Shinyard O’Connor caused controversy after being ordained in an Irish church in 1999, then converted to Islam in 2018, then returning to the American stage full of vitality and confidence in her strong voice in 2020, and released her memoirs, which became a bestseller last year.
The documentary Nothing Compares tells the story of Irish singer-songwriter Shenyard O’Connor’s exile from the music business after he reached the pinnacle of fame.
The 97-minute film began screenings on October 7, 2022, after having had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. It has won 6 awards so far and has been nominated for 18 other awards. It was featured by Showtime.Show time) on his page as “an insight into O’Connor’s rise and fall, and his overwhelming influence as one of music’s brightest stars, from the age of 20.”
O’Connor took the singing world by storm in the 80s and 90s with his unique voice, fiery nature and shaved head, especially after the release of his famous song “Nothing Compares 2 U”, which is was chosen as the best single in the world. It has sold 7 million copies and has been watched by an estimated 350 million viewers on YouTube.
The American critic and author said about her Neil Minow “This song was in our blood.” However, the first surprise of this film was that it didn’t include the song that gave it its title because the author’s heirs refused to grant permission to do so.
Irish O’Connor… a brilliant personality
“She’s a brilliant figure who refuses to obey,” is how the veteran critic described her Peter Bradshaw 1980s star O’Connor commented on his bold conversion to Islam, saying it was “strong evidence of a brilliant person who refuses to conform.”
He added that we are in the process of making a documentary film that “celebrates a singing legend and an exceptional talent, who has chosen to be ahead of her time, in her own shocking style, as a dissident who refuses to remain silent and bears the price of expressing her his political views and to defend issues that have become commonplace after addressing them”.
O’Connor had it all and achieved overwhelming success, “but she threw it all away and became an outcast, for speaking of things no one else dared”, according to Bradshaw, who does not hide his admiration for her tenacity , despite everything, in making music “as proof of his courage and tenacity”.
However, that hasn’t stopped O’Connor, 56, from becoming a global protest figure, “taking controversial issues by storm that have propelled her from stardom to untouchability,” according to the “Show Time” network.
It sparked outrage in the United States, after he rejected it She played the national anthem, before a concert in New Jersey in 1990, which caused singer Frank Sinatra “to bully her, make fun of her shaved head and threaten to kick her.”
O’Connor sparked controversy after being baptized as a priest in an Irish church in 1999 His conversion to Islam 2018, then back American theater, who is energetic and confident in her powerful voice in 2020; and mail his diary Which became a bestseller last year, and that ends shocking suicide To his son Shane (17) earlier this year.
While O’Connor’s career has been filled with excitement, the critic has taken note of it Steve Bond The documentary focused on only part of it, a 6-year period from 1987 to 1993, and “neglected the latter half of his experience, no less interesting and interesting.”
A meteoric rise and a tragic fall
15 years ago, in October 1992, a truck drove through Times Square in downtown New York, destroying O’Connor’s CDs. As spectators cheered and reporters filmed the angry public outcry over tearing up the Pope’s photo.
Today, “the building overlooking that square bears a huge image of O’Connor’s shaven head, staring wide-eyed at a city that is part of a country that has denigrated, ridiculed and banned it,” he says the journalist. Silvia Patterson.
She adds that 30 years after that incident, and also in October, Irish director Catherine Ferguson walked out a documentary“An idea kept forming in her mind, from the early 1990s, before it turned into a well-constructed impressionist story, after an interview between her and O’Connor in Dublin in late 2019, which is lasted two days”.
Ferguson narrates “through a contemporary feminist lens” the segment on O’Connor’s rise and exile from the music business, 1987 to 1993, supported by memorable footage of a series of her protests and forays into heated issues, but with less details about her early years and “ignorance of the lingering mental turmoil” she suffered, and her son’s suicide earlier this year.
After gracing the covers of British music magazines, she became an outcast. She faced death threats, was boycotted from the Grammy Award and other music awards, and was met with cries of anger and ridicule at singer Bob Dylan’s 30th anniversary celebration, and her songs were suspended after being banned. been broadcast in the United States. .Once or twice a dayً”.
Delicious finish
We are facing “an intelligent and emotional documentary that traces part of the life of a disobedient artist who dared to go out of line and paid a heavy price with her professional and personal life”, says the critic. Lia Greenblatt.
This is what critic Steve Bond went on to say: “It’s a powerful film, exploring the roots of a brilliant but at the same time rambunctious Irish singer.”
But it has overcome many of the ups and downs O’Connor has experienced over the past two decades, to lead us to “a rather joyous ending, one that presents her with a compelling argument, as a wonderful artist, self-destructive but indomitable, and paints for her the image of a person who is now recovering his reason, against the background of what he suffered in his childhood.” The brutality of her family … to explain why and how things ended up the way they are today. “
