bi-polarism) and addiction and had to live down that event on SNL that has literally haunted her now for two decades.
When I saw her come out on stage in Austin, I was speechless. She is tiny, dresses quite frumpily. She has the sweetest demeanor I have ever seen in a performer and a smile that will melt your heart in a second. And, she is morbidly SHY!! "This is Sinead???," I remember thinking. And then, she sang.
And sang. And sang.
And, the audience went nuts. I went nuts. I myself was on-another-planet nuts.
Midway through the show, Sinead referred to her last trip to Austin, which was the time she did not show, and thanked the crowd for forgiving her.
If we had gone nuts before, that is when the house came down and she, if memory serves me well, went into a paroxysm of music and song with "Emperor's New Clothes" which was life-changing for everyone there. I was a fan for life from that evening on.
Since, I have seen Sinead at the outdoor stage at Antwerp's Rivierenhof and at a fantasy-like setting in Brussels' outdoor Abbey venue. Each time, I am just swept away to that other planet.
Here she is singing "Molly Malone"
Cockles & Mussels (Molly Malone)
Brava! Brava!
Go raibh míle míle maith agat.
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