P!nk welcomed opening act Brandi Carlile for a moving cover of Sinead O’Connor‘s “Nothing Compares 2 U” last night (July 26) in Cincinnati, Oh., just hours after the Irish singer passed away at the age of 56. It was the first U.S. date of P!nk’s Summer Carnival tour, which opened two days earlier in Toronto.
Prior to the duet performance, P!nk reminisced about recording amateur demo tapes of “Nothing Compares 2 U” and Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All” on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Md., as a child. “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,” she told the crowd.
P!nk previously performed O’Connor’s Prince-penned, worldwide 1990 smash hit on Feb. 15 for a BBC Radio 2 session in London, backed by the BBC Orchestra. “Nothing Compares 2 U” was one of three covers during last night’s set, joining Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love” and Sade’s “No Ordinary Love.”
As for Carlile, she also tackled Radiohead’s “Creep” and Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You” during her nine-song opening set. Earlier in the day, she wrote of O’Connor on Twitter, “She was right the whole time. I hope she found some peace.” Responding to another user who wished O’Connor could have experienced such an outpouring of support during her lifetime, she said, “this is painfully true. We can make it up to her by doing it for people she fought for.”
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