The moving reason why the late Sinead O’Connor shaved her head after her first record deal

SINEAD O’CONNOR shaved off her long dark hair after signing her first record deal and later said she didn’t want to conform to the wishes of the music industry.

This defiant act was something she’d wanted to do ever since her abusive mother called her the “pretty daughter” as a child.

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Sinead was commissioned to produce a light-hearted record in 1985, saying, “You’re supposed to wear push-up bras and lip gloss and shut up and sing.”

It was the beginning of the public resistance that caused her career to collapse when she tore up a photo of the Pope on television.

And in her last interview, recorded for Nothing Compares – tomorrow on Sky – she said: “They tried to bury me but didn’t know I was a seed.”

She added, “I just knew I didn’t want a man telling me who I could be or what I could be or what I should sound like.

“I come from a patriarchal country where everything I do and don’t do is told to me because I’m a girl.

“I would imagine that if I didn’t take it from the system and I didn’t take it from my father, I wouldn’t take it from anyone else either.”

“Artists often hear that they channel something. I think a lot of times you channel yourself and your subconscious is telling you something, it’s talking to you.

“I had these songs inside me that just had to come out.

“I write songs about things that are close to my heart. It’s not about consciously writing a political song or consciously making a statement about anything, and I think it’s everyone’s duty to themselves to act on their feelings and say when something’s wrong.”

“The job of an artist is to have the sometimes difficult conversations that need to be had, and it’s none of my business what anyone thinks of me when I’m doing that.”

• “Nothing Compares” will be broadcast on Sky and NOW on Saturday.