Sinéad found herself at the Universal Amphitheater, in Universal City, California, attending the MTV Video Awards, which in its seven years of existence had become just as glitzy and contrived as the Grammy Awards and the American Music Awards. Sinéad was nominated for four awards, including Best Video of the Year. Sinéad performed her nominated number "Nothing Compares 2U, complete with extended coda. In a translucent white gown, and she was one of the few performers who genuinely performed live (although after hearing Motley Crue play live one could be forgiven for wishing that they had lip-synched).

She won three of the four awards for which she had been nominated- Best Female Video, Best Post-Modern Video (whatever that means), and Best Video of the Year. She seemed genuinely surprised to be stealing the show, and she and director Maybury looked like giddy kids. When she won the prime award, she thanked Prince, her managers past and present, her husband (gossip writers harrumphed), her band, and "Mr. God" (four winning performers had thanked God; by the end of the evening it had become a running joke).

She addressed Mtv viewers with this comment: "I have a great respect for people of all countries, including the American people. My attitude over the national anthem was in order to draw attention to the censorship issue. When it's racism disguised as censorship, it's even worse, and that's the point I was trying to make." Sinéad was being honored as a visual icon, but at her moment of greatest industry acclamation, she insisted on bringing substance to the moment.

She insisted that ideas held sway over image. For that moment, she was at the top of the world, and she had brought an industry up there with her. 1990 was a wild one for her, with experiences diverse and intense enough to suggest that the next Sinéad record will be something worth waiting for.

In 1992, 2 years after her well earned success with her second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, Sinéad released "Am I Not Your Girl?", a gust project revealing Sinéad's sterling voice. Paying homage to the swinging era, Sinéad has compiled an album of reverant renditions of musical classics.

A standout is Billie Holiday's "Gloomy Sunday," a chilling piece made even more fragile by Sinéad's expressive interpretation. Equally eloquent treatment and orchestrations are given to "Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered," a pop standard from the Broadway show Pal Joey. This album may have disappointed a lot of fans who were more fond of her first two albums. Most were probably awaiting an equal and worthy follow up from her second album.

There is a passage in the cd booklet of "Am I Not Your Girl?" which reads: "These are the songs I grew up listening to, they are the songs that made me want to be a singer. That's the 'Why?'. It seems like Sinéad new this album may disappoint some, the comment she made contradicted to the listener's negative response to the album. Just after Sinéad had established herself as a "rock" and "pop" star, she releases an LP with remakes of classical songs. Yet, she knew what she wanted to do and went ahead and did it, regardless of what the critics thought.

Many people can tell that this album isn't groundbreaking compared to The Lion and the Cobra and I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, but it's a noteworthy shift in the production of her music.

The worst was yet to come, On October 3rd, Sinéad was invited to perform on "Saturday Night Live" she agreed (when just two years earlier boycotted the show for its outspoken host, Andrew "Dice" Clay. Sinéad along with SNL cast member Nora Dunn found Clay's jokes offensive to race, sex, religion, and women), Nevertheless, Sinéad decided to perform.

She sang an acapella version of Bob Marley's song "War", following her performance, Sinéad held up an 8X10 photograph of Pope John Paul II and tore it into pieces, reciting the phrase "Fight the real enemy!!!." After the show had ended, the NBC switchboards lighted up from all around the globe. Most of them were apalled at her performance. The executive producers went on to say that Sinéad had performed the song differently in rehearsel, and they had no knowledge of the tearing.

Sinéad has said that she did it as a protest against all religions and not just the Pope. For Americans and the Catholic church, the incident backfired and offended millions of viewers. It's obvious that what Sinéad did was premeditated, she knew what she was getting herself into. The incident also hurt record sales and image, from being praised as "The Princess of Ireland" to the sweet sensitive woman (as portrayed by "Nothing Compares 2U") and the next minute being hated and shunned in music industry and despised around the globe.

Since her outburst on SNL, radio stations blacklisted Sinéad they no longer played her infamous "Nothing Compares 2U" and none of her early hits like "Mandinka." Let us remember that Sinéad's convictions are better than her actions and she had a reason for doing it, Yet that reason got sidetracked and backfired on her own part. This ablum addressed child abuse, something Sinéad knows about first hand. In the cd booklet Sinéad wrote a "heavy and intense" poem about it, Strangely enough, Sinéad ends this record with a speech, which reads:

"I am not a liar, and I'm not full of hatred But I hate lies and so the liars hate me
The same who can't stand the sight of a starving baby? can you really say you're not in pain like me?
Are any of us not living painfully?
Pain is what their lies have kept us in But the war has started now, and truth will win
Many of us are gonna lose our lives and that's okay because to live we have to die
The enemies of God will say it's chaos just remember what Jesus did in the temple and be patient exactly why do you think he was assassinated? who was it that did the dirty deed? Who didn't like the answers they'd received? Look at the one wearing the collar!
Then or now, there's only ever been one liar and it's the Holy Roman Empire and this is exactly what they did:
They told us lies to take us away from God so yeah, I am angry but I'm not full of hate
I am full of love God said "I bring not peace, I bring a sword."

The speech shows Sinéad's never ending strong opinions on Catholocism and is a good way to end an album.

Two years after her accepted failure, "Am I Not Your Girl?", Sinéad released her 4th LP entitled "Universal Mother". On Universal Mother, the voice that surged and howled on her first two albums sounds broken, tamed, like a whipped dog. She still has her trick of making high notes sound like the mist left when the note she leaps to them from gets vaporized, but the boldness is mostly gone, replaced for most of this album by a close-miked, near-choked whisper.

In fact, after the first song, the screamingly weird, but effective dub nightmare "Fire On Babylon," the album shifts gears into half an hour of downtempo ballads. A few are genuinely lovely and effective, like the acappella tracks "Tiny Grief Song" and "In This Heart," both of which have wonderful traditional-sounding melodies, but others misfire. The lullaby "My Darling Child" has disturbing implications of having a baby as a way to keep from being lonely; an acoustic cover of Nirvana's brutal confessional "All Apologies" comes off as prissy and near-tearful; and the piano ballad "Scorn Not His Simplicity" is so bathetic that it's amazing that a big string section doesn't swoop in. Just when the album's about to dissolve altogether, a loud scratch heralds its final one-two punch. "'Famine"' is a Soul II Soul-ish groove with O'Connor flowing politics like a female, Irish KRS-One - nobody's ever tried this before, and it's pretty damn effective.

And "Thank You For Hearing Me" uses Sinéad's wounded strength to best effect, taking her newfound pain and weakness and turning it into something moving and powerful. Universal Mother is a failure, but all failures should be this interesting. Even though Universal Mother is an introspective, melancholy record, a fan must purchase it to experience the evolution of Sinéad O'Connor and her music.

At the beginning of the career with her haunting debut, The Lion and the Cobra, Sinéad had signed with Chrysallis/Ensign records, promising four albums. Universal Mother was that fourth album and her contract had ended.

We wouldn't hear the last of Sinéad O'Connor yet.

Three years after she had released her 4th album, Sinéad came back with a critically acclaimed EP titled "Gospel Oak", only containing six songs, all of which were dedicated to the people of Rwanda, Israel, and her natives of Ireland. The songs on the "mini" album are about love and peace. In 1998, Sinéad joined the Lilith Fair in mid-summer for a 10 day tour to promote her newest album, she only toured 10 days so she could spend more time with her daughter whom for which some of the songs on the album were written.

In 1990 back in Ireland John Waters had a cassette tape of Sinéad's second album. He was there to review one of her concerts. Sinéad had read the article Waters had written and asked him to come meet her. When they met, they fell in love and they had a baby girl they named Roisin. "4 My Love", is most likely about Waters, whom Sinéad fell head over heels with in '95, but things had taken a turn for the worst. Waters turned Sinéad in for alleged child abuse, which he says was projected on Roisin.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police specialist child protection team, frequently surprised Sinéad with inspections. On the many times they inspected, they found no sign of Roisin being abused. In a recent interview with the Mirror she said the complaints of child abuse made by Waters were "vicious lies." The complaints came after Waters said he was supposedly barred from Sinéad's house, that too was a lie. The allegations of child abuse were sooned dropped, but one might wonder: "Why would the man Sinéad fell in love with, adored in her songs on Gospel Oak, make false statements of child abuse in their home?" Their love affair was ill fated from the beginning.

Waters wanted desperately to have a child, so he and Sinéad agreed to an immaculate conception. Roisin was born, and Waters' attitude changed drastically. Sinéad has said that Waters used her like a "rag doll", and treated her like "dirt." 4 weeks after Roisin was born, Waters tried to gain soul custody of her, Sinéad strongly protested saying that a child needs it's mother. Waters continually made threats that he would take Roisin from her, but Sinéad said she would "fight to the death" to defeat any attempts at allowing him to take their daughter.

They split up and continued their battle for Roisin, Sinéad now considers Waters a "sperm donor" rather than a father. Sinéad vowed that she would sue Waters for defamation in London and Dublin, considering legal actions to be taken upon his malicious reporting, a crime in Ireland. Her words seemed garner a lot of conviction on her part, but weeks later she gave up and agreed to grant Waters full custody of their daughter. Sinéad stated that she wasn't a bad mother and that was the reason why she gave up custody. Waters agreed to Sinéad's request to see her daughter on the weekends and school holidays. Even under stress, Sinéad was albe to make history.

She teamed up with Thomas Dolby a one hit wonder from the 80's who struck it big with his hit "She Blinded Me With Science" Together along with Coldcut production company, record the world's first ever single live over the internet. Their contrubitions were recorded in different locations and beamed into a BBC studio in Maida Vale, North London via the internet. The song was a cover of Bob Marley's "Them Belly Full (But We Be Hungry)" consisting of Sinéad who was located in a BBC Television Centre in West London, while Dolby was playing keyboards in San Francisco. Matt Black and Jonathan More recorded the track over the internet, mixed in the music, and were albe to play it back to O'Connor and Dolby. It was brodcast during a special edition of BBC One's Tomorrow's World called Megalab 99, while the single was sold in aid of the charity War Child.

With that landmark event, Sinéad's personal life seemed to get worse, on Mother's Day of '99, Sinéad relinquished custody to Waters. 'I was frightened that I would be so disturbed by John that I would end up killing myself." Soon after, Sinéad moved into an 8 bedroom house in North London. A month earlier, Sinéad arrived at Waters' home and took her daughter, prentending to take a walk, instead of walking, they drove to the Dublin airport and boarded a flew back to London, when there, she phoned Waters and told him what she had done. Waters and Sinéad reportedly met in a hotel room somewhere in London, they both argued over Roisin and Waters finally left.

Sinéad was devastated and depressed, causing her to swallow 20 valium tablets with a small glass of vodka. She had left a note for police if they had found her body which read "If I die, it's because I wanted to die." Her attempt failed, leaving her passed out for 36 hours. She described to friends that it was a "horrifying experience." With that, Sinéad realized she had to get reconnected with God somehow.

On April 22 1998, Sinéad was ordained as a priest, in Lourdes -- she now called herself "Mother Bernadette Marie."

She was ordained by a Tridentine bishop, Michael Cox, who in January of 1976 ordained many priests and bishops. The Vatican reacted almost immediately. On September 17, 1976, the Vatican drew attention to the penalties--including excommunication, incurred by the archbishop and those he ordained. The archbishop obtained absolution from the excommunication, but that didn't stop Cox. in 1981, he attempted to ordain other priests and bishops. By a special mandate, Pope John Paul II restrengthened the penalties incurred, including automatic excommunication, which stopped Cox from ordaining more priests and bishops.

The Catholic church doesn't recognise those ordained by Cox, including Sinéad O'Connor. Sinéad's certificate of priesthood is considered "invalid" and "illicit" by the church. To show gratitude for ordaining her a priest, Sinéad generously donated a £150,000 sum to Cox. Many people in the media considered her donation as a way of "buying" her sacrament, which would invalidate her ordination. With speculation rising, Sinéad quickly took back her generous donation, as if doing so was a "double protective measure" on behalf of herself and Cox. "Bishop Cox and I knew that the donation had nothing to do with my ordination, but I am taking it back for protective reasons. I'm sure that when the church reviews my case, they inspect every aspect of it and this is double, double protection."

Bishop Pat Buckley called the donation "a simony"--the act of purchasing a sacrament, yet another malicious allegation pointing towards Sinéad. "The money that was supposed to be given to Cox will be used as a healing center, I don't want to let the travellers will still be able to be healed and the costs will be funded by my musical career." Speaking of musical careers, Sinéad's recent plans for performing have been cancelled.

She was scheduled to appear at the "Festival Of People" in Belfast. Certain conflicts arose between O'Connor and the festivals organizers saying that she "could not speak out against Irish Republican Army Violence." One of the organizers of the festival, Caitriona Ruane says that "At no time did we say that she could not speak about any issue." Sinéad thought otherwise and withdrew from the festival saying "I am sure my fans will understand my action -- as they know me well by now."

Plans for new material are currently in the making. Sinéad is currently working on her 7th album and this time it's a full length cd. She is signed to Atlantic Records with a 3 album, 8 million dollar contract. She's working with some of the best musicans who include: Brian Eno, Dave Stewart, and Massive Attack producer Cameron McVey. The album is titeld Faith and Courage and is to be released on June 13th, 2000.