What Is Sinead O’Connor’s Net Worth, and Why Did She Convert to Islam?
Irish singer Sinead O’Connor built her net worth through decades in the music industry. She also became famous for covering the Prince song “Nothing Compares 2 U” and for a controversial appearance on Saturday Night Live that got her banned from the show. O’Connor, who died in 2023 at the age of 56, became no stranger to being in the news, and she made headlines with her conversion to Islam.
Sinead O’Connor’s net worth isn’t as high as you think
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Sinead O’Connor’s net worth at the time of her death stands at $1.5 million. It largely comes from record sales, concert tours, and guest appearances.
O’Connor released 10 studio albums between 1987 and 2014. Her biggest success was the 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got that featured “Nothing Compares 2 U.” The album was certified 2x platinum in the U.S. and has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide.
However, O’Connor’s career slowed down after the 1990s. Her controversial Saturday Night Live appearance played a factor, and the singer never quite reached the same level of commercial or critical success. She did not have a single chart in the U.S. since 1990 and not since 2002 in the U.K.
O’Connor published her memoir Rememberings in 2021, adding to her net worth. Her 2022 album No Veteran Dies Alone had been delayed indefinitely. O’Connor did release an updated version of the 19th-century Scottish song “The Skye Boat Song’ in February 2023, used as the Outlander Season 7 title song.
In 2017, she sold her house in Wicklow, Ireland for €1 million, or roughly $1.04 million less than she paid for it.
Selling the house came just a few weeks after she spent $166,700 to settle a tax bill, according to the Ireland Independent.
The house sale and the tax bill both came after comedian Arsenio Hall filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against her. O’Connor claimed Hall gave Prince the drugs that ended up killing him.
Why did Sinead O’Connor convert to Islam?
O’Connor took to Twitter on Oct. 19, 2018, and announced her conversion to Islam.
This is to announce that I am proud to have become a Muslim. This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey. All scripture study leads to Islam. Which makes all other scriptures redundant. I will be given (another) new name. It will be Shuhada’
— Shuhada’ Davitt (@MagdaDavitt77) October 19, 2018
She was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1999 (by a renegade French church), according to the Mirror, but converting to Islam was natural for her. Part of her Twitter posts reads, “This is to announce that I am proud to have become a Muslim. This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey.”
She shared a photo of herself in a light green hijab on Oct. 23, 2018. She went by Shuhada’ Davitt instead of Sinead O’Connor, but used her birth name while recording and touring.
Other times Sinead O’Connor made the news
Her conversion to Islam is among the many times Sinead O’Connor made headlines.
Let’s start with being banned from Saturday Night Live. She tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II during an SNL broadcast in 1992, and it quickly earned her a lifetime ban. Even though O’Connor continued making music, the stunt was one of the worst career-killers we can remember.
Years before that stunt, O’Connor backed out of a Saturday Night Live musical appearance because she didn’t want to share the stage with host Andrew Dice Clay.
There was also the time she got a face tattoo of her boyfriend’s initials in 2013. They broke up, and then she removed them with a laser.
In 2016, she mysteriously vanished outside Chicago. She went on a bike ride and was thought to be missing, but she turned up a day later. There was also an incident in which she alleged a physical altercation took place between her and Prince.
