This past Friday (September 30), Showtime aired a documentary on Sinead O’Connor called Nothing Compares. Named after one of O’Connor’s biggest hits, a song originally written by and for Prince called “Nothing Compares 2 U,” the documentary noticeably does not feature the song.
Toward the end of the documentary, a message appears on-screen, reading “The Prince estate denied use of Sinead’s recording of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ in this film.”
In a statement to Billboard, Prince’s half-sister and co-heir to his estate, Sharon Nelson, explained why the estate didn’t clear the use of the song for the Kathryn Ferguson-directed documentary.
“Nothing compares to Prince’s live version with Rosie Gaines that is featured on the Hits 1 album and we are re-releasing that album on vinyl on November 4th,” she said. “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.”
In O’Connor’s 2021 memoir, Rememberings, O’Connor recalled meeting Prince after the success of her version of “Nothing Compares 2 U.” According to O’Connor, Prince invited her to his home, chided her for swearing, and asked her to partake in a pillow fight. She remembers feeling an object in the pillow which she believes Prince slipped inside the pillowcase to inflict pain on O’Connor.
Still, she maintained in an interview with New York Times, she said that despite her unpleasant encounter with the man who wrote “Nothing Compares 2 U,” she is still proud of her version of the song.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s my song,” she said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VLy1A4En4U
Check out the trailer for Nothing Compares above.
Prince is a Warner Music artist. .
