Watch: Welsh musician’s stunning tribute to Sinead O’ Connor
Welsh musician Pete Lawrie Winfield who records under the name Until The Ribbon breaks has paid a heartfelt and very personal tribute to Sinead O’ Connor.
Posting a video of his beautiful arrangement of her global hit Nothing Compare 2 U on the day of her funeral, he also wrote a touching tribute to the star who died two weeks ago, aged 56, explaining how he was ‘forever in her debt’.
Pete, who is from Penarth, but now lives in LA, wrote: “First seeing the ‘Nothing Compares’ video was one of those seminal moments in music for me. Like hearing Eminem for the first time in my friend’s garage, or hearing Nina Simone drifting from my dad’s workshop.
“Sometimes art has the ability to stop you in your tracks. It’s not about genre, or taste, it’s about the raw power of human expression and therefore connection. Humanity at the axis of power and vulnerability. I don’t know how to thank someone for that, or how best to even explain it. All I can try to do is be inspired by the unfathomable contribution to my life that these artists leave in their wake.
“Rest in Power Sinead. Forever in your debt.”
Sinead O’Connor was yesterday laid to rest in a peaceful plot in south Dublin called The Garden.
Pale roses adorned her grave in Deansgrange cemetery, accompanied by blue hydrangeas that had surrounded her coffin as it was driven through the coastal town of Bray, Co Wicklow.
Hundreds of locals and fans of the singer gathered outside her former house, Montebello, where she had lived for 15 years, after her family asked that people stand along the Strand Road for “a last goodbye”.
The singer’s former home, sold in 2021 and now lying empty, was turned into a make-shift shrine since her death in London two weeks ago.
The wall outside the singer’s former home has been covered with flowers, photos and candles, as well as handwritten notes addressed to the singer to thank her for her voice, her music and her bravery.
At a private funeral service – attended by the Irish President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and U2 frontman Bono – Imam Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri delivered the eulogy that paid tribute to Sinead’s “otherworldly voice” and commended the send-off to her as a “symphony of unity” that “transcended boundaries”.
After the service, the hearse carrying her coffin travelled through throngs of mourners and past her former home – to the sound of Bob Marley being played from a Volkswagen camper van decorated with the Pride and Rastafarian flags.
People followed the procession down the road, some dancing, some weeping, some touching the window at the back of the hearse which carried a photo of Sinead, before the cortege travelled on to a private burial on Tuesday.
Listen to Until The Ribbon Break’s new song Red Skies and discover more of his music HERE
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