Sinéad O'Connor (the A-Side)

Sinéad O'Connor talks about her most personal album, 2007's 'Theology'.

Series in which leading performers and songwriters talk about the album that made them or changed them.

Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios, each edition includes two episodes - the A-side and B-side.

In the A-side, Sinéad talks to John Wilson.

Sinéad O'Connor became a household name after her 1990 hit 'Nothing Compares 2U', penned by Prince. Since then she has released 9 solo albums.

No stranger to controversy and with an ambivalent relationship towards the Roman Catholicism of her upbringing, Sinéad is an artist who has always followed her own vision. She found notoriety when she tore up a picture of the Pope live on American TV and was ordained as a priest.

Her interest in all faiths finds expression in her eight record Theology, her most personal body of work to date and the one album she says she wants to take with her to the grave.

Sinéad had been studying Judaic Theology in Dublin before she wrote the album, drawing mainly on psalms and scriptures of the prophets for inspiration. It also includes a tense, intimate version of "I Don't Know How To Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar. As one critic wrote, Sinéad "re-invigorates the ancient genre of the hymn in her own inimitable way".

In the B-side of the programme, it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions.

Sinéad O'Connor died aged 56 on 26th July 2023.

Producer: Neil McCarthy

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.