Mandinka - Sinéad O'Connor - MP3 instrumental karaoke

The late, great Irish icon Sinéad O'Connor wielded her commanding voice and outside-the-lines appeal right from the start. Delivered as her second single, "Mandinka" used rock-leaning elements and a portrait of her own freshly shaved head on the cover to evoke the fearlessness of the song's protagonist, who rejects tradition as she declares: "I don't know no shame / I feel no pain." A coming-of-age anthem inspired by Alex Haley’s 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family, "Mandinka" was introduced to an American television audience on Late Night with David Letterman and climbed to the top of the dance chart in the UK while also crashing into the singles top 20. It reached number six in her Irish homeland. "Mandinka," which was the second cut on Sinéad O'Connor's astonishing 1987 debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, lit up the charts again following her tragic death on 26 July 2023.