The story of Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ – and her eventful encounter with Prince

Dublin-born singer shot to fame with her cover of a previously forgotten Prince song

The music world was rocked on Wednesday (26 July) by the news that Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor has died at the age of 56.

O’Connor’s family confirmed the news in a statement, with the cause of death still undisclosed. The singer died just a year and a half after her 17-year-old son Shane took his own life.

Tributes to O’Connor have poured in on social media from fans and other musicians. You can follow updates here.

While many are paying homage to O’Connor’s expansive musical and political legacy, others are remembering the singer for her 1990 cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U”.

Originally written and recorded by Prince (as part of his side-project called the Family), the song was given a haunting new arrangement by O’Connor, and featured on her acclaimed second album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.

The original version of the song was released in 1985. It was not released as a standalone single, and received little attention at the time.

It was reportedly Fachtna O’Kelly, O’Connor’s manager, who first suggested that she cover the track. Seemingly written about a breakup, O’Connor would later tell the BBC that she and many others “associated the song with a loss of some kind”.

Her recording was accompanied by a music video of herself in close-up that quickly became famous in its own right. Towards the end of the song, O’Connor begins crying, something she had not intended when she started filming the video.

She explained in her 2021 memoir Rememberings that she had started crying at when the lyrics made her think of her mother (”All the flowers that you planted mama / In the back yard / All died when you went away”).

(PA)

O’Connor said that her mother, who died in a car accident in 1985 when the singer was just 18, was abusive to her during her childhood.

The song and video were hugely successful; at the first ever Billboard Music Awards, O’Connor’s version of “Nothing Compares 2 U” was awarded the title of No 1 World Single. It was nominated for three Grammys, including Record of the Year, though O’Connor boycotted the ceremony.

Prince would re-record the song himself, with Rosie Gaines on guest vocals, in 1993, and the live recording was featured on his compilation album The Hits/The B-Sides.

Prince did not meet O’Connor until after she had covered his song. Their interactions were, according to her, less than amicable.

O’Connor wrote in Rememberings that Prince had scolded her for swearing in interviews and, in a more bizarre turn, had repeatedly tried to get her to eat a bowl of soup prepared by his butler. He then proposed a pillow fight, and allegedly struck her with a hard object he had concealed within the pillowcase.

The Irish singer alleged that she had had to to “escape on foot in the middle of the night”, before Prince “stalked her with his car, leapt out and chased her around the highway”.

“I never wanted to see that devil again,” she said.

Irish musician Sinead O’Connor (Getty Images)

Prince died in 2016 of an accidental fentanyl overdose.

In an interview with Good Morning Britain, O’Connor claimed that Prince had been “uncomfortable with the fact I wasn’t a protégé of his and that I’d just recorded [‘Nothing Compares 2 U’]”.

Decades later, when O’Connor was the subject of the 2022 documentary Nothing Compares, Prince’s estate denied her permission to use her recording of “Nothing Compares 2 U” in the film.

Sharon Nelson, Prince’s half-sister and one of the heirs to his estate, said in an interview with Billboard: “I didn’t feel she deserved to use the song. Nothing compares to Prince’s live version with Rosie Gaines that is featured on the Hits 1 album”

“I didn’t feel [O’Connor] deserved to use the song my brother wrote in her documentary so we declined. His version is the best.”

O’Connor’s version of the song has nonetheless come to be regarded as a modern classic.

In a 30th anniversary appreciation in 2020, The Guardian wrote: “Time has only cemented Nothing Compares 2 U’s place in the pop pantheon. Three decades on, this haunting, heart-wrenching evocation of the grief of lost love remains peerless.”

If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.