US streams of Sinéad O’Connor rise by 2,885%

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Following the death of Sinéad O’Connor, US streams of her music have risen by 2,885%.

The Irish musician and activist passed away at her London home on July 26th, aged 56. The Metropolitan Police confirmed that the ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ singer was found unresponsive at the property. In a statement, they said: “Police were called at 11.18am on Wednesday July 26th to reports of an unresponsive woman at a residential address in the SE24 area. Officers attended. A 56-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene.”

Now, according to Billboard, in the US, streams of her music rose by 7.9 million during the week of July 21st-27th. O’Connor’s music was streamed 243,000 times between July 24th and 25th, with the number rising to 7.3 million in the wake of her death from July 26th to 27th. Her famous cover of the Prince track ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ gained 3.2 million streams alone in the week that the news of her death broke, with 10,000 downloads. The streaming figures for her music in the UK are yet to be released.

Since the news of Sinéad O’Connor’s death broke, many prominent figures from the music industry have paid tribute to her, including Michael Stipe, Garbage and Tori Amos. Earlier this week, Lily Allen said she is “incensed” by the “spineless” homages posted. She suggested some of those penning praises of the Irish musician should have defended her in life.

“It’s hard not to feel incensed when there are so many people posting about Sinead and how fearless she was, people who would never in a million years align themselves with anybody who stood for something or had anything remotely controversial to say,” Allen wrote in a tweet last weekend. She added: “It’s so spineless. If you can’t stand up for people in life don’t do it in death.”

Allen’s comments echo those of former Smiths frontman Morrissey, who criticised the people who “hadn’t the guts to support her when she was alive and she was looking for you”.

“She had only so much ‘self’ to give,” started the message uploaded to his website. “She was dropped by her label after selling 7 million albums for them. She became crazed, yes, but uninteresting, never. She had done nothing wrong. She had proud vulnerability … and there is a certain music industry hatred for singers who don’t ‘fit in’ (this I know only too well), and they are never praised until death – when, finally, they can’t answer back”.