Sinéad quits music and wishes to lead a ‘normal life’

CONTROVERSIAL singer Sinéad O’Connor is quitting the music business for good and no longer wants to be famous.

The wayward star wants to be left alone to return to a "normal" life and will "pursue a different career".

She made her retirement announcement in a message to a fan website and will make her final recordings next month.

The 36-year-old mother of two has been an outspoken figure in the music business throughout her career, notably tearing up a picture of the Pope on US television.

At one point she was ordained as a priest and on another occasion she declared she was gay shortly before marrying for the second time in 2001.

In the message posted on the website, she said: "As of July 2003 I shall be retiring from the music business.

"The last recordings I will make will be (believe it or not) a track for Dolly Parton's upcoming tribute album and a track for Sharon Shannon's forthcoming album."

A live DVD release called Goodnight, Thankyou. You've Been A Lovely Audience - will mark the end of her career in July.

"I would request that as of July, since I seek no longer to be a 'famous' person, and instead I wish to live a 'normal' life, could people please afford me my privacy," she said.

"I also mean that (with love) I want to be like any other person in the street and not have people say there is Sinéad O'Connor. As I am a very shy person, believe it or not."

O'Connor said she hoped her request did not sound "rude". And she advised fans of any celebrity to afford them more privacy.

"If u see them in the street, don't even look at them. If u love them, then the lovingest thing u can do to show them so is leave them alone and don't stare at them.

"Or bang on restaurant windows when they (are) in there. Or make them get their picture taken, or write their names on bits of paper. That's pieces of them," she said.

"And one day they wake up with nothing left of themselves to give."

Born in Dublin, on December 8, 1966, she endured a traumatic childhood. Her parents divorced when she was eight and she has claimed her mother abused her.

After being expelled from Catholic school, Ms O'Connor was arrested for shoplifting and shuttled off to a reformatory.

Her life was turned around by music however, when she was discovered by the drummer of Irish band, In Tua Nua, while singing at a wedding.

Her first big hit was in 1988 with the single Mandinka. Two years later she scored a number one with the Prince song Nothing Compares 2 U.

Away from the charts she has had a turbulent life. She has been married twice and had a son, Jake, with first husband John Reynolds, in 1988.

She also had a high-profile relationship with journalist John Waters, with whom she had a daughter, Róisín, in 1996.