Sinéad O'Connor's hit song was written by Prince. She said he was 'an awful monster'.

Content warning: This story includes descriptions of violence that may be distressing to some readers.

Throughout her career, Sinéad O'Connor was an acclaimed singer-songwriter. But there is one song in particular that would be her most recognisable hit - 'Nothing Compares 2 U'.

The Irish singer who passed away this week aged 56, saw herself not as a popstar like everyone wanted her to be, but instead as "a protest singer". 

Her rendition of the song went incredibly well on the charts - but not everyone was a fan. 

'Nothing Compares 2 U' is a song written and composed by Prince. The song wasn't widely known at the time it was originally released, and it was performed by '80s band The Family - a band Prince formed and signed under his music label.

Five years later, O'Connor recorded a version of the song - and it became a worldwide hit. 

Watch the trailer for Nothing Compares, the documentary about Sinéad O'Connor's life. Post continues below.

O'Connor and Prince had never properly met prior to her releasing her recording of 'Nothing Compares 2 U' in 1990. 

In a 2009 interview, O'Connor said that she "loved" Prince's music before covering the song. They had briefly crossed paths once, but never really spoken, O'Connor saying she got a message out of the blue from Prince once her version of the song had topped the charts. He asked her to come to his home, and she agreed. 

But O'Connor said that interaction certainly wasn't a positive experience for her.

"Did I ever meet Prince? I did and we didn't like each other. At all," O'Connor told Uncut magazine in 2013. "I'm not going to go into it, but we detest each other. It got violent too, which is why I can't go into it, but it is a very funny story. I'll tell it when I'm an old lady and I write my book."

She also alluded to something serious via The Mirror, saying Prince was "quite threatening, physically".

"He can pack a punch. A few blows were exchanged. All I could do was spit. I spat on him quite a bit," she said.

Prince around the time of the allegedly abusive encounter. Image: Getty.

It wasn't until she wrote her memoir Rememberings in 2021 that O'Connor shared her side of the story - notably after Prince's death. He passed away in 2016 from a fentanyl overdose at the age of 57.

O'Connor alleged that Prince summoned her to his Hollywood mansion where he proceeded to chastise her for swearing in interviews while promoting her version of 'Nothing Compares 2 U'.

She said while at Prince's home, she was served soup although she refused to eat it. This reportedly made him angry. Prince also allegedly "sweetly suggested" a pillow fight - only to allegedly thump her with something hard he'd slipped into the pillowcase.

"Only on the first thump I get, I realise he's got something in the pillow, stuffed down the end, designed to hurt," she wrote. "He ain't playing at all. I get really annoyed. And also really frightened."

O'Connor said that after realising there was something hard in the pillowcase, she escaped on foot in the middle of the night. She alleged he stalked her with his car, jumped out and chased her around the nearby highway. 

"He drives alongside me, rolls down the passenger window, and orders me to get in. I tell him he can suck my d**k. Or some such. He screeches the car to a halt in the slow lane and gets out. Starts chasing me round the car, telling me he's gonna kick the s**t out of me," she wrote.

"You've got to be crazy to be a musician, but there's a difference between being crazy and being a violent abuser of women," she told The New York Times in May 2021.

O'Connor in recent years, prior to her death. Image: Getty.

O'Connor is not the first woman to allege violence at the hands of Prince. 

His former girlfriend Charlene Friend alleged he "would kick me out of bed, ordering me to sleep elsewhere. I would want to leave but he would prevent me. He said I belonged to him. He also demanded that I be on call for him ... Prince threatened to have me killed after we broke up, saying no one else could have me," according to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail.

Ultimately O'Connor said her encounter with Prince left her with "a cold fear in my stomach".

"I never wanted to see that devil again."

Speaking to PEOPLE, O'Connor said she came away from the whole situation "not liking him very much", describing Prince as "an awful monster of a man". O'Connor said she did not know that her manager and Prince's team were involved in some "legal proceedings" at the time of the encounter.

Despite the experience, O'Connor said that Prince's death in 2016 affected her deeply, saying she felt "terribly sorry and sad for him".

"I sobbed when he died. I just felt terribly sorry and sad for him of the loneliness of his death," she told PEOPLE. "The price you pay for being so successful is an awful, aching loneliness, and I think he was terribly lonely, terribly vulnerable."

Recently in her 2022 documentary Nothing Compares, which is about her life and career, O'Connor was unable to use the track in the film due to copyright reasons. 

Prince's estate had refused to give O'Connor the right to use her version of the power ballad for the documentary.

Prince's half-sister Sharon Nelson explained the decision not to allow O'Connor to use the song in her documentary in a statement to Billboard.

"Nothing compares to Prince's live version [of the song] with Rosie Gaines that is featured on the Hits 1 album, and we are re-releasing that album on vinyl," Nelson said in a statement. "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."

O'Connor certainly felt differently. As O'Connor said to The New York Times, she wasn't fazed at all by the fact Prince wrote her most beloved track. 

"As far as I'm concerned, it's my song."

If this has raised any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.

Feature Image: Getty.