Morrissey shares scathing tribute to Sinéad O’Connor
The late Sinéad O’Connor’s passing has prompted a lengthy missive from Morrissey, in which he compared her to the likes of Amy Winehouse, Billie Holiday and Marilyn Monroe.
Following an outpouring of tributes to the ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ singer, Morrissey took to his website to criticise the people who “hadn’t the guts to support her when she was alive and she was looking for you”.
“She had only so much ‘self’ to give,” opened the statement posted to his website. “She was dropped by her label after selling 7 million albums for them. She became crazed, yes, but uninteresting, never. She had done nothing wrong. She had proud vulnerability … and there is a certain music industry hatred for singers who don’t ‘fit in’ (this I know only too well), and they are never praised until death – when, finally, they can’t answer back”.
Morrissey described fame as a “cruel playpen,” after artists took to posting “the usual moronic labels” like ‘icon’ and ‘legend’ following her death.
“You praise her now ONLY because it is too late,” he continued. “The press will label artists as pests because of what they withhold … and they would call Sinead sad, fat, shocking, insane … oh but not today! Music CEOs who had put on their most charming smile as they refused her for their roster are queuing-up to call her a ‘feminist icon’, and 15 minute celebrities and goblins from hell and record labels of artificially aroused diversity are squeezing onto Twitter to twitter their jibber-jabber.”
At the end of his scathing post, he asked: “Why is ANYBODY surprised that Sinead O’Connor is dead? Who cared enough to save Judy Garland, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, Marilyn Monroe, Billie Holiday? Where do you go when death can be the best outcome?”
He added: “Was this music madness worth Sinead’s life? No, it wasn’t. She was a challenge, and she couldn’t be boxed-up, and she had the courage to speak when everyone else stayed safely silent. She was harassed simply for being herself. Her eyes finally closed in search of a soul she could call her own.”
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