Sinead O'Connor stuns viewers with emotional performance during TV return

There's no doubt that Sinead O'Connor is one of Ireland's most iconic musicians, and her vocals still continue to impress her many millions of fans.

Although she was once best-known for her controversial appearance on an episode of SNL, in which she tore an image of the Pope and stated: "Fight the real enemy," nowadays she's eschewed the limelight and converted to Islam - living a much more spiritual and private life.

However, this week she made an incredible return to TV, after appearing on RTE's Late Late Show on Friday night. The singer launched into a powerful rendition of Shane MacGowan's song 'Rainy Night in Soho', before breaking into a version of her hit 'Nothing Compares 2U,' accompanied by her band and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

'Nothing Compares 2U' was originally written for O'Connor by music legend Prince, and reached number 1 in both the US and UK, along with a number of other countries.

Speaking to host Ryan Tubridy about her singing technique, O'Connor stated: "We don't use notes or scales or anything like that, or breathing work, we use the first song as a warm-up. What they teach is the emotions will take you to the notes.  What you can call it is the Stanislavski method of singing - that's exactly what it is."

She continued:  "So, you're using the emotion, you're being the character who's speaking.  You figure out who I'm speaking to, what's my motivation."The first rule of bel canto is: never sing a song that's not in your nature, that you can't identify with a character. [Rainy Night in Soho] is in everybody's nature.  That song is absolutely beautiful.  Anybody could sing that song. It sings itself."

On social media, plenty of Twitter users commented on the welcome return of Sinead and tweeted to express how blown away they were by her powerful vocals.

This is the first time that she's performed live on TV in over five years. Sinead: we've missed you. It's good to have you back!