NOTHING COMPARES – A documentary about the life and music career of Sinéad O’Connor – will be released today on Sky and NOW TV.
The death of O’Connor was announced on Wednesday. She was 56.
The legendary singer was one of this country’s most internationally famous musicians and was much-loved at home and abroad.
Nothing Compares- which focuses particularly on O’Connor’s life from 1987 to 1993 – aired in cinemas late last year.
It examines O’Connor’s meteoric rise to fame and the turbulence of her life during that period. In particular the documentary looks at how the media and music establishment turned against her after she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II live on SNL in 1992, and how her outspoken views led to her eventual ostracisation from the pop culture mainstream.
Writing today on Twitter, film maker Kathryn Ferguson said that the documentary had been scheduled for release today, before the news of O’Connor’s death.
“We had been scheduled to release Nothing Compares today on Sky / Now for a very long time and after lots of thought we are going to go ahead with that plan,” Ferguson write.
“The reaction to the film and love for Sinead has been palpable and we feel screening it this weekend is the right thing to do, so that people can see her in all her glory and hear her tell her side of the story.
“An option she was rarely granted by some facets or the media who spent so much of their time being reductive of all she had to say.
“Nothing Compares is a love letter to Sinéad, she meant the absolute world to me and I know she did to many of you.
Watch the film, feel the rage, have a good cry and let’s remember the woman for her radical, magical ways and all she has done for us. I’ve never been prouder to be an Irish woman. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.
Speaking to TheJournal last year, Ferguson said that as a teenager, she and her friends had been captivated by O’Connor’s “music, her look, her boldness. I mean, we just thought she was amazing, and so exciting”.
But they witnessed their musical icon suffer “this horrific takedown” in 1992 after the SNL performance.
“It just honestly… it made such a dent on me, and it was just so demoralising,” said Ferguson.
“To have this radical icon from our island be treated the way she was, I honestly can say that that’s where the seeds for the film were really sown, because it just had a huge effect, a profound effect.”
Nothing Compares is available to watch on Sky or Now TV.
With reporting from Aoife Barry
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