Watch Sinead O'Connor's Daughter Roisin Waters Sing 'Nothing Compares 2 U'

Roisin Waters has paid musical tribute to her mum Sinead O'Connor, with a rendition of the late artist's song, 'Nothing Compares 2 U'.

The touching moment happened during a tribute concert on Wednesday (March 20) for O'Connor and Irish artist Shane MacGowan at Carnegie Hall in New York.

In fan-shot footage from the show, Waters, barefoot and wearing a floral dress, encourages the audience to sing along to the global crush. Waters joined a stellar lineup of artists on the “St. Paddy's Celebration', which featured Billy Bragg, David Gray, Amanda Palmer, Glen Hansard, Cat Power, Dropkick Murphys and more.

“Oh man…I don't think there was a dry eye in the house,” Palmer wrote, sharing her perspective on the performance on social media. “Every other performer was crammed onto the stage to watch this bittersweet majesty unfold. And my god, you could feel the power of musical alchemy in the room last night. The soaring needle of sung and played notes that tear us apart and sew us back together. The way it has nothing to do with anything. The way music can communicate more than mere words ever can.”

“Nothing Compares 2 U,” originally composed and recorded by Prince, gave O'Connor a career-defining hit, the type that few artists come close to matching.

The single and its catchy, multi-award-winning music video dominated the airwaves for months after its release in the early 1990s, logging four weeks at No.1 in the US and UK and eight weeks in Australia. The single returned to the charts everywhere after her death on 26 July 2023, aged 56. MacGowan of the Pogues died on 30 November 2023 aged 65.

O'Connor, the dynamic, iconoclastic artist, is nominated for the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2024, in recognition of her influence, the “indelible mark” she left “on the soul of popular music” and her activism that the Rock Hall Notes were “ahead of her time in expressing her unrepentant rage and sorrow over then-taboo subjects such as women's rights, organized religion, child abuse, and oppression.”

The singer-songwriter made his debut with The lion and the cobra in 1987 and released 10 studio albums during her lifetime. Her second LP, 1990s I don't want what I don't have it spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The compilation included “Nothing Compares 2 U” and “The Emperor's New Clothes”, her only other hit on the Billboard Hot 100 (which peaked at No. 60).

O'Connor struggled with mental illness throughout her life, including PTSD, depression and suicidal tendencies. In 2022, her 17-year-old son Shane died of an apparent suicide. O'Connor is survived by three children, including Waters, aged 28.