2023-07-30 00:53:07
In 1992 something changed for Chilean singer-songwriter Javiera Mena. She lived her childhood in a convent school, so Catholicism was something that she had ingrained. When she was not yet ten years old, she participated in a school contest that sought to reward whoever knew the most about the life of Pope John Paul II. And she won it.
“In the 90s, in Chile there was no internet or anything. You more or less became your reality with school, your family, and so on. As a girl she was very devoted to Catholicism and all the values that were taught. At that time, she was also a big fan of John Paul II. I remember that I won that contest and they had given me a photo of the Pope, that was the prize… And I felt like: ‘wow, I won’”, recalls the artist from Spain.
But that emotion would not last for long. Within a few days, all the national news began to broadcast the images of Sinéad O’Connor, one of the biggest stars of those days and who died this Wednesday 26 at the age of 56, tearing up a photo of the pontiff after his presentation on the program Saturday night Live. Everyone seemed to be shocked by the fact. Javiera Mena too.
“One day I came home and saw that he had torn up a photo of the Pope. And I didn’t understand… In my house her music was heard, I remember the Amnesty thing and I found her a super power woman. And that someone with that conviction would have torn up the photo of the Pope. It was the first time that someone questioned me a bit about my upbringing, why Catholicism. I remember that I went to ask my grandmother: ‘Grandma, why did Sinéad O’Connor tear up a photo of the Pope if the Pope is good?’ And there a questioning of everything started in me ”, reveals Mena.
The episode that the Chilean remembers is one of the most powerful in popular culture of the last century: on October 3 of that year, O’Connor, wearing a white dress and stationed in the studio of the most important star in the United States, sang an a cappella version of War, Bob Marley’s anti-war anthem. A modified cover to allude to child abuse, and which ended with the breaking of the image of the highest authority of the Catholic Church and the phrase “fight against the real enemy”.
That act, today claimed as a courageous stance against the abuses of the church and also as a catharsis for the artist in the face of the mistreatment she experienced during her childhood, meant her exclusion from the industry at the best moment of her career. However, her protest on her television was just one of the many times that she chose, with courage and conviction, to face the canons of her time.
She used her cropped hair and tomboyish look as a rebellious gesture against the aesthetic conventions imposed on pop stars and to confront memories of her mother’s mistreatment (who never wanted daughters). Through her heartbreaking and emotional singing, she established herself as a one-of-a-kind artist, always ready to resist and fight for causes that seemed just to her. All of this struck a chord with the young women and girls who looked at her with strangeness and admiration on television, when she began circulating the iconic video for Nothing Compares 2 U on MTV.
In Chile, his figure also marked the lives of many musicians. “I think that for the women of my generation, regardless of whether we were musicians or not, it was an impact. A kind of whirlwind that appears in our lives”, affirms Denisse Malebrán to Culto. “At the age of adolescence, finding a completely different reference to her peers, understanding that there was an image associated with what it was like to be a pop singer in those days.”
Saiko’s voice recalls an anecdote that marked her childhood. “The first festival I won at school, Sacred Heart, was with Nothing Compares 2 U, and there is a video. I asked my colleagues to check, in case someone has that record on VHS.
For Malebrán, O’Connor meant his first leading woman in music. “I was super close to Anglo music because it was the music that I liked, but it didn’t have a great female reference. And I think that the Sinéad is somehow a precursor of another type of singer that comes later. That way of singing and understanding music from the scream, that visceral thing, of not necessarily being focused on how many notes you play or how virtuous you are. For me she is a reference for what Alanis Morissette did, for what Tori Amos, Fiona Apple did, ”says the artist.
From Chile… a hug to hope was the name of two benefit concerts held at the National Stadium of Chile, in Santiago, Chile, on October 12 and 13, 1990, organized by Amnesty International. HISTORICAL FUND – CDI COPESA
Elisa Montes, a former Supernova and today part of the SlowKiss band, was another one of those girls marked by that famous video clip that was broadcast on the cable, which showed O’Connor with her shaved head, in a close-up, shedding real tears. “Seeing a shaved woman was transgressive at that time. And mixed with the vulnerability and pain that he expressed through his interpretation, it gave a lot to think about, and I have no doubt that it was a great inspiration for adolescents and girls of that time to start anti-sexist bands and with lyrics of social content, ”he reflects. .
“In the punk and music of those years there was a feminist wave with artists who mixed music and social activism, and Sinéad was one of the iconic mainstream artists who dared to go against everything established and what was expected of a woman. female pop artist, deciding, despite the consequences it might imply, to go against the canons of beauty that they tried to impose on her and talk about taboo topics such as abuses by the Catholic Church, which unfortunately ended with disastrous consequences. I believe that she was a misunderstood artist and unfairly vetoed by the industry, that she died without having received the recognition and support that she deserved,” Montes shares with Culto.
(Andrew Catlin/Sundance Institute via AP)
O’Connor’s influence crosses generations and styles. Francisca Valenzuela is another of the musicians who felt touched by the Irish woman. Coincidentally, her death happened the same week that Valenzuela released her latest video clip, which includes a tribute to the singer.
“Sinéad O’Connor is one of my favorite artists, and it’s so sad and angry how the world was so unfair to her. I love and admire her deeply, and am totally grateful to her for paving the way in the music industry. The crazy thing is that the video for Nada para ti -which I directed- has the Nothing Compares 2U video as its main reference. An unexpected tribute.”
The Amnesty International concert that in 1990 brought artists such as Peter Gabriel and Sting to the National Stadium was also decisive. There, the artist not only performed her biggest hit. She also shared with the relatives of the detainees who disappeared during the recently ended dictatorship, and dedicated a few words to the women political prisoners.
Nicole was part of that crowd that cheered her on. “I was surprised. She did the Prince song in a very masterful way. The Cyndi Lauper concert was my first time going to the National Stadium for a concert. But this was massive, and with the quality of artists that there were. I went crazy. For me it was very revealing. I was already beginning my history with music, recording, going to the studio… And for me it was important to have the opportunity to see these artists in a very human, very deep context. Her interpretation of Nothing Compares 2 U, ugh… It surfaced, hit the heart, the skin, everything. We could really see that she and everyone who was there were real artists. It was wonderful”.
It was in this same context that Javiera Parra was able to meet her during her stay at the Sheraton Hotel. “We went to give her a gift with Germán Bobe, we both admired her in a crazy way,” she says about her meeting. He recalls that it was “very nice to meet her. She was very kind, she looked very shy, but very loving.
Parra had in his hands O’Connor’s recording debut, The lion and the cobra (1987), after Álvaro Henríquez brought it to Chile upon returning from a tour of Europe with La negra Ester. “That record broke our heads, because it was very energetic, very ‘Irish’, very Celtic. Very from another place. The mix was very special, but above all the way of singing, torn and delivered. It really was a statement of principles. Yes it was very, very influential. At least for me, his appearance on the scene was the most refreshing. And that’s why we risked it by going to meet her, and we did meet her”.
All of the female musicians interviewed for this article view O’Connor’s departure with regret. Camila Moreno too. For her, “Sinéad is a teacher. She is she who taught us the courage to tell the truth through art. Her records are wonderful, her voice is unique and her carefree, indomitable and rebellious attitude is something that qualifies her as a real artist, one of those who can be told in her story with the fingers of a hand “.
Sinéad O’Connor’s passage through the history of music leaves an indelible mark on many women. “She influenced me and continues to influence me in many ways. Her music is deep, sensitive, simple and complex. She’s the type of songwriter who manages to make great songs with three chords and that’s a tremendous gift. That happens because she is very clear about what she wants to say, ”says Moreno.
“His convictions are tremendous, as are his lyrics. I love his clarity to express himself and that the scream turns into a whisper and then into a scream again. No one needs to like her, and knowing that the world would turn against her, she said everything he had to say. In that sense, her message transcends her as an individual. She immolated herself and buried her career expressing her repudiation of the church, and always defending human rights to the end ”, reflects the composer behind Mala madre (2015).
In her words, artists like O’Connor are “women who take their work further, they are breaking the limits of reality and people value them when they are already dead, because alive and disruptive, they are uncomfortable. Alive are scary. That’s how hypocritical we are. It’s really sad.”
For Malebrán, one of the greatest teachings that O’Connor left her was to lead her career as she saw fit, even if that meant disobeying what was expected of her. She “she is a real artist. She is not a product or someone who fell apart to fit into the industry. And I feel very represented with that, because I have not been what I was expected to be either, because I left the group when I should not have left, because I have given my opinion and said things that have played against me… Because I feel that I have led the race to my looks, without being comfortable or understanding what things are convenient or not. I feel like there’s something irreverent about her that as a type of singer we respect and admire a lot.”
Sinéad O’Connor on her arrival at the airport in 1990. Historical archive / Cedoc Copesa
Javiera Parra gathers from her her resistance when it comes to not giving in. “I have always identified with female musicians of this type, that is, they have not given up. Despite everything that is required and expected of them in terms of image, performance on stage… What she did was simply sing and play her songs. She would do these little Irish dances too, all of a sudden, very cute. I remember that she also played a beautiful little Irish drum. But she was not moldable and was not questionable, the discussion of whether she should adapt to what music and women at that time was at that time was not at stake ”, reflects the artist”.
“There was a school Janet Jackson, Madonna. And the truth is that she, being also the composer of her own songs, she got pregnant at the same time that she released her first album and declared with that another beginning. I mean, I’m a mother and a rocker, a musician. I always saw her as a sweet punky, as a sweet punky”, adds Parra.
“It was a music that equalized, it scratched the field with respect to being the front girl of her own band, composer, producer, absolutely and totally anti-systemic. People think that she self-destructed her career by tearing up a photo of the pope, but the truth is that she felt that this gesture gave her back the freedom to experiment and be an artist again. Sure, in terms of image that’s what it might look like, but for a person who came from a world where the church was oppressive and where many children went to Catholic schools where all kinds of aberrations occurred, it seemed fair to her. that. And it still seems to me to this day that that was also what had to be done”, concludes the voice of Javiera y los Imposibles.
Colombina Parra agrees with this vision: “It is a fact that influenced generations, helping to break with the ‘ideal female stereotype.’ The ideal woman who had to behave according to certain aesthetic protocols and thought protocols”.
Montes, who defines her as “a highly talented artist with a beautiful and shocking voice”, believes that it is extremely valuable that she has not only dedicated her life to music, but that “I take advantage of her exposure to do activism: make visible and denounce the injustices and abuses in the world.
However, he sees with regret that, in an industry like the current one, it is much more difficult for artists like this to emerge. “Today there is more censorship and musical monopoly than ever, forcing many artists to belong to the mold, where there is a vision of the ultra-sexualized woman and with lyrics with very little interest in touching on political or controversial issues. In the end, I see it as normal, as a consequence of the extreme capitalism in which we live, where artistic repression is disguised as freedom”, establishes Montes.
Sinéad O’Connor on her arrival at the airport in 1990. Historical archive / Cedoc Copesa
Camila Moreno shares the feeling that acts like O’Connor’s would be practically impossible. “In a world like today that is unthinkable. Unfortunately, social networks and hyper moral superiority make this real rebellion hide in the fear of not really being able to work. She was surely afraid and went to war anyway, alone. The world turned its back on her, the industry turned its back on her and it turns out that now everyone is crying for her. That makes me very angry. La Violeta (Parra) died the same, alone, also immolated… That is the payment that society gives to women who express themselves freely and break the mold of a good mother”, affirms the artist.
And how to try to continue with his legacy? Moreno is clear when reflecting on that: “In an industry as plastic as the current one, all that remains is to try to honor that cry and take the work to extremes, take it further, even if nobody listens to it. Let’s just say that, in today’s industry, having an attitude like hers would be sending everything to hell.
For all that, the Chileans share that his death means an invaluable loss in popular culture. “We lost that talent, one of those genuine talents and there aren’t many. I think that our generation was greatly influenced by the record we were able to have and the way we interpret it… And for those of us who are singers, musicians, without a doubt it was a great inspiration on how to do it for real. To do it from within, visceral. To sing what moves you and what makes sense to you. That was it for me,” says Nicole.
“Of free singing, what Violeta Parra was talking about, that singing is a bird, an aimless bird… To grab the microphone and hit it with everything, just”, Malebrán complements.
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