Why Sinéad O’Connor's New Song Was Released Despite Her Stance on Posthumous Music
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Sinéad O'Connor
One of Sinéad O'Connor's unreleased songs premiered posthumously in the finale of the BBC miniseries The Woman in the Wall, which aired on Sept. 25.
O'Connor had previously spoken about her stance against releasing artists' music posthumously, declaring two years before her death that her estate knows not to put out any albums following her passing. But there's a reason why an exception was made for The Woman in the Wall.
David Holmes, who scored the series and worked as a producer on O'Connor's recent work, told The Guardian, "Sinéad sanctioned the track for use before they had even started shooting, and when the producers heard it they were amazed to have something so strong.
The track, titled "The Magdalene Song," paired perfectly with the thriller, which delves into Ireland's notorious Magdalene Laundries, which were asylums run by nuns for "fallen women," including sex workers, unmarried pregnant women, and women who'd been sexually abused.
O'Connor herself had been placed in one of the institutions as a teen, telling SPIN in 1990 that she "will never experience such panic and terror and agony over anything like I did at that place."
"It's incredible how the meaning of the song came together with this story," said Holmes. It was just meant to be. There's a certain magic when you bring music to an emotive story."
In a 2021 interview with People, the late Irish icon talked about being staunchly against the release of music posthumously.
"See, when the artists are dead, they're much more valuable than when they're alive. Tupac has released way more albums since he died than he ever did alive, so it's kind of gross what record companies do," she explained.
O'Connor then noted, "That's why I've always instructed my children since they were very small, 'If your mother drops dead tomorrow, before you called 911, call my accountant and make sure the record companies don't start releasing my records and not telling you where the money is.'"
In the same interview, she spoke about her ire towards Prince's estate "raping his vault" by releasing his previously unshared music.
"All musicians, we have songs that we really are embarrassed about that are crap," she said. "We don't want anyone hearing them. Now this is a man who released every song he ever recorded, so if he went to the trouble of building a vault, which is a pretty strong thing to do, that means he really did not want these songs released. And I can't stand that people are, as I put it, raping the vault."
However, in this case, since she approved of the song to be used prior to her passing, it's very likely that O'Connor would have still been happy with the decision. However, it's unclear what will happen to the album she'd been working on months before her death.
As for what Holmes believes would have been O'Connor's reaction to hearing her powerful song in the series, he said, "She would have been proud. Some people have criticized the black humor in the script, but growing up in Belfast I’ve seen the dark humor that people use to get through."
Though the series already aired in the UK on BBC, US fans of the Grammy-winning musician can hear the song when the show premieres on Paramount+ on Nov. 1.
Next: Sinéad O'Connor's Children Reflect on Their 'Sorrow' One Month After Singer's Death
