Wonder to lead tribute concert

Prince superfans still mourning

SAINT PAUL, Oct 13, (Agencies): Nearly six months after Prince’s sudden death, his fans will have their chance Thursday to mourn the pop icon at a star-filled tribute concert in his native Minnesota.

Stevie Wonder will lead the soldout show at a 20,000-capacity arena, which will mark the first — and, family members say, only — official public event to remember The Purple One.

Organizers invited fans to show up several hours ahead of time for a free outdoor party near the venue to celebrate Prince, the prolific if eccentric musical genius who was the biggest celebrity to live in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul.

The concert comes a week after Prince’s estate opened up Paisley Park — the reclusive star’s suburban headquarters that was usually sealed to visitors — ahead of the start of regular tours.

Prince, outwardly a model of health, died accidentally at age 57 from an overdose of powerful painkillers. His family quickly cremated his body and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, his religious group late in life, held a memorial service, but both events were private.

Model

Wonder, the soul legend whom Prince had cited as a role model despite their different styles, and pop star Christina Aguilera will headline the concert which begins at 7:30 pm (00:30 GMT Friday).

Performers with personal connections to the late artist will include “Queen of Funk” Chaka Khan, whose cover of Prince’s “I Feel For You” revived her career, and Morris Day, who grew up with Prince in Minneapolis and played his rival in the classic 1984 film “Purple Rain”.

Newly announced to the lineup is Prince’s ex-wife Mayte Garcia. A dancer and choreographer, Garcia was also the mother of Prince’s son Ahmir who died a week after his birth in 1996 from a rare disorder.

Ana Moura, one of the leading singers of Portugal’s melancholic fado music, has also confirmed her attendance. She found a new global audience after Prince, a fan of fado who is famous for taking on proteges, championed her music.

Other artists will range from 23-year-old breakaway pop sensation Tori Kelly to veteran funk singer Anita Baker and R&B producer Bilal.

Two of the backup bands from Prince’s long career, the New Power Generation and 3rdEyeGirl, will perform with the guest artists.

However, several acts closely associated with Prince are not performing, including drummer and singer Sheila E, who was scheduled to play Thursday night in suburban New York with Brazilian great Sergio Mendes.

Plans for the concert had long been in flux with Prince’s sister, Tyka Nelson, initially saying the tribute would take place not at the XCel Energy Center in St Paul, where it is being held, but at a much larger venue — the new 66,200-capacity US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Tickets for the tribute start at the accessible price of $20 as organizers hoped to draw local fans of Prince, whose infectious brand of funk became known as the Minneapolis Sound.

But the concert and Paisley Park tours are expected to help fill the coffers for Prince’s estate, whose finances have been in uncertain shape since his sudden death.

Billboard magazine reported that advisers to Prince’s estate were in talks to sell Paisley Park’s vast vault of unreleased music for up to $35 million.

Pop star John Mayer won’t be performing at a tribute concert honoring the late rock icon Prince on Thursday.

Schedule

Concert promoter Randy Levy told the Minneapolis Star Tribune late Tuesday that Mayer had a “change of schedule” and had to withdraw from the concert at the Xcel Energy Center in St Paul, Minnesota.

Have you ever missed someone so much that even the thought of them made you burst into tears?

Now imagine that feeling drenched in purple rain.

Nearly six months after the shocking death of Prince, some superfans are still grieving hard, creating tearful memes, snapping up “I Still Miss Prince” T-shirts featuring a despondent Charlie Brown, sharing photos and seeking solace in an explosion of fresh concert videos and unreleased music on YouTube.

They see no end in sight to their sadness, especially with regular Prince developments in the news — details on the death investigation, his house being turned into a museum and Thursday’s official tribute concert in his hometown of Minneapolis among them.

Loss

Maria Newport still cries regularly over the loss. She broke up with her boyfriend soon after Prince was found dead April 21. When she heard about it, “I just started wailing. Like, fetal position, in my bed”.

As for the boyfriend, she said he didn’t get it, in the raw moment or in the weeks that followed.

“He could not understand. He couldn’t understand the pain”, Newport said of the guy she had been seeing for about a year and thought she would marry. “He would say, ‘This is the dumbest thing ever. Like, you’ve never met this man’”.

Ron Worthy, who lives in Brooklyn, runs a music-focused website, Soulhead.com, and recalls his first encounter with Prince’s music, listening to the naughty “Soft and Wet” on the radio when he was a tender 7 years old. He knew it was about stuff grown folks do, but that and Prince’s numerous other sex songs “basically gave you instructions on some level on how to be vulnerable with women, how to be a competent and giving and unselfish lover”.

He said of the death, “I just walked around in a daze for weeks. I still cry when I hear certain songs like ‘Breakdown’ and ‘Adore’”.

Jazz buff Cheryl Emerson, at 66, doesn’t fit the traditional Prince demographic but she, too, is still profoundly saddened by the loss. She wouldn’t let her Prince fan of a daughter, Rana Emerson, see the Oscar-winning “Purple Rain” at age 13 in San Antonio, Texas, shipping her off with her little brother to their grandparents’ house so she and her husband could go alone opening weekend.