Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor's death 'not suspicious', London police say

Iconic Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor's death in her south London home, is not being treated as suspicious, police have announced.

London's Metropolitan Police on Thursday said the 56-year-old was found "unresponsive" and "pronounced dead at the scene" at 11.18am (8.18pm AEST) on Wednesday.

Police didn't reveal how the singer, who was best known for hits such as Nothing Compares 2 U and Drink Before the War, died but said it was "not being treated as suspicious".

READ MORE: Russell Crowe shares moving tribute to 'hero' Sinéad O'Connor

Her passing was announced by her family in a statement to British media at 7pm on Wednesday (4am Thursday AEST).

"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad," they said in a statement to RTE.

"Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time."

READ MORE: Why Sinéad O'Connor was banned from using Nothing Compares 2 U

O'Connor was public about her mental illness, saying she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

She posted a Facebook video in 2017 from a New Jersey motel where she had been living, saying that she was staying alive for the sake of others and that if it were up to her, she'd be "gone".

When her teenage son Shane died by suicide last year, O'Connor tweeted there was "no point living without him" and she was soon hospitalised.

Her final tweet, sent July 17, read: "For all mothers of Suicided children," and linked to a Tibetan compassion mantra.

Recognisable by her shaved head and with a multi-octave mezzo soprano of extraordinary emotional range, O'Connor began her career singing on the streets of Dublin and soon rose to international fame.

She was a star from her 1987 debut album The Lion and the Cobra and became a sensation in 1990 with her cover of Prince's ballad Nothing Compares 2 U, a seething, shattering performance that topped charts from Europe to Australia and was heightened by a promotional video featuring the grey-eyed O'Connor in intense close-up.

She was a lifelong non-conformist — she said she shaved her head in response to record executives pressuring her to be conventionally glamorous — but her political and cultural stances and troubled private life often overshadowed her music.

A critic of the Roman Catholic Church well before allegations of sexual abuse were widely reported, O'Connor made headlines in October 1992 when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II while appearing on NBC's Saturday Night Live and denounced the church as the enemy.

O'Connor announced in 2018 that she had converted to Islam and would be adopting the name Shuhada' Davitt, later Shuhada Sadaqat — although she continued to use Sinéad O'Connor professionally.

O'Connor was born on December 8, 1966, in Dubline as the third of five children to John and Johanna O'Connor.

She had a difficult childhood, with a mother she alleged was abusive and encouraged her to shoplift.

As a teenager she spent time in a church-sponsored institution for girls, where she said she washed priests' clothes for no wages. But a nun gave O'Connor her first guitar, and soon she sang and performed on the streets of Dublin, her influences ranging from Dylan to Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Her performance with a local band caught the eye of a small record label, and, in 1987, O'Connor released, The Lion and the Cobra, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies and featured the hit Mandinka, driven by a hard-rock guitar riff and O'Connor's piercing vocals. O'Connor, then 20 and pregnant, co-produced the album.

"I suppose I've got to say that music saved me," she said in an interview with the Independent newspaper in 2013.

"I didn't have any other abilities, and there was no learning support for girls like me, not in Ireland at that time. It was either jail or music. I got lucky."

The singer married four times; her union to drug counsellor Barry Herridge, in 2011, lasted just 16 days.

O'Connor had four children: Jake, with her husband John Reynolds; Roisin, with John Waters; Shane, with Donal Lunny; and Yeshua Bonadio, with Frank Bonadio.

- Reported with Associated Press.

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