ABSTRACT
In the beginning she was an enfant terrible who didn't even fit that properly, because at twenty-one she was also mother to a newborn baby boy. Later, she became a leftist radical with no clear political base, and a musical eccentric who fit no genre comfortably, especially not rock'n'roll. Recent appearances in the media, and another apparently new chapter in O'Connor's status as controversy queen, centred around her announcement that she would be retiring from the music industry, citing media intrusion and the need to be a private person rather than a public figure. O'Connor's booing is conceptualized as part of a larger star-text. The star-text is a set of mediated descriptions, narratives and performances which locate the star as an identity or a subject. As the audience, people read the star or celebrity as a whole identity with intentions and behaviours which fit into a star type.
