TRANSCRIPTION
ANNOUNCER: Still to
come, the artist currently known
as Prince parties with fans
in Minneapolis, and Sinead
O'Connor, who became famous
singing Prince's
song, "Nothing Compares
to You," is making music
again.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORET: Prince is partying
like it's, well, no longer
1999. He jammed for hours
in his hometown of
Minneapolis Tuesday in celebration
of his decision to
reclaim his name. As part
of a week of festivities, he
even opened his recording
studio to the public. Prince
says he went back to his
old name because he now
feels fully emancipated
from the record labels.
SYDNEY: Jim, Prince
wrote the song "Nothing Compares
to You." It's that song
you often sing to me, but it
was a young Irish woman
who made that song a hit.
MORET: Nothing compares to you.
Sinead O'Connor, meanwhile,
found success with that
song in 1990 and went on
to become one of the more
controversial pop stars
of the decade.
Mark Scheerer spoke to O'Connor and has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK
SCHEERER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a
familiar voice, a familiar
face. It's Sinead O'Connor,
and she's familiar with
controversy. While she told a
magazine recently she's
a lesbian, she says this new song
"No Man's Woman" is not
anti-male, as some people think.
SINEAD
O'CONNOR, MUSICIAN: I think anyone listening to
the song or even reading
the words of the song could
not fail to see that it's
not anti-man at all. It's
maybe anti-marriage, you
know what I mean?
SCHEERER:
Now 33 with two children, the Irish
singer-songwriter comes
across as much more
comfortable.
O'CONNOR:
When I was younger, I did find doing
interviews and stuff like
that quite difficult, and
people would ask you questions
that you could only
answer yes or no to, and
accidentally, then you come
across quite rude, and then
I had no hair and the whole
thing anyway, and you know,
I don't think I had a hope in
hell, do you know what I
mean?
SCHEERER:
In 1990, during the buildup to the Gulf War,
she pulled out of a concert
where the American
national anthem was to be
sung. At a later date, she
watched in disguise as more
protesters unloaded on
her. In 1992, she tore up
a photograph of the pope on
"Saturday Night Live." Protesters
destroyed her
albums. Supporters came
to her defense. And she tried to
explain to SHOWBIZ TODAY.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, OCTOBER 1992)
O'CONNOR:
What I did was say what I feel, which was
that the church must be
brought down, they must be
destroyed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHEERER:
She was nearly booed off the stage at a
tribute concert for Bob
Dylan. In recent years, her
public profile diminished,
with exceptions, like last
year, when she was ordained
as a priest by a breakaway
French order of the Catholic
Church.
O'CONNOR:
Yes, but I don't really want to talk about
that, actually, in connection
with my album. I don't
think it would be right
to associate the two, because
I didn't do it for publicity.
I was 20 when I put out my
first record out. I was
23 when all the stuff was
going on, you know. I think
being out of it for six
years was probably quite
a good thing. And I don't wish to
suggest at all that I am
anything but very proud of
that young woman, you know,
who was extremely brave,
in my opinion, to try for
everything that she did try for
and be challenging. I think
art should always be
challenging.
SCHEERER:
The new album is "Faith and Courage." The
new Sinead O'Connor? Call
it "The Mature Remix."
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