Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor died of natural causes last summer, a London coroner said Tuesday.
The “Mandinka” and “Nothing Compares 2 U” hitmaker was found unconscious in her south London home on July 26 and was pronounced dead shortly after. She was 56 years old.
“This confirms that Ms O’Connor died of natural causes,” Southwark Coroner’s Court said in a brief statement obtained by the BBC on Tuesday. “Therefore, the coroner has ceased to be involved in her death.”
In July, the coroner’s officer confirmed O’Connor’s death in the south London borough of Lambeth and announced that, as no medical cause of death had been given, officials would carry out a post-mortem. Although her death was sudden, authorities reportedly did not treat her as suspicious.
Her family announced her death with a brief statement in July, writing: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. “Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”
O’Connor rose to fame in 1990 after releasing the Prince-penned hit “Nothing Compares 2 U.” However, two years later, his mainstream career effectively ended after he performed Bob Marley’s “War” on “Saturday Night Live” and tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II, throwing the shredded pieces toward a camera while He exclaimed: “Fight the real enemy.” .”
Although still identifying as Catholic at the peak of her career, O’Connor spoke openly about child abuse within the church and the church’s influence over the government of her native Ireland. (The singer changed her name to Shuhada ‘Sadaqat later in her life, when she converted to Islam.)
“I come from a tradition of Irish artists where I’m most concerned about affecting my society,” O’Connor told The Times in 2012. “Artists are supposed to act like an emergency fire service when “It’s about spiritual conflicts, not preaching or telling people what to do, but being a little light that tells us that there is a spiritual world.”
In more recent years, his mental health problems often threatened to overshadow his art. Still, her music remained influential to a generation that saw her as a radical antithesis to the expectations of a more polished image expected of female pop stars of the time.
O’Connor resisted several apparent suicide attempts in 2015 and 2017, including one she announced on Facebook to her worried fans and family. In both circumstances, she was hospitalized after she alerted authorities.
The Grammy-winning singer began performing again in 2018. The following year she embarked on a North American tour, ending with a series of shows in February 2020 at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, plus stops in Solana Beach and Santa Cruz, his last known performances.
In 2020, he canceled several 2021 shows by revealing that he would be entering a year-long treatment program for trauma and addiction. She had planned to go on tour again in 2022 to tour the United States and Ireland; However, days after his 17-year-old son Shane committed suicide in 2021, she alarmed his fans when he tweeted: “I have decided to follow my son.” She subsequently went to a hospital and asked for help.
Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.
