Sinead O’Connor’s open letter to Miley Cyrus in 2013 goes viral following her death: ‘Nothing but harm will come from allowing yourself to be exploited’

Sinead O’Connor’s open letter to Miley Cyrus has gone viral following the shock announcement of the Irish legend’s death at 56 on Wednesday. 

The Nothing Compares 2 U hitmaker had an undoubtedly illustrious career that also included a number of controversies, including her feud with the Party in the USA. singer, 30.

The dispute took place in 2013, after Miley told Rolling Stone that her nudity-filled video for hit song Wrecking Ball was inspired by Sinead’s Nothing Compares 2 U track.

However, Sinead was not impressed by the reference or the clip, which saw the Hannah Montana star swinging on a wrecking ball naked, and penned a public letter to the young star.

In the letter she warned Ms Cyrus about the pitfalls of fame and being exploited, writing, ‘Nothing but harm will come in the long run from allowing yourself to be exploited.’

Sinead began the letter, originally posted on her website sineadoconnor.com, stating that it was in the ‘spirit of motherliness and with love’.

‘Dear Miley, I wasn’t going to write this letter, but today I’ve been dodging phone calls from various newspapers who wished me to remark upon your having said in Rolling Stone your Wrecking Ball video was designed to be similar to the one for Nothing Compares … So this is what I need to say … And it is said in the spirit of motherliness and with love.

‘I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way “cool” to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos.

‘It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether its the music business or yourself doing the pimping,’ she went on.

‘Nothing but harm will come in the long run, from allowing yourself to be exploited, and it is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your Sєxual appeal than your obvious talent.

‘I am happy to hear I am somewhat of a role model for you and I hope that because of that you will pay close attention to what I am telling you.

‘The music business doesn’t give a s**t about you, or any of us. They will prosтιтute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think its what YOU wanted … and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prosтιтuted, “they” will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone.

‘None of the men ogling you give a s**t about you either, do not be fooled. Many’s the woman mistook lust for love. If they want you Sєxually that doesn’t mean they give a f**k about you. All the more true when you unwittingly give the impression you don’t give much of a f**k about yourself.

‘And when you employ people who give the impression they don’t give much of a f**k about you either. No one who cares about you could support your being pimped … and that includes you yourself.’

‘Yes, I’m suggesting you don’t care for yourself. That has to change. You ought be protected as a precious young lady by anyone in your employ and anyone around you, including you.

‘This is a dangerous world. We don’t encourage our daughters to walk around naked in it because it makes them prey for animals and less than animals, a distressing majority of whom work in the music industry and its ᴀssociated media.’

Despite the strong words in the letter, Sinead made it clear that she believed Miley had plenty of musical talent.

‘You have enough talent that you don’t need to let the music business make a prosтιтute of you,’ Sinead added in the lengthy letter.

At the end the singer pleaded with Miley to be careful about the message she was sending to young women.

‘Whether we like it or not, us females in the industry are role models and as such we have to be extremely careful what messages we send to other women.’

‘Women are to be valued for so much more than their Sєxuality. We aren’t merely objects of desire. I would be encouraging you to send healthier messages to your peers… that they and you are worth more than what is currently going on in your career. Kindly fire any motherf****r who hasn’t expressed alarm, because they don’t care about you.’

Ms Cyrus retaliated against the letter by re-sharing Ms O’Connor’s tweets about trying to find a mental health treatment facility in Ireland, as she was struggling with psychiatric issues.

The We Can’t Stop singer captioned the screensH๏τ ‘Before Amanda Bynes… There was…’ referring to the actress’ mental breakdown in 2013.

Ms Cyrus also re-shared the now infamous pH๏τo of O’Connor tearing the Pope’s picture on Saturday Night Live in protest of child abuse in the church in 1992, which nearly cost the singer her career.

Ms O’Connor penned a number of other letters following the original, after the singer poked fun at her mental breakdown.

However, Miley appeared to put an end to the feud later that year during an appearance on The Today Show.

‘I think she’s an incredible artist, I think she’s an awesome songwriter, and I was really inspired by her for my Wrecking Ball video, which was what started the whole thing.’

‘I don’t know how someone can start a fight with somebody who said, “Hey, I really respect you. And I really love what you did.” You know what? You suck! I don’t like you! That was kind of crazy. But as I said, I’m a big fan of hers, so it doesn’t really matter. It’s all good.’

The cause of death of the legendary Irish singer remains a mystery, following yesterday’s announcement she had died.

News of the musician’s death broke yesterday, following years of news reports about her troubled private life.

O’Connor was distraught after her 17-year-old son Shane took his own life in January 2022 after escaping hospital while on suicide watch.

The star rose to international fame in 1990 with her rendition of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, written by Prince.