Sinead O’Connor has announced she will no longer perform her song Nothing Compares 2 U, because she doesn’t identify with the song emotionally.

The ballad of heartbreak – originally written by Prince – was a worldwide hit for the Irish singer when she released it in 1990, and remains to this day one of her best known songs.

Sinead O'Connor (Nicholas Hunt/AP)
Sinead O’Connor (Nicholas Hunt/AP)

But Sinead, 48, has taken to her Facebook page to warn fans not to expect to hear her sing it live when they come to her shows any more.

She wrote: “OK, the time has come for me to cease singing Nothing Compares 2U. The first principle of the manner in which I’m trained as a singer (Bel Canto) is we never sing a song we don’t emotionally identify with.

“After twenty-five years of singing it, nine months or so ago I finally ran out of anything I could use in order to bring some emotion to it. I don’t want audiences to be disappointed coming along to a show and then not hearing it, so am letting you know here that you won’t.

“If I were to sing it just to please people, I wouldn’t be doing my job right, because my job is to be emotionally available. I’d be lying. You’d be getting a lie. My job is to give you honesty. I’m trained in honesty. I can’t act. It just isn’t in my training. I have ceased singing other songs over the years for the same reason.”

Sinead said in an interview with the Guardian in 2014 that she appreciated why the song had such a long-held connection for fans.

She said: “Well, it’s brilliant. I certainly understand that about Nothing Compares 2 U. Everyone remembers where they were and what was going on in their life at the time they heard it – whether they loved someone or didn’t love someone.”