THE estate of Sinead O’Connor has demanded US presidential hopeful Donald Trump stop using her music at his political rallies.
Controversy-ridden Trump recently played late Irish icon O’Connor’s best-known song Nothing Compares 2 U at a campaign event in Maryland.
But O’Connor’s furious estate today raged the late singing superstar and activist “would have been disgusted, hurt, and insulted” by the White House wannabe’s use of her music.
A joint statement from O’Connor’s estate and her longtime label Chrysalis Records stormed: “Throughout her life, it is well known that Sinéad O’Connor lived by a fierce moral code defined by honesty, kindness, fairness, and decency towards her fellow human beings.
“It was with outrage therefore that we learned that Donald Trump has been using her iconic performance of Nothing Compares 2 U at his political rallies.
“It is no exaggeration to say that Sinéad would have been disgusted, hurt, and insulted to have her work misrepresented in this way by someone who she herself referred to as a ‘biblical devil’.”
Defiant Trump is running to be the Republican presidential candidate ahead of the US election in November despite a litany of scandal.
But the infamous blonde bouffant Prez contender’s campaign music has hit the wrong note with O’Connor’s estate.
Trump’s team selected Nothing Compares 2 U before the political whirlwind took to the stage in Maryland on February 24.
Other tracks included Abba’s Dancing Queen, Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire and Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds.
Now Sinead’s estate has issued a direct message to Trump to pull the plug on using her music.
They said: “As the guardians of her legacy, we demand that Donald Trump, and his associates desist from using her music immediately.”
Other artists to have asked Trump and his team to quit using their music include The Rolling Stones, The Smiths’ Johnny Marr, Adele, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Rihanna, Neil Young, and Linkin Park.
Nothing Compares 2 U crooner O’Connor was laid to rest last August in her beloved Bray, Co Wicklow.
Thousands of fans lined Bray seafront for the poignant farewell after Sinead was found dead at her flat in London on July 26, aged just 56.
By KEN SWEENEY
SINEAD O’Connor’s tears in her iconic video for Nothing Compares 2 U were for her mother.
The singer was tortured by her relationship with her late mum, and revealed she had no idea she would weep when she sang the song.
The tears on the promo turned her into a global superstar and sent the Prince cover to No 1 around the world – before Sinead went on to “sabotage” her own career.
Sinead said: “I didn’t know I was going to cry when I sang in the video because I didn’t cry in the studio recording it. I think it happened because there was a big eye on me (camera) recording me.
“Every time I sing that song I think of my mother. I never stop crying for my mother. I couldn’t face being in Ireland for 13 years because of it.
“I cut myself off. I never called home and it took me 25 years to stop crying. I was thinking of her my subconscious was also thinking of that little girl out in the garden..
“I think it’s funny that the whole world fell in love with me because of that crying in the video. I then went and did lots of crying and everyone said ‘you crazy bitch’ but they fell in love with that tear because it was a mirror on themselves.”
Music legends Bono and Bob Geldof were among the mourners as her funeral heard that the crusading singer had “moved a generation of young people”.
Sinead’s cortege travelled along Bray seafront after a private funeral service for family and close friends, including music royalty Geldof, U2’s Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton and folk singer Damien Dempsey.
Geldof joined the procession in a taxi, with the cortege led by a VW campervan blaring out hits from Sinead’s hero Bob Marley and her own stellar songs.
Dublin-born O’Connor was hailed by fans for helping to change Ireland following her blistering criticism of the Catholic Church, while the star was also outspoken on her mental health struggles.
The imam who led the Muslim funeral prayer service remembered O’Connor as a “beloved daughter of Ireland” with “a poet’s heart”.
In his eulogy, Dr Umar Al-Qadri said: “The more she sang and spoke about her own pain, as well as about the pervasive sins in society that she witnessed, the more her voice and words resonated with listeners and touched their hearts.
“Sinead never stopped her search to know God fully, exemplifying a life marked with a deep communion with God.
“Gifted with a voice that moved a generation of young people, she could reduce listeners to tears by her otherworldly resonance.”
President Michael D Higgins, his wife Sabina and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar were also in attendance at a private funeral service.
Trump is currently campaigning to be the Republican nominee for the upcoming 2024 US election.
He served as the 45th US president after winning the 2016 election, but he lost to President Joe Biden in 2020.
Trump has his sights set on a likely election rematch with Biden, 81, in November.
But the 77-year-old, who is the first former president in US history to be criminally charged, has seen his campaign rocked by explosive legal battles.
Trump is currently facing 91 criminal counts in four separate prosecutions and a raft of civil cases.
