Sinead O’Connor Apologizes For “Accidentally” Offending Jamaican Men Over “Gyallis” Behaviour
Irish pop singer, Sinead O’Connor, a woman known for being highly controversial, has tweeted an apology for any offence she might have caused by stereotyping when she compared herself to Jamaican men for deliberately having four children by four different husbands.
The self-declared protest singer, who has done a full album of cover versions of Roots Reggae songs in the past, made the statement bout Jamaican men’s “gyallis behavior”, while promoting her memoir, Rememberings, on the BBC Woman’s Hour show on Tuesday morning, with host Emma Barnett, according to Yahoo News.
“I’m kind of like a Jamaican father, fathers say is a revolving door in my house…Nobody bats an eyelid when Jamaican fellas have kids with f__king – sorry didn’t mean to say that – they have kids with tons of people and no one bats an eyelid,” she told the host.
According to Yahoo, the 54-year-old is mother to Jake, 33, with music producer John Reynolds, Roisin, 24, with journalist John Waters, Jake, 16, with musician Donal Lunny, and Yeshua, 14, with businessman Frank Bonadio.
According to the report, when Barnett countered that “some people might find the comparison offensive”, the Nothing Compares to You singer reportedly backtracked, saying that she was not speaking of all Jamaican men, but one Jamaican man that she knows.
“I wasn’t stereotyping, I was talking about a particular man, I can’t remember his name. I have to stop you there… I’m not generalising on Jamaican people. They are my favourite people on earth, they’re the greatest people on Planet Earth…”
“The fact is, lots of them have lots of kids with lots of women and nobody bats a f–king eyelid. I can name you a hundred men.”
In a follow-up tweet yesterday, Sinead also said she was sorry if her comments had offended Jamaican men, but contended that she was referencing Jamaican musicians of her era, who are well-known for having multiple children with different mothers.
“Also, apologies if I accidentally offended Jamaican men. I was referring to specific friends of mine in the music business. Jamaican people are my favourite people on this earth, and Jamaican male musicians my biggest inspiration,” she wrote under a post she tweeted of the album cover of Peter Tosh’s Oh Bumbo Klaat, a song from the late Wailer’s Wanted Dread And Alive album.
https://twitter.com/MagdaDavitt77/status/1399665742207881217
Sinead signed her first record deal in 1985 at age 19, and two years later she emerged with the critically acclaimed album The Lion and the Cobra.
In 2004 she linked with Jamaica’s riddim twins Sly and Robbie, to produce Throw Down Your Arms, a 14-track album that featured her interpretations of Reggae classics.
The album included covers of Burning Spear‘s Marcus Say Jah No Dead, Marcus Garvey, Door Peep, Throw Down Your Arms and He Prayed.
She also covered Buju Banton’s Untold Stories, Peter Tosh’s Downpressor Man, Curly Locks by Junior Byles, War by Bob Marley & The Wailers, among others.
At the time the pop singer had said she saw strong similarities between her own Irish culture and Jamaica’s.
“You know, there are huge blood ties, for a start, she had said. “There are huge ties between Africa and Ireland going way back before Jamaica even existed as it is now. And we were colonized by the same people and by the same religion in a lot of ways. And we have the same, I think, similarities in our music. You know, there’s a huge kind of longing, yearning and calling in the music from Ireland and Jamaica, particularly the singing.”
Her apology yesterday on Twitter found acceptance from some of her fans who said that the reaction by the BBC host to her comment about Jamaican men’s stud-like behaviour was much ado about nothing and was in fact ‘fair comment”.
“Why apologise? I’m a Jamaican woman who didn’t want to marry a Jamaican man for this very same reason. I know they’re not all the same because not all men are the same. However, the point stands. Remains valid,” Tackela Olugbuyi said.
“I noticed how @Emmabarnett tried to call u a racist re jamaican men and shut u up from responding Good for u to come back with your defence How dare she question your morality by projecting herself as saviour of jamaican man… unbelievable colonial mindset,” Yorkshire Mama contended.
“Well tbh after hundreds of years of oppression, slavery, corruption & exploitation I think the ‘Jamaican men’ can handle a bit of a misplaced remark. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I think the beautiful island will be there tomorrow. Sorry the interview went awry, sucks,” another commenter wrote in defence of Sinead.
Known to be a longstanding courter of controversy, Sinead created an upheaval in 1991, when she pulled out of the Grammy Awards even though she was nominated for four awards and also refused to accept her award for Best Alternative Album, accusing the Academy of having “honoured people who achieved material success rather than those who have told the truth or done anything to inspire”.
In 1992 she ripped up a photo of the pope during an appearance on Saturday Night Live in the United States, to protest sexual abuse of children by the Catholic Church. That night after performing acappella version of Bob Marley’s War in which she interpolated some of the lyrics to address child abuse, she tore a photograph of Pope John Paul II, and shouted “Fight the real enemy!” an act that saw here being banned from the NBC for life.
She later said the move was a protest against sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
Two years earlier, after releasing her most successful album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, Sinead had refused to perform in New Jersey if the American national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner was played before her show, as it would be contrary to her policy of not having any national anthems, including the Irish anthem, played before her concerts, as they “have nothing to do with music in general.”