P!nk, Brandi Carlile Sing ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ Tribute to Sinead O’Connor

On Wednesday night, following the day’s announcement that Sinead O’Connor died at the age of 56, P!nk paid tribute to the Irish singer and songwriter during her Summer Carnival tour.

The show was her first U.S. date and while usually heavily choreographed, the artist paused the show to bring Brandi Carlile onstage to perform “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Originally written by Prince for his side project the Family and featured on the band’s self-titled 1985 debut album, O’Connor shot to fame with her rendition of the song in 1990. Her distinct vocal style would echo throughout the Nineties, influencing singers such as Sarah McLachlan and Alanis Morissette, who said O’Connor’s music was “really moving for me, and very inspiring, before I wrote Jagged Little Pill.” And among those singers influenced by O’Connor’s uncompromising spirt was Alecia Beth Moore Hart.

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“When I was a little girl, my mom grew up in Atlantic City and I used to go down to the Ocean City Boardwalk with my ten dollars and I would make a demo tape… I would make a little cassette tape and imagine it was my demo for the record company,” P!nk told the crowd that night, per Billboard.

“And it would always be either ‘Greatest Love of All’ by Whitney Houston or ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ by Sinead O’Connor. So in honor of Sinead, and in honor of my very, very talented friend Brandi Carlile I asked her if she would come out here and sing this song with me.”

Together, the pair sang the heartbreaking lyrics: “I went to the doctor, guess what he told me Guess what he told me/He said, ‘Girl you better try to have fun, no matter what you do’/But he’s a fool ‘Cause nothing compares, nothing compares to you.”

Earlier that day, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tegan and Sara, Smashing Pumpkins’s Billy Corgan, Melissa Etheridge, and more took to social media to pen heartfelt tributes and personal memories of O’Connor.

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