No-one compares to her: Sinead O'Connor, and others we lost in 2023

Her breakthrough moment had come with an evocative version of Prince's song, Nothing Compares 2 U, in 1990, accompanied by a quietly mesmerising video.

In 1992 she caused a major outcry by tearing up her late mother's photo of Pope John Paul II as she sang Bob Marley's song, War, on the US TV show Saturday Night Live. Shortly afterwards she was booed at Madison Square Garden as she tried to sing War during a Bob Dylan tribute concert, and, in tears, left the stage abruptly.

She recorded 10 albums during the course of her career, and remained a free spirit who always went her own way.

Among the other great musicians we lost this year was a veteran of the Sixties scene, who continued to make great music for decades afterwards.

David Crosby, who died on January 18, aged 81, was a singer-songwriter-guitarist who co-founded not only the Byrds but also Crosby, Stills and Nash, the latter with Stephen Stills and Blackpool-born Graham Nash. Later, the trio was joined by Neil Young on an occasional basis, becoming Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, one of the first supergroups.

David Crosby (right) with Stephen Stills and (centre) Graham Nash at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in 2010 (Image: Martin Shields)A mercurial talent and a brilliant singer with a gift for harmony, Crosby added lustre to many Byrds songs, and his songwriting skills were in full display on CSN's debut album, which featured his songs Guinevere, Long Time Gone and (with Stills) Wooden Ships. Later Crosby classics included Almost Cut My Hair, Deja Vu, The Lee Shore, and Laughing. He made numerous solo albums, beginning with 1971's If I Could Only Remember My Name.

The great Harry Belafonte, who died, aged 96, on April 25, was a superb singer who became a star at a time when segregation still existed in America. He went on to become a prominent civil-rights activist. His many hits included Island In The Sun, Mary's Boy Child, and the UK chart-topping Day-O (The Banana Boat Song). 

Harry Belafonte speaking after he was presented with the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience award for 2013 at a ceremony in the Mansion House Dublin (Image: PA)Among the tributes paid to him was one from Oprah Winfrey, who described him as "a trailblazer and a hero to us all", and added: "Thank you for your music, your artistry, your activism, your fight for civil rights and justice. Your being here on Earth has blessed us all".

Michael Gambon (Image: Ian West/PA Wire)

Sir Michael Gambon died on September 27 at the age of 82, one of a generation of great actors who worked across the stage, cinema and television with ease. On TV he played the lead role (for which he received a Bafta award) in Dennis Potter's BBC series, The Singing Detective, which debuted in November 1986. 

His stage work included numerous Shakespeare productions and Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, while his films ranged from The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover to Gosford Park, The King's Speech, and the Harry Potter films, in which he played Albus Dumbledore, taking over from Richard Harris.

Glasgow-born David McCallum, who died, aged 90 on September 25, found fame at opposite ends of his career and his long life.

David McCallum during an interview with Jay Sharbutt at NBC studios in New York, August 28, 1975 (Image: AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) He was a teen heart-throb attraction as the mysterious Illya Kuryakin in the spy TV drama, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. opposite Robert Vaughn’s Napoleon Solo, and in the 2000s, as the colourful medical examiner, Donald (Ducky) Mallard, on the hit US crime series N.C.I.S. His CV also included roles in Sapphire and Steel, The Invisible Man, Colditz, and the films The Great Escape and A Night to Remember.

Julian Sands (Image: PA)Julian Sands, whose body was found in January in mountains in the Mount Baldy area of California, was a highly rated actor, best-known for his roles in the Oscar-winning film, A Room With A View, and such TV dramas as 24 and Smallville. He also appeared in The Killing Fields (1984), in Boxing Helena (1993) and, opposite Daniel Craig, in the 2011 film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  A keen hiker and mountain-climber, he was 65 when he died.

Tom Sizemore (Image: PA)Tom Sizemore, who died on March 3, aged 61, was a powerhouse actor, seen to great effect as Tom Hanks's second-in-command, Sgt. Mike Horvath, in Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg, and especially in Heat, Michael Mann's LA-set crime thriller, which starred Robert de Niro. His other screen credits included Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down and Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers.

Michael Parkinson interviews Billy Connolly in 1977 (Image: free)Sir Michael Parkinson, who died, aged 88, on August 16, was Britain's finest TV chat-show host. He interviewed some 2,000 celebrities of every stripe over the years, from poets to boxers. We all have our own highlights reel: his encounters with, say, Billy Connolly (pictured), Muhammad Ali, Rod Hull and Emu, a clearly bored Meg Ryan, Helen Mirren, Elton John, Madonna, George Best ... The list goes on. Parky always did his research well, asked intelligent questions, and listened carefully to the answers.

Jane Birkin, the singer and actor who died, aged 76, on July 16, always knew that her 1969 hit single with Serge Gainsbourg - the sexually explicit “Je t’aime...moi non plus” - would be the thing she would be remembered for.  “When I die", she once said, "that’ll be the tune they play, as I go out feet first". The single outraged respectable opinion and was banned in several countries.

Jane Birkin in 1973 and in 2022 (Image: Image: Pictures by PA. 2022 picture by John Stillwell/PA)But London-born Birkin was also a noted actor, with such films as Michelangelo Antonioni film, Blow-Up (1966) and 1969's La Piscine ('The Swimming Pool') to her name. She first met Gainsbourg when she was in her early twenties. She was his partner for more than a decade, and she lived in France for the rest of her life. The French adored her. When she died, President Emmanuel Macron described her as a "French icon".

Undated handout photo issued by the RSPCA of Paul O'Grady with Winston the lamb at his home in Kent (Image: RSPCA/PA)Paul O'Grady, who was 67 when he died on March 28, shot to fame as the acerbic, peroxide-haired Lily Savage. He had been a social worker when he launched his alter ego, and in time he gave up his job in order to focus on Lily. He went to become a regular face on television, the admired presenter of numerous programmes on TV and radio programmes, a prominent gay-rights activist, and an ambassador for Battersea Dog and Cats Home.

Barry Humphries as Dame Edna Everage in 2013 (Image: Tim Good/PA Wire)Barry Humphries, who died at the age of 89 on April 22, was a much-loved Australian-born entertainer whose most celebrated creations were Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. "There was a genius to characters like Dame Edna and Les Patterson", Melvyn Bragg writes in The Observer. "Barry wasn't a mimic or an actor. He inhabited these people - it wasn't even improvisation, it was immersion". Humphries also appeared in nearly two dozen films, and wrote books and stage plays.

Mike Yarwood, who died, aged 82, on September 8, was a comedy impressionist who was hugely popular in the Seventies for his impressions of leading politicians of the day - Harold Wilson, Ted Heath, Jim Callaghan - and such showbusiness stars as Ken Dodd and  Michael Crawford’s Frank Spencer.

Mike Yarwood takes off former Prime Minister Sir Harold Wilson at the launch of his new TV programme 'Taking Off With Mike Yarwood' (Image: PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo)“He was not a satirist, he was an entertainer", said Rory Bremner. “He had that advantage physically of having a blank-canvas face with not particularly strong features. Therefore he had the ability to become the character".

Benjamin Zephaniah died on December 7 at the age of 65. "Poet, writer, lyricist, musician and naughty boy", reads the brief introductory bio on his website. "...It was once said of him that he was Britain’s most filmed, photographed, and identifiable poet, this was because of his ability to perform on stage, but most of all on television, bringing Dub Poetry straight into British living rooms".

Benjamin Zephaniah (Image: PR)Zephaniah was rightly renowned for popularising dub poetry. His first collection of poems, Pen Rhythm, was published in 1980. There would be 14 collections in all, to say nothing of five novels, and plays for stage and radio. He released albums of his music, and appeared on TV in Peaky Blinders. In 2008 he was named as one of Britain's top 50 post-war writers.

Dame Mary Quant's name will forever be synonymous with the Swinging Sixties. The celebrated fashion designer, who died at the age of 93 on April 13, opened her first boutique, BAZAAR, on London's chic King's Road, and helped usher in the mini-skirt sensation.

Mary Quant and models showing off some of her innovative footwear designs (Image: PA)A V&A retrospective exhibition of her life's work was a highlight at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow this year, featuring dozens of garments and accessories from the V&A’s extensive collections and Dame Mary's personal archive. The V&A puts it thus: "Inventive, opinionated and commercially minded, Mary Quant  was the most iconic fashion designer of the 1960s. A design and retail pioneer, she popularised super-high hemlines and other irreverent looks that were critical to the development of the 'Swinging Sixties' scene".

Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman on America's Supreme Court, having been appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and serving until 2006. She grew up on her family's 200,000-acre ranch in Arizona, and later graduated from Stanford Law School at a time when it was difficult to find a job with a law firm if you were female. Her determination to succeed drove her on.

Sandra Day O'Connor (Image: Diana Walker/Getty Images)She became a highly respected Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. In 2009 President Obama conferred upon her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She died on December 1, aged 93.

George Alagiah (Image: BBC)

George Alagiah, who died aged 67 on July 24, was one of the BBC's best-known and longest-serving journalists. He cut his teeth as an award-winning foreign correspondent, reporting from such places as Iraq, before presenting the BBC News at Six for two decades. BBC director general Tim Davie said: "He was more than just an outstanding journalist, audiences could sense his kindness, empathy and wonderful humanity".

John Motson did it all when he worked as a football commentator for the BBC, covering no fewer than 10 World Cups, 10 European Championships, 29 FA Cup finals and some 200 England international matches.

John Motson (Image: PA)He was renowned for his turn of phrase - "And there it is, the Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club", he declared after Wimbledon defeated Liverpool to lift the 1988 FA Cup - as well as for his knowledge of football and his sheepskin coats. He died, aged 77, on February 23.

Betty Boothroyd, who died, aged 93, on February 26, was the first female Speaker of the House of Commons, serving from 1992 until 2000. She was the Labour MP for West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000 and became a baroness in the House of Lords in 2001.

Dame Betty Boothroyd (Image: PA)In the admiring words of Sir Keir Starmer, she was a devoted public servant who was " at the forefront of a generation of women who smashed the glass ceiling for female politicians".