The world mourned the loss of Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor, who passed away at the age of 56. Her legacy is immense, marked by her powerful voice and fearless artistry. Among her many achievements, she is perhaps best known for taking a Prince-penned song and transforming it into an enduring classic. That song is “Nothing Compares 2 U,” and its story is one of musical alchemy, personal resonance, and the bold claim of an artist who dared to make another’s creation utterly her own.
Sinéad O’Connor’s iconic image, forever linked with “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
This is the story of Sinéad O’Connor’s rendition of “Nothing Compares 2 U.” While Prince wrote it, Sinéad O’Connor inhabited it, breathed life into it, and ultimately, it became hers. This musical “theft,” if it can be called that, cemented her place in music history but also came at a personal cost.
Prince was a prolific songwriter, generously sharing his compositions with other artists. Many of these songs found success when performed by women. Think of The Bangles’ hit “Manic Monday,” Chaka Khan’s electrifying “I Feel for You,” or Sheila E.’s vibrant “The Glamorous Life.” Some argue that Cyndi Lauper’s version of “When U Were Mine” even surpasses Prince’s original. These covers often highlight a different emotional dimension, a unique interpretation brought by the female voice.
However, Sinéad O’Connor’s take on “Nothing Compares 2 U,” featured on her seminal 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, stands apart. This wasn’t merely a cover; it was a transformation. Forget the initial permissions and business arrangements that allowed her to record Prince’s song. Sinéad executed a musical coup. She absorbed the song into her very being, altering its core meaning and claiming it as her own. It was an act of audacious artistry, a testament to her courage and vision. Sinéad O’Connor declaring, “I’m going to take a song from Prince,” is akin to a master thief attempting the impossible – and succeeding brilliantly.
But who was this artist who dared to challenge and conquer a Prince composition? What drove her to such profound emotional depths in her performance? And what did audiences see and hear in her that resonated so deeply?
In her 2021 memoir, Rememberings, Sinéad O’Connor offered a raw and unflinching look into her life. Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1966, she endured a difficult childhood marked by parental separation and, by her account, abuse from her mother. She recounts harrowing experiences, such as hiding her field hockey stick to avoid beatings, only to be subjected to worse with a carpet-sweeper pole, accompanied by the repeated demand to say, “I am nothing.” These fragments offer a glimpse into a deeply traumatic past. Her mother’s death in a car accident when Sinéad was 18, shortly before her music career began, adds another layer of complexity. Understanding this background is crucial to grasping the vulnerability and fierce conviction that permeate Sinéad O’Connor’s voice and inform every song she sang.
The book cover of “Songs That Explain the ’90s”, a deeper dive into the music of a defining decade.
The typical narrative of a pop star’s memoir often follows a “rise and fall” arc – discovery, success, fame, excess, and eventual decline. Even in the darkest tales, there’s usually a period of initial joy and triumph. However, Sinéad’s memoir deviates sharply from this trope. She recounts the moment she learned of the phenomenal success of “Nothing Compares 2 U” and I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got reaching number one in America – both the single and the album simultaneously. Sitting on a toilet, she received the news and responded not with elation, but with profound sorrow. “Whoever it was who told me got cross with me because I didn’t take the news happily. Instead, I cried like a child at the gates of hell,” she wrote. This reaction reveals a complex relationship with fame and success, hinting at a deeper emotional landscape.
Her debut album in 1987, The Lion and the Cobra, took its name from Psalm 91, a biblical text evoking refuge and divine protection. The lyrics speak of overcoming adversity:
If you say, “The Lord is my refuge”
And you make the Most High your dwelling
No harm will overtake you
No disaster will come near your tent
And the powerful imagery continues, You will tread on the lion and the cobra. The album cover, featuring Sinéad with her mouth open, head shaved, was met with resistance from her record label. They deemed it too aggressive, preferring a softer image with her mouth closed. But Sinéad’s artistic vision prevailed. She wasn’t screaming; she was singing with raw, unfiltered emotion.
The album’s lead single, “Mandinka,” was inspired by the miniseries Roots, a powerful depiction of slavery. Sinéad explained, “I was a young girl when I saw it, and it moved something so deeply in me, I had a visceral response. I came to emotionally identify with the civil rights movement and slavery, especially given the theocracy I lived in and the oppression in my own home.” While the comparison might be considered provocative, it underscores Sinéad’s unwavering commitment to speaking her truth.
I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, her second album, released in 1990, derived its title from a dream. Following her mother’s death, Sinéad sought solace in a medium, attempting to connect with her. In this spiritual encounter, her mother asked for forgiveness. While Sinéad’s sister Éimear struggled to forgive, Sinéad dreamt of her mother saying, “I do not want what I haven’t got,” accepting her own perceived lack of deserving forgiveness. This poignant phrase became the album’s title and the name of its closing track. The album’s opening song, “Feels So Different,” also grapples with the complex emotions surrounding her mother.
A central theme throughout I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, and arguably Sinéad O’Connor’s entire career, is the weight of forgiveness. She explores the idea that forgiving can be more burdensome than holding onto resentment, or perhaps that her forgiveness carries a unique weight and consequence.
The album’s tracklist is a journey through personal and societal pain. “I Am Stretched on Your Grave” samples James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” and remains deeply connected to her feelings about her mother when performed live. “Three Babies” addresses her miscarriages, evolving into a celebration of her four children. “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” perhaps her most overtly pop-leaning song, still carries her signature edge, showcasing lyrics that can “drag you to the gates of hell,” even amidst a lighter melody.
“Black Boys on Mopeds” tackles police brutality and racism in England, a stark commentary on social injustice. “England’s not the mythical land of Madame George and roses / It’s the home of police who kill Black boys on mopeds,” the chorus declares, leaving no room for ambiguity. I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got is an album unafraid to confront difficult truths.
Then comes track six: “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Penned by Prince, it was originally released in 1985 by his side project, The Family, with lead vocals by Paul Joseph Peterson (St. Paul). While the original version is powerful, it remained largely within the realm of Prince’s dedicated fanbase.
Prince himself passed away from an accidental fentanyl overdose on April 16, 2016. He had begun working on a memoir, The Beautiful Ones, released posthumously in 2019, completed with journalist Dan Piepenbring. In it, Prince briefly touches upon “Nothing Compares 2 U,” linking it to the trauma of his parents’ divorce. He recounts his mother’s late-night calls to his father, urging him to return home, even involving young Prince and his sister in pleading with their father. Prince stated, “I think that’s why I can write such good breakup songs, like ‘Nothing Compares 2 U.’ I ain’t heard no breakup song like I can write. The flowers are dead.” He then jokingly adds, “Sir, the garden’s dead,” summarizing his understanding of heartbreak as profound knowledge gained through experience.
However, when Sinéad O’Connor embraced “Nothing Compares 2 U,” she infused it with her own profound knowledge and personal pain. She shifted the song’s emotional center, directing its raw vulnerability towards her own mother.
The music video for Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” released in 1991, became instantly iconic. Its power lay in its simplicity. Primarily a close-up of Sinéad singing, head shaved, against a black backdrop, it was revolutionary in its starkness in the era of MTV’s visual overload. The raw emotion on her face, culminating in tears, was captivating. According to her memoir, shaving her head was a defiant act against record label pressures to conform to a conventional feminine image. They wanted her to “stop cutting my hair short and start dressing like a girl,” suggesting “short skirts with boots and perhaps some feminine accessories.” Sinéad saw this as an attempt to mold her into their ideal of a mistress and shaved her head in protest. The Greek barber who performed the shaving was even moved to tears, highlighting the emotional weight of this act of self-assertion.
The “Nothing Compares 2 U” video rejected MTV’s typical frenetic pace and visual spectacle. It was stillness and gravity, focusing solely on Sinéad’s performance. In a landscape of exploding televisions and shock-value antics, her raw contempt and vulnerability were truly shocking in their authenticity. Her delivery of the lines about a doctor’s dismissive advice –
He said “Girl you better try to have fun no matter what you do”
But he’s a fool
– resonated with a fierce independence. Sinéad O’Connor was nobody’s puppet, not even Prince’s.
In 1991, Rolling Stone readers recognized her impact, naming Sinéad O’Connor Artist of the Year, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got Album of the Year, and “Nothing Compares 2 U” Song of the Year. She was also voted Best Female Singer and, paradoxically, Worst Female Singer, highlighting her polarizing nature. This polarization was further fueled by incidents like her refusal to have the national anthem played before a New Jersey concert. In a Rolling Stone interview, she discussed her admiration for artists like Van Morrison and Roseanne Barr, and her disdain for Frank Sinatra, Andrew Dice Clay, Vanilla Ice, and MC Hammer. She also spoke about a negative encounter with Prince, revealing that he had physically threatened her. This wasn’t the first time she alluded to this, but her frustration was palpable, signaling her readiness to move beyond “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
She stated, “It spoiled the song completely for me. I feel a connection with the song, but the experience was a very disturbing one. At the moment I really don’t like the idea of singing the song. I need to get to the stage where I can separate the writer from the song—which I suppose I always did before. But I’m just very angry with him. Anyway, it’s not like I’m going to spend the rest of my life singing the song that I had that went to Number One. That’s not what I’m all about. I do other stuff, too. I mean, I’ve sung the song so many times that I’m bored with the song at this stage.”
Her 2021 memoir provides a more detailed and disturbing account of a specific encounter with Prince in Los Angeles, nine months after her album and single topped the charts. Staying in a house with a large window overlooking the city lights, which she described as “a black frame around the lights of living hell,” she received a call from Prince. He summoned her to his place, mispronouncing her name. The meeting was awkward and unsettling. He criticized her language in interviews. When she retorted, “I don’t work for you. If you don’t like it, you can fuck yourself,” he retreated. He then returned, offering her soup, becoming aggressive when she refused. He harassed his assistant, Duane (his brother), for her refusal. The encounter escalated with Prince initiating a pillow fight, but Sinéad realized his pillowcase was weighted. She fled, pursued by Prince, eventually escaping to a neighbor’s house. This chapter concludes with her declaration, “I never want to see that devil again. But I think of Duane fondly, quite often.”
These accounts complicate our understanding of both artists. Separating the art from the artist is a complex and often impossible task. Art is imbued with the artist’s meaning and experience. The author poignantly reflects on Prince’s death and the inherent challenge in reconciling admiration for an artist’s work with the complexities of their personal character.
In 2018, Prince’s original 1984 studio recording of “Nothing Compares 2 U” was released posthumously. Hearing Prince’s version is undeniably moving.
But ultimately, it remains Sinéad O’Connor’s song. In her memoir, she describes a unique ability to visualize the interiors of people’s homes upon meeting them, perceiving “the carpets, the walls, the paintings on the walls, the tiny trinkets on bedside cabinets, the colors of the pots and pans, the stash of private letters, everything. It was as if I were floating about in their rooms.”
Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” is the sonic equivalent of her floating through Prince’s Paisley Park. She saw and felt depths in the song that perhaps even Prince himself didn’t fully realize. She extracted more meaning, more raw emotion. She found profound resonance even in a single word, try:
I know that livin’ with you baby was sometimes hard
But I’m willing to give it another try
In 1992, on Saturday Night Live, Sinéad O’Connor’s second performance became another defining moment. She sang Bob Marley’s “War” a cappella, and after the final line, “We have confidence in the victory of good over evil,” she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II, declaring, “Fight the real enemy.” This act, protesting child abuse within the Catholic Church, using her own mother’s photo of the Pope, was undeniably punk rock. Despite the ensuing controversy and NBC lifetime ban, she stated, “This hurts me a lot less than rapes hurt those Irish children.” Sinéad O’Connor consistently delivered unflinching truth.
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Rob Harvilla, author and host of ’60 Songs That Explain the ’90s: The 2000s’.
Rob Harvilla is a senior staff writer at The Ringer and the host/author of ‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s,’ now ‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s: The 2000s.’ He resides in Columbus, Ohio.
