Culture
18 Sep 20

Exclusive: Sinéad O’Connor Talks Trouble of the World In The Next Issue Of Hot Press

Sinead O'Connor at Vicar Steet, Dublin 27.10.2019 Copyright Colm Kelly.

To mark the release of her new single supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, Sinéad O'Connor has spoken exclusively to Hot Press – and what she has to say is by turns explosive, provocative, hilariously funny – and guaranteed to make an impact across the world…

As she prepares for the October 2 release of her Black Lives Matter-supporting new single, ‘Trouble of the World’, Sinéad O’Connor has spoken exclusively to Hot Press.

The cover story will hit the streets next week, and is available now for pre-purchase. In a flip-cover special, The Killers are also featured – on a bonanza music whammy!

The ‘Trouble of the World’ single is produced by the legendary Belfast producer, recording artist and DJ, David Holmes, and the video for it has been made by Don Letts, the radical black British-born film-maker, who achieved his initial breakthrough as video maker with The Clash. The record is released by the UK-based Heavenly Recordings label.

As revealed by Hot Press on 31 August, the proceeds from the single will be donated to the Black Lives Matter movement. Sinéad delivers an impassioned performance of a classic Mahalia Jackson song, which was central to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

The message – on which Sinéad expands very eloquently in the interview, conducted by Hot Press deputy editor, Stuart Clark – is that it is long past time for us all, across the world, to stand up and demand equality.

Sinéad has had a long history of supporting equal rights, and of opposing racism, going back to ‘Black Boys On Mopeds’, recorded for her hugely successful 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got – on which the global No.1 smash hit 'Nothing Compares 2U' also featured. 'Black Boys On Mopeds' was about two adolescent boys who died when the moped they were riding crashed during a police chase.

What Sinéad has to say about racism, and the reaction of some of our world leaders – notably Donald Trump! – to it, is both wise and timely, and also inspiring. Always a superb interviewee, Sinéad is in great form, mixing sharp political observations with powerful anecdotes and more than a soupçon of humour. It amounts to a world stirring interview that, for every fan of Sinéad O'Connor, is a must-read...