Two tears roll down Sinéad O'Connor's cheeks in the final verse of "Nothing Compares 2 U." She later said they were unplanned — real emotion breaking through during the performance.
The video was directed by John Maybury, shot in a studio with additional exterior footage filmed at Parc de Saint-Cloud in Paris. Maybury's creative decision was radical in its simplicity: sustained extreme close-ups of O'Connor's face, minimizing everything else. No narrative, no set pieces, no distractions — just a shaved head, a pair of expressive eyes, and a voice that carried the entire four minutes.
Makeup was applied subtly to enhance her eyes, keeping the focus on authenticity rather than polish. The approach created an almost uncomfortable intimacy, forcing the viewer into direct emotional contact with the performer.
Between takes, the atmosphere was reportedly far lighter than the video suggests. Director Maybury later described O'Connor bopping around the studio to dub reggae and smoking a spliff — a sharp contrast to the devastating performance captured on camera.
The song itself was written by Prince in 1984 for his side project The Family, recorded at his Flying Cloud Drive warehouse studio in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Their version went largely unnoticed. O'Connor's 1990 cover, co-produced by O'Connor, Nellee Hooper, and Chris Birkett, transformed it into a global phenomenon.
MTV premiered the video on 120 Minutes on January 28, 1990. Its impact was immediate. At the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards, it won three awards: Video of the Year — making O'Connor the first woman to win the category — Best Female Video, and Best Post-Modern Video.
The single reached number one in multiple countries, spending four weeks atop the UK Singles Chart. Billboard named it the number one World Single of 1990.
The video's power lies in what it doesn't do. There are no special effects, no elaborate choreography, no cinematic tricks. Just a close-up that refuses to look away — and a moment near the end where something breaks through that no director could have planned.
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