Sinead O’Connor’s final song premieres in the finale of BBC’s The Woman in the Wall - how to listen

One of the late Sinead O’Connor’s songs has been revealed overnight, as the BBC’s drama ‘The Woman in the Wall,’ based around Ireland’s Magdalene laundries, reached its conclusion.

“The Magdalene Song” brings O’Connor’s solo vocal to trace the pain of a mother who has lost a child, before, in a final orchestrated flourish, it celebrates a determination to survive. The song marks the first unreleased track from the Irish singer, who died in July this year and is a fitting song given the content matter ‘The Woman in the Wall’ covered.

Known for her outspoken commentary on religion, in particular the Catholic church, O’Connor was said to have sanctioned the track before the series even started filming after learning the BBC drama would present to viewers the cruel regimes prevalent in Ireland’s Catholic church-run homes for unmarried pregnant girls and women. 

Speaking to The Guardian, David Holmes, the Belfast musician who produced O’Connor’s music in her final years, gave his description of the song ahead of the final episode of ‘The Woman in the Wall’ - “The first half of the track is completely heartbreaking, and the second half is pure defiance. I stripped the song away to just Sinéad’s voice and then let the full power come in for the second half.” 

“In the lyrics, Sinéad was trying to say, I think, that though she’d been through great turmoil, it would not stop her being who she wanted to be,” he continued. “She never really spoke about the meaning of her songs. She used to joke that she would often tell people that her songs were about something completely different to what they were about.”

“It’s incredible how the meaning of the song came together with this story It was just meant to be. There’s a certain magic when you bring music to an emotive story”

Will The Magdalene Song get released as a single?

There has been no official word if Sinead O’Connor’s final song will be released as a single, or if it could be included in a posthumous collection of other songs that she recorded but did not release before her death. 

However, those of you who have BBC iPlayer can listen to the song, which plays at the end of the final episode of ‘The Woman in the Wall’ or listen to it on YouTube, where there is currently an unofficial video for the song - check it out before it gets taken down.