Dowdy Sinead O'Connor barely compares to her shaved head look in iconic music video



It's hard to believe that this is the Sinead O'Connor who, 20 years ago, stared intently into a camera and sang the now iconic song Nothing Compares 2 U.

The Irish singer, renowned for her shaved head appearance, looked somewhat different as she was pictured in Dublin yesterday.

Surprisingly, the 43-year-old campaigner was sporting a full head of hair, which she teamed with a very dowdy-looking coat and flowing red dress.

Now and then: Irish singer last night in Dublin with a full head of hair and looking rather dowdy and, right, with her iconic shaven headed look, seen here in 1998

Sinead has kept her scalped look for much of her career, despite the stick she got for her unconventional appearance.



She once even insisted she'd shave her head into old age because she felt odd with hair.

The mother of four explained in an interview once: 'I'd been trying to grow it, but someone asked if I was Enya. I was so shocked, I shaved all my hair off.



'I don't feel like me unless I have my hair shaved. So even when I'm an old lady, I'm going to have it.'

Nothing Compares: The singer and campaigner wore a mumsy brown coat, teamed with a flowing red dress and turquoise bag



Sinead was pictured last night arriving at the RTE studios for The Late Late Show to perform the Bob Dylan song The times they are a-Changin.

The outspoken singer, who has four children to four different fathers, is once again making her views known on the Vatican.

She once famously tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live some 18 years ago.

Now she's giving Pope Benedict XVI a piece of her mind over the Catholic child abuse scandal.

After Benedict recently wrote a pastoral letter of apology relating to decades of sexual abuse of minors by priests in Ireland, O'Connor, who was physically abused as a child by her mother, responded by saying the letter was an insult.

Iconic: Sinead in her world famous Nothing Compares 2 U music video in 1990



Writing in a piece appearing in the Washington Post last Sunday, she explained: 'To many people in my homeland, the pope's letter is an insult not only to our intelligence, but to our faith and to our country.'

Sinead rose to fame after following the release of her 1990 cover of the Prince song Nothing Compares 2 U and its accompanying video.

It consists almost solely of a close-up on O'Connor's face as she sings the song's lyrics.



Towards the end of the video, two tears roll down her face, one on each cheek.



O'Connor stated on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s that it was caused by the lyric, 'All the flowers that you planted, Mama/in the back yard/All died when you went away", because she had a very complex relationship with her late mother, who she claims abused her.



The clip won Best Video at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards - the first video by a female artist to win in this category.



