With ‘Nothing Compares,’ the Sinéad O’Connor Renaissance May Finally Be Happening

Ferguson’s film (this is her first feature-length documentary) is expressionistic in tone, with no talking heads (though friends, managers and bandmates, and musical peers like Chuck D and Peaches are heard). The bulk of it is archival footage—much of it about Ireland in the 1970s and ’80s; a grim place, especially for women—and it culminates in a persuasive feminist argument that Sinéad would be venerated now for speaking boldly and angrily about abuses in the Catholic Church and racial justice, two of her most consistent themes, in the way a Billie Eilish or a Megan Thee Stallion is venerated. Though very much a time capsule, Nothing Compares includes one recent performance from Sinéad of her 1994 track “Thank You For Hearing Me” and has as its backbone an interview with the star in 2019. Sinéad, who never stopped recording new music and is due to release her 11th album this year, is still forceful and bold as she considers her past. 

I spoke to Ferguson about interviewing Sinéad for her film and about why she wanted to make Nothing Compares in the first place.

Vogue: How did you first encountered Sinéad O’Connor’s music, as you were growing up in Belfast?

Kathryn Ferguson: I became a bona fide fan in the early ’90s with the second album, when I was in my early teens. I suppose then I could really see what she stood for and how she looked and her boldness. You know, me and my friends were these young Irish girls and we were just like, holy God. She was an alien from outer space—so exciting and so what we needed. The Troubles were rumbling on in the north and the Catholic Church was still very influential in the south. So it wasn’t the happiest of countries to live in at that point, especially for women, so she meant an awful lot. I was hugely demoralized when I saw how she was treated only a few years later, in 1992. The seeds for the film were really sowed in 1992 when I was a young teenage Irish girl witnessing what happened to her. It was bad…really bad.

The backlash against her originated in America, with the Saturday Night Live performance. Was there equal backlash in Ireland too?