After spending many years away from the stage, one of Ireland’s most famous and successful singers is back on tour, and is set to visit the Isle of Man next week.

Sinead O’Connor will appear at the Villa Marina on Wednesday, December 18, one of only two concerts she is due to play in the British Isles, with the second being a sold-out date in London.

Once her comeback tour across Ireland was announced, concerts sold out in less than four hours, and a US tour, due to start in 2020, sold out in similar time, proving that Sinead remains one of the most popular singers in the world today.

The reviews that her shows have gathered have been nothing short of celebratory, with many saying that Sinead delivers night after night of powerful and thrillingly-emotional music that doesn’t fail to enrapture audiences, and Sinead herself said that she is loving being back performing on stage again, after so many years away.

’I have been on tour now for a few months, and it’s great because I do love touring very much,’ said Sinead.

’It’s been fantastic to go back out in tour after five years away, and to have such a warm and loving reception.

’The reaction I have had has been very good indeed. It has been very loving and very nice to receive, and I feel very lucky.’

It is almost easy to forget what a stunning artist Sinead is, when the most media attention she seems to gain is directed to her personal or religious affairs, rather than her music.

She recently hit the headlines when she converted to Islam, after decades spent in conflict with the Catholic Church, and it seems that her music will always play second fiddle to the controversies that swirl when her name is mentioned.

However, that is something that Sinead doesn’t want to dwell on, and dismisses it with characteristic brusqueness.

’I accept anything like that as it comes,’ she said.

’People generally say what they like, and there is not much I can do about the way people perceive me.’

Sinead is best known for her searing song ’Nothing Compares 2 U’, which topped charts all over the world in 1991 and which remains a staple of her live set.

Recent footage shows that she can still pack the song full of the raw, emotional power that made the song so memorable in the first place, and the song’s impact, either listening to it or singing it, hasn’t been diminished over the years.

’It doesn’t bother me to sing my most famous songs,’ she said.

’I love the fact that people want to hear them, and as long as people are happy, then I’ll keep singing them.

’Also I really wouldn’t sing it if I genuinely didn’t enjoy doing them.

’My set during the tour has been mainly songs taken from all my back catalogue, and the set will be an hour and a half of my favourite songs from each of my albums.

’I haven’t got any new material yet, and I am only starting to write and work on new songs now.

’But the main thing I have in front of me, especially for next year, is more touring,’ she continued.

’I love touring, and it is a very enjoyable thing to do, but it is also the only real way a musician can make a living these days.

’It is very hard to make a living, as people just aren’t buying records anymore.

’You used to be able to make a living out of selling your music, but you cant do that today. Nowadays you make money from touring. That’s how we pay the gas bill at the end of the day.’

Supporting Sinead on the Isle of Man is the Irish folk, pop and roots group Screaming Orphans, a four-piece featuring sisters Joan, Angela, Gràinne and Marie Thérèse Divers.

The group originally supported Sinead during her 1997 tour, and have also performed as her backing singers, and released their latest album, ’Life As A Carnival’, in 2019.

Tickets for Sinead O’Connor are £42, and are available from the Welcome Centre and the Villa Gaiety box office, on 600555, and online from villagaiety.com

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers