It all started out quite innocuously. Miley Cyrus revealed that her Wrecking Ball music video was inspired by Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U music video. The 2 U video earned three Moonmen gongs from MTV making the Irish singer the first female to achieve this honor. But when Sinead offered Miley some heartfelt advice via her Facebook page, the 20 year-old singer got her claws out. It is now Miley Cyrus’ Twitter versus Sinead O’Connor’s Facebook.
Sinead O’Connor has been in the business long enough to offer sage advice to the former Hannah Montana. She reached dizzying heights beginning in the 1980’s through the 2000’s as a singer/songwriter. She famously shaved her head in protest at the way women were forced into stereotypes. Unfortunately, her outspoken views against the Catholic church and the Pope, whose picture she publicly tore up, ultimately damaged her career. O’Connor had a troubled childhood and her mother abused her as a child. But the 46 year-old performer has always stood for empowering women and breaking away from the stereotypical roles that her peers were forced into.
She wrote an open letter to Miley telling her that she was “pimping” herself, or allowing others to do so. She warned that there was a price to pay for this and that sexualising herself to help sell records was a no win situation. Basically, Sinead was attempting to reach out to Miley and tell her that her singing and her records would still sell without her “disgracing” or belittling herself.
Cyrus reacted to the open letter on Facebook with derision and responded by tweeting that Sinead was like Amanda Bynes. It has turned into all out war. Miley Cyrus’ Twitter campaign versus Sinead O’Connors’ Facebook letters.
Miley reacted to the well meaning advice of the older performer by posting two year-old tweets of O’Connors’ from when she was suffering from mental problems of her own. The posting of the tweets were meant to back up Miley’s claim that Sinead was the Amanda Bynes of her day.
O’Connor responded with another open letter where she questioned Miley’s response. She went on to point out that the Wrecking Ball singer had managed to insult everyone who ever suffered from mental illness. Her inner feminist came to the fore as she accused Cyrus of acting like a prostitute and believing that exposing her “tits” was some form of feminism.
She also attacked Miley’s attempting to make Sinead’s old tweets look more recent.
O’Connor has always been outspoken in her views of politics and the Catholic church. She is a confirmed pacifist, but that has never stood in the way of the performer expressing her beliefs. In 1990, she enraged the legendary Frank Sinatra by stating that she would refuse to perform in a concert if the US national anthem played before her show started. Ol Blue Eyes was so offended that he threatened to “kick her ass.”
Miley would do well to listen to O’Connor. She is an artist who “has been there, done that.” She not only has the T-shirt, but she has the scars. O’Connor was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, like Amanda Bynes and many others in the entertainment industry, she also suffered from fibromyalgia.
The Irish singer/songwriter’s well meaning advice has not only been thrown back into her face, figuratively speaking, but Miley has gone one step further and added insult to injury. Cyrus has intimated that O’Connor suffers from mental instability instead of either ignoring the Facebook open letter or just politely thanking the performer for her concern.
Cyrus is no fool, she knows that by fanning the flames of the publicity “fire” that has her name continually in the news, she remains the focus of everyone’s attention. She obviously believes in the old adage that all publicity is good publicity.
Miley Cyrus versus Sinead O’Connor or Twitter versus Facebook is just another installment of the Miley Cyrus publicity train. As O’Connor has fired the last salvo, it is now Miley’s turn to respond. Only time, and Twitter, will uncover how the ex Disney “princess” will react. But in terms of age and experience, O’Connor has the advantage. Round three to O’Connor.
By Michael Smith
United Kingdom
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3 Responses
Maybes Sinead should just quit telling other people how to live their lives. ‘Giving advice’ is a pretty obnoxious concept generally. It implies that ‘you know better’. Personally, I never given anyone advice. People need to learn their own lessons. She’s 20 years old. She can make her own decisions, control her own destiny.
Maybe you shouldn’t tell people what they shouldn’t do. That’s basically giving an advice. Don’t be a hypocrite just because you don’t have anything constructive to say. Your statement sounds very imature. Of f***ing course there are people who know better, how the f*ck would the world work if your own experience is everything there is? And maybe you’re right when you say that Sinead shouldn’t be parenting Miley Cyrus but as everyone else seemed to failed that task too it seems to me she bit the bullet and at least tried to make Miley see at least some reason. Wich is okay to me because Miley bores the hell out of me with this “finding herself”-sh*t. It’s fake and not very well executed on top. She made ridiculous desicions and now tries to stick to it. Somebody should help her before she hurts herself, somebody who maaaaaybe knows the business and how it works. So thanks Sinaed
Maybe instead of telling Miley to cover up her own body people should address the real issue here, which is the cultural appropriation of black culture and using POC as props.