The Toronto Star
August 18, 1990, Saturday, SATURDAY SECOND EDITION

Sinead's intensity sends chills down your spine

By Chris Dafoe Toronto Star


   Brilliant.

   There is simply no other single word that adequately describes Irish singer
Sinead O'Connor's performance last night in front of 18,000 fans at the CNE
Grandstand.

   Elegantly simple in its conception and breathtaking in its emotionalism,
O'Connor's 90-minute set flew bravely (and successfully) in the face of the
current style of pop performance.

   At a time when performers such as Madonna and Janet Jackson are striving to
recreate elaborate videos onstage, O'Connor has stripped her show to the bone,
forsaking the elaborate staging favored by others for raw anger, love, passion,
fire and an emotion so pure it sends chills down your spine.

   Appearing onstage clad in a black leather jacket and what appeared to be a
one-piece bathing suit (O'Connor, with her shaved head and blunt manner, is
perhaps the only performer who could adopt that attire and make it seem less a
sexual tease than a challenge to see beyond the surface), the 23-year-old singer
opened the show with a stark version of "Feels So Different," the lead track
from her second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got.

   The set that came after followed closely in the steps of the show she gave at
Massey Hall in May, with a few important differences.

   Like that earlier show, the opening half of O'Connor's set last night seemed
arranged to strip away the layers of sound that support the songs and to finally
leave the singer alone and emotionally naked onstage.

   As she sang, the members of her four-piece band quietly slipped away, finally
leaving O'Connor alone on stage with a tape deck that played a sparse hip-hop
beat as she sang "I Am Stretched On Your Grave," her adaptation of a traditional
Irish song.

   The effect was both striking and surprisingly subtle; without the support of
the band, O'Connor's voice expanded to fill the space, soaring into the upper
registers, dipping down into a bitter caw.

   From that point on, however, the set took a slightly different route from
O'Connor's earlier show.

   Instead of the gentle acoustic strains of "The Last Day of Our Aquaintance,"
O'Connor kicked into a rare cover of Etta James' "Damn Your Eyes," a bitter
blues that is an emotional (if not a vocal) challenge to any singer.

   And when she finally did kick into "Last Days," on record a resigned goodbye
to a love affair gone bad, she delivered the song with a withering, almost
venomous anger, shouting curses into the night as the rest of the band kicked in
for the song's finale.

   Remarkably, O'Connor maintained that emotional intensity throughout the rest
of the set, through songs such as the anthemic "Mandinka" and the serene cover
of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U."

   The effect was exhilarating, moving and at times frightening, as if O'Connor
was not only singing her way out of herself, but us out of ourselves as well.

   Earlier yesterday, at a news conference, O'Connor had told reporters she
wants to be seen as an ordinary person, that whatever gifts she may have
received do not make her special.

   Her performance last night made that disclaimer hard to believe. Last night,
she showed that she is special, very special. And apparently getting more so
every day.