The singers performed in Cincinnati, Ohio, following news of Sinéad O'Connor's death.
Pink and Brandi Carlile are honoring the late Sinéad O'Connor.
After news of O'Connor's death broke on Wednesday, Pink and Carlile took the stage in Cincinnati, Ohio, to pay tribute to the Irish-born global star with a stunning duet of "Nothing Compares 2 U." The duo is currently on tour together, with Carlile serving as support on Pink's North American Summer Carnival 2023 dates.
"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," Pink told the audience, according to Billboard. "I would make a little cassette tape and imagine it was my demo for the record company."
She continued, "And it would always be either 'Greatest Love of All' by Whitney Houston or 'Nothing Compares 2 U' by Sinéad O'Connor. So in honor of Sinéad, 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."
Several fans captured snippets of the performance and shared them on social media, with one fan calling the rendition "so beautiful, it made me cry."
"Bittersweet moment," Carlile wrote on her Instagram Story, sharing a video clip of the emotional moment at Great American Ballpark.
Back in May, Pink performed "Nothing Compares 2 U" during an appearance on BBC Radio 2's Piano Room. The clip has since resurfaced and is making the rounds on social media.
O’Connor, who became an international star in 1990 with her cover of Prince’s "Nothing Compares 2 U," died at age 56, according to multiple reports published Wednesday. The Irish Times was first to report the news. No cause of death has yet been reported.
"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad," her family confirmed in a statement to RTE. "Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time."
Born in Glenageary, Ireland in 1966, O'Connor went on to become one of the country’s most prominent musicians, joining the ranks of U2, Enya, and The Cranberries, all of whom achieved worldwide fame in the '80s and '90s.
O'Connor achieved international recognition with the released of second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. The critically acclaimed album was nominated for four GRAMMY awards, winning Best Alternative Music Performance, and sold seven million copies worldwide.
It also featured the 1990 hit, "Nothing Compares 2 U," O'Connor’s arrangement and cover of a record composed by Prince for one of his side projects. The song was accompanied by a video of the singer starkly crying in front of the camera, quickly becoming a staple on MTV and making her the first female artist to win the network’s Video Music Award for Video of the Year.
Initially, Prince, who was not involved in the production, was a fan of the cover. "I love it, it's great!" he said of her version in a 1990 Rolling Stone cover interview. "I look for cosmic meaning in everything. I think we just took that song as far as we could, then someone else was supposed to come along and pick it up." But the relationship between both singers eventually soured.
O'Connor later went public with accusations that Prince physically threatened her. "It spoiled the song completely for me. I feel a connection with the song, but the experience was a very disturbing one," she told Rolling Stone in 1991. "I'm just very angry with him."
In November 2014, the singer explained to the Norwegian station NRK what happened when the two met. "He summoned me to his house -- and it’s foolish to do this to an Irish woman -- he said he didn’t like me saying bad words in interviews. So, I told him to f**k off."
"He got quite violent," O'Connor said. "I had to escape out of his house at five in the morning. He packed a bigger punch than mine."
Despite the attention that followed the hit single, O'Connor grew noticeably uncomfortable with the spotlight, with controversy following most of her career.
O'Connor's personal life was marred by tragedy and struggles with mental illness. Her son, Shane, died by suicide at 17 in January 2022 after going missing in Ireland, and the singer publicly threatened suicide herself multiple times in recent years.
O'Connor recently took to Twitter to reflect on the tragedy, writing that she's been "lost" since his untimely death. Shane died in January 2022 after going missing in Ireland.
"Been living as undead night creature since.. He was the love of my life, the lamp of my soul," O'Connor wrote of Shane. "We were one soul in two halves. He was the only person who ever loved me unconditionally. I am lost in the bardo without him."
Shane was the third of O'Connor's four children. She shared him with Irish folk musician Donal Lunny. She was also mom to son Jake, 36, daughter Roisin, 27 and Yeshua, 16.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
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