‘Nothing Compares’: Insightful Showtime doc revisits Sinéad O’Connor’s fall from superstar to outcast

When the Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor went missing in May of 2016 after she vanished while on a bike ride in Wilmette and then was found safe a day later, my reaction was relief O’Connor was OK — and surprise to learn she had been living in a Chicago suburb, staying with a friend. So THAT’S what happened to Sinéad O’Connor?!

Despite the inclination of some in the public and the media to make light of O’Connor’s controversial and mercurial behavior, this was no joke, as she has dealt with mental issues and has publicly talked of suicidal thoughts. Thankfully, O’Connor was unharmed, and she slipped back into the world — continuing to record and tour from time to time, but no longer anywhere near the white-hot center of the popular culture as she was in the 1990s.

Now comes the insightful, respectful and thorough Showtime documentary “Nothing Compares” from the Belfast-born director Kathryn Ferguson, and it’s an invaluable look at a complicated and often misunderstood artist who is more than the usual talking points of “Nothing Compares 2 U” and “ripped up a picture of the pope on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ ”

The documentary opens with Kris Kristofferson introducing O’Connor at Bob Dylan’s 30th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in 1992, just weeks after the infamous “SNL” incident. “I’m real proud to introduce this next artist, whose name has become synonymous with courage and integrity,” says Kristofferson. “Ladies and gentlemen, Sinéad O’Connor.” Cut to footage of O’Connor walking onto the stage as a smattering of applause is drowned out by a cascade of boos. This was at a BOB DYLAN concert — a celebration of an artist who had become legend in large part because of his protest songs. If Sinéad O’Connor was being booed there … well.

Director Ferguson weaves together archival footage and some re-creations with an extended interview with O’Connor, 55, whose insights are delivered via voice-over. “There was no therapy when I was growing up,” she says, “so the reason I got into music was therapy. [So] it was such a shock to me to become a pop star, it’s not what I wanted. I just wanted to scream.”

Marton Monus/MTI via AP

As a young girl, O’Connor suffered horrific physical, emotional and verbal abuse at the hands of her mother. Sinéad was shuttled from school to school, and eventually started singing with bands in and around County Dublin as a teenager, with her remarkably strong and distinctive voice attracting the attention of the music industry.“Nothing Compares” focuses primarily on the period from 1987 to 1993, when O’Connor became an international superstar. By the time O’Connor was 21, she had released the acclaimed and popular “The Lion and the Cobra,” and she followed that with “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” in 1990, which featured O’Connor’s signature song and the basis for the one of the most famous music videos of all time: her cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” (The song actually isn’t heard in the documentary, as Prince’s estate wouldn’t allow it.)

Prior to the recording of “The Lion and the Cobra,” the record company wanted to glam up O’Connor; she responded by keeping her head shaved. O’Connor also claims the label’s execs pressured her to have an abortion, as her pregnancy would get in the way of her promoting her material. She had the baby, giving birth to son Jake. “I just knew I didn’t want any man telling me who I could be or what I could be, or what to sound like,” says O’Connor.

Even as O’Connor’s star was ascending, she was speaking out on a myriad of issues, polarizing colleagues and the public alike. (Madonna and Frank Sinatra were among her critics.) Against the backdrop of the Persian Gulf War, she refused to do a performance in New Jersey unless they agreed not to play the national anthem; in 1991, she boycotted the Grammys.

Then came the moment that will always be in the first paragraph of O’Connor’s life story: Oct. 3, 1992, when she performed Bob Marley’s “War” before ripping up the photo of the pope and proclaiming, “Fight the real enemy!” in a bold and stunning statement in the wake of revelations about the church protecting abusive priests. (Nine years later, John Paul II would offer an apology to victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.) The reaction was swift and overwhelmingly negative. O’Connor’s career never fully recovered.

Cut to present day, as O’Connor says, “I was always being made out to be crazy by the media. I don’t blame anybody for thinking I was crazy or for hating me for it. … I regret that people treated me like s---, and I regret that I was so wounded already that that really, really hurt me and killed me. … They broke my heart and they killed me, but I didn’t die.” The documentary ends with the O’Connor of today singing her 1994 song “Thank You For Hearing Me.”

Her voice continues to soar with the angels.