Rosie Gaines: Last News

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Hard as it may be to imagine, at the dawn of the ‘90s, Prince was at a make-or-break point in his career, at least as a chart-busting superstar. He was one of the biggest artists in the world, but it had been several years since he’d had a real hit, and his image and public statements had been confusing, to say the least.

The Prince estate has revealed that it denied permission for Sinead O’Connor to use her version of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ in a new documentary about her career because they “didn’t feel she deserved to use the song”.Although best known via O’Connor’s 1990 cover of it, ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ was written and originally performed by Prince. Hence the need for the estate – via its publishing deal with Universal Music – to grant permission for O’Connor’s version of the song to be included in the documentary, which is called ‘Nothing Compares’.“Nothing compares to Prince’s [1993] live version with Rosie Gaines that is featured on the ’Hits 1’ album and we are re-releasing that album on vinyl on 4 Nov”, Prince’s half-sister Sharon Nelson tells Billboard.

Prince‘s estate denied Sinead O’Connor use of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ for her new documentary, it has been revealed.Nothing Compares, a new film directed by Kathryn Ferguson, will chronicle O’Connor’s rise to fame in the early ‘90s. In addition to input from people close to the singer, the documentary will include a new interview with O’Connor herself.A great part of this success came from her decision to cover ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ in 1990, with the song partially giving the film its title.However, the cover won’t appear in the film, with Prince’s half-sister and co-heir telling Billboard that the estate refused the request because “I didn’t feel she deserved to use the song.”Sharon Nelson added: “Nothing compares to Prince’s live version with Rosie Gaines that is featured on the ‘Hits 1‘ album and we are re-releasing that album on vinyl on November 4th.“I didn’t feel [Sinéad] deserved to use the song my brother wrote in her documentary so we declined. His version is the best.”Director Ferguson then added: “Initially we had intended to use the song, but we received a refusal (which as the rights holders, was their prerogative).“In the end we were very happy with that section of the film.