The Last Dinner Party are the latest group to have covered Sinéad O’Connor’s breakout song ‘Mandinka’. The English indie-rock group covered the track for Apple Music’s London Sessions.

This is not the first time that the track has been covered by artists. In July 2023, shortly after Sinéad O'Connor's death, Alanis Morissette and Foo Fighters paid the tribute to the artist and covered the song at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan.

'Mandinka' was the second single off of O'Connor's debut album The Lion and the Cobra, released in 1987 which catapulted the mesmerising talent that was Sinéad O'Connor into the public sphere.

The song takes its inspiration from the novel Roots by American author Alex Haley, which chronicles the story of slavery and the intergenerational trauma black families in the United States experience. In an 1988 interview on the song, O'Connor said that "In order to understand it you must read the book".

The Last Dinner Part performed the tribute as part of the new monthly series hosted by the streamer Apple Music, where artists perform live renditions of their songs as well as a cover. The band also delivered live renditions of their own hits ‘On Your Side’ and ‘Nothing Matters’.

Abigail Morris, the band's lead singer described ‘Mandinka’ as “really challenging” to sing – “Her pipes, man. It was really hard. So it was a real, real beast, really intimidating, but it was really fun, it was really freeing and yeah, it’s a wonderful song".

Continuing in the Apple Music interview Morris cited their Irish manager as an influence in their decision to cover O'Connor's track: "Another reason why we did it is our manager, Tara, is an Irish woman and she suggested that we do it, so we dedicate it to her; this one is for Tara.”

You can watch the Last Dinner Party's cover of Mandinka here.