Sinead O'Connor
Director John Maybury originally filmed hours of footage in Paris for "Nothing Compares 2 U," but he threw it all away when he saw the power of Sinead O’Connor’s close-up. The iconic tears at the end of the video were real and were triggered by Sinead’s own personal grief. It remains one of the few videos to win VMA Video of the Year using almost nothing but a single locked shot. The song was originally written and recorded by Prince in 1984 for his side project, The Family, but it didn't become a global hit until Sinead's version. The black turtleneck Sinead wears in the studio was her own clothing, further adding to the raw and unstyled aesthetic of the shoot. Sinead O’Connor was the first female artist to win the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year for this specific production.