SINÉAD O'CONNOR @ Cirque Royal

Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor (born December 8, 1966) is a Grammy Award-winning Irish singer and songwriter. Brash and outspoken — her shaven head, angry visage, and shapeless wardrobe a direct challenge to the popular culture's long-prevailing notions of femininity and sexuality — O'Connor irrevocably altered the image of women in rock; railing against long-standing stereotypes simply by asserting herself not as a sex object but as a serious artist, she kick-started a revolt which led the way for many female performers. O'Connor ranked among the most distinctive and controversial popular music stars of the 1990s, the first and in many ways the most influential of the numerous female performers whose music dominated airwaves throughout the decade. Her first album, The Lion and The Cobra, was released in 1987, and its popular and critical acclaim made her a star of pop music. She produced her second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, a critical success that included her hit single Nothing Compares 2 U, a song written by Prince. O'Connor was as well-known for her political beliefs as for her music (she once shredded a photo of Pope John Paul II on U.S. television), but in recent years she has been less publicly controversial. In 2000 released her album Faith and Courage. In 2003 she announced her retirement from the music business. Yet another album, Throw Down Your Arms was released in 2005. Her newest release is a double CD, Theology, being released in June 2007.