Sinéad O'Connor

With her wide-ranging art and steadfast beliefs, Sinéad O'Connor embodied courage. In a soprano that ranged from piercing to caressing, she used the pain of her childhood to speak out against others' suffering. When she appeared in the late 1980s, O'Connor's shaved head challenged stereotypical notions of femininity, but her rejections of conformity weren't skin-deep. On 1987's acclaimed debut album The Lion and the Cobra, she fused rock, hip-hop, and electronic pop with subjects -- sex, religion, oppression -- many other artists wouldn't touch. And unlike many artists of the ...