Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and Alanis Morissette paid tribute to Sinéad O'Connor with a performance of the Irish singer-songwriter's "Mandinka" at Japan's Fuji Rock Festival on Saturday night, July 29.
"Tonight, we’re gonna do something that we’ve never done before, with someone that we love very much," Grohl told the crowd during his band's headline set.
"We want an old friend to come up and sing with us tonight for a very special reason."
After Morissette took the stage to great applause, Grohl said: "We're singing this song for a reason tonight."
Morissette added: "For a beautiful woman of high intelligence and deep empathy, way ahead of her time, who is no longer with us - this is for her."
Morissette paid tribute to O'Connor on the day the Irish singer's family confirmed her death:
— Alanis Morissette (@Alanis) July 26, 2023
"Mandinka" was the second single off O'Connor's debut album "The Lion and the Cobra." The song reached number six on the Irish charts and number 17 in the UK, helping to propel O'Connor to international fame.
O'Connor penned the song about the Mandinka tribe in west Africa, drawing inspiration from Alex Haley's book "Roots."
O'Connor performed the song on "Late Night with David Letterman" on September 7, 1988, marking the Irish singer-songwriter's first TV appearance in the US.
56-year-old O'Connor was found dead in her London home on Wednesday, July 26, her family confirmed in a statement that day.
Metropolitan police said they responded to reports of an unresponsive woman at an address in south-east London. O'Connor was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said on Thursday that O'Connor's death is not being treated as suspicious while the London Inner South Coroner's Court has ordered an autopsy. The time of death also remains unknown.
O'Connor is survived by her three children Jake, Roisin, and Yeshua. She is pre-deceased by her son Shane, who tragically died in January 2022 at the age of 17.
In one of her final tweets, O'Connor said she was "lost in the bardo" without her son. O'Connor had also said just days before her death that she was finishing an album and planning to tour in the coming two years.
Tributes to the Irish Grammy winner have been widespread, while vigils have been hosted in both Dublin and London.
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