Et pendant ce temps là dans les médias ...

[JCO8]

Merci pour ce beau témoignage. Une des dimensions les plus importantes dans les passions c'est le partage, et tu décris très bien tout ce que ça implique avec nos proches.

Je suis également allé voir cette version Imax qui m'a beaucoup impressionné au niveau du son. La résolution de l'image était également excellente, bien que le film n'ait clairement pas été restauré pour autant (beaucoup de poussières et de petites tâches noires, et bien sûr cette fameuse séquence U Got The Look dans une qualité inacceptable - moins bonne que la version Youtube du clip - et qui casse complètement l'harmonie du film).

J'ai été très ému au début de la projection, je ne m'y attendais pas. J'ai toujours aimé ce film hybride qui ne ressemble à rien d'autre, à l'image de Prince. Comme beaucoup de concerts de Prince, je le connais sans pour autant l'avoir trop vu, ce qui me permet de le redécouvrir à chaque fois. La dernière fois, ça devait être lors de sa ressortie en 2017. Le revoir aujourd'hui dans ces conditions, c'était une expérience unique. Quelle intensité.

La salle était très clairsemée. Sign O' The Times... Petite discussion à la sortie avec un couple de la soixantaine qui hallucinait de ce qu'ils venaient de vivre et regrettaient d'être passé à côté de Prince... C'était touchant, un peu triste, et aussi encourageant. Prince n'a pas fini de surprendre pour le peu que les personnes en charge sauront mettre son oeuvre en valeur.

[jesuisfandeprince]

merci greghost, merci JC08, je me souviens que j’appréciais toujours vos interventions toujours très pertinentes
et surtout merci de votre indulgence …
quelle disgrâce , quelle honte , ça pique les yeux
je viens de me relire
comment ai-je pu écrire
"après ce que j’avais « subit » en live »
"où je pouvaient exprimer"
"que ma compagne et surtout ma fille apprécie le spectacle »

Bon vous avez compris que je n’aimais pas les dictées !

[Gaspard Elliott]

Prince fans disappointed with reissue before it’s even released
Repackaging of 1985’s “Around the World in a Day” contains no rare tracks from the vault.

By Jon Bream
The Minnesota Star Tribune
September 12, 2025

Here comes another Prince reissue — 1985’s “Around the World in a Day” — but fans are overwhelmingly disappointed that, unlike other posthumous Purple reissues, there is no promise of any unreleased vault tracks.

Available on Nov. 21, the “Around the World in a Day” repackage includes the original album remastered and mixed in Dolby Atmos for the first time, according to an announcement on X. The music will be available on streaming, CD, blue marble vinyl, picture disc and a deluxe 3-LP edition.

The blue marble version of Prince's "Around the World in a Day" will be available on Nov. 21. (Prince Official Store)
The lack of a super-deluxe edition with coveted unreleased and rare tracks from Prince’s vaunted vault has fans fuming.

Here are some comments on X:

Scott4343: “This kind of mistreatment of princes estate risks diminishing his legacy and reverence to future generations”

Vince Mon: “7 inch edits but no vault tracks. I usually bite my tongue but this takes the cake. It keeps getting worse and worse”

Daniel Wood: “This is trash. Do better”

DCO75: “Please, everyone responsible for this, step down”

Giacomo Burrasca: “Utterly pointless”

Nina: “Who wants vault tracks when you can buy t-shirts, mugs and stickers? I must have been dreaming when they said the vault was free”

This forthcoming reissue contains B-sides like “She’s Always in My Hair” and “Girl” plus dance mixes and remixes of several tracks, including a nearly 22-minute version of “America.”

The follow-up to the blockbuster “Purple Rain,” this Prince & the Revolution project featured the hits “Raspberry Beret,” “Pop Life” and “America” as well as “Paisley Park.”

This will be the first major Prince reissue since “Diamonds & Pearls” in 2023, but that super-deluxe version included three discs of vault tracks plus two discs of concert recording and a concert Blu-ray.

Meanwhile, while announcing the reissue, the official Prince store unveiled a new line of “Around the World in a Day” merchandise including T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and a $140 hard-cover suitcase. One fan calculated that it would cost a total of $527.70 to buy one of each new item.

Source : https://www.startribune.com/prince-arou ... /601472465

[SIGNO'THETOM]

Prince fans disappointed with reissue before it’s even released Repackaging of 1985’s “Around the World in a Day” contains no rare tracks from the vault. By Jon Bream The Minnesota Star Tribune September 12, 2025 Here comes another Prince reissue — 1985’s “Around the World in a Day” — but fans are overwhelmingly disappointed that, unlike other posthumous Purple reissues, there is no promise of any unreleased vault tracks. Available on Nov. 21, the “Around the World in a Day” repackage includes the original album remastered and mixed in Dolby Atmos for the first time, according to an announcement on X. The music will be available on streaming, CD, blue marble vinyl, picture disc and a deluxe 3-LP edition. The blue marble version of Prince's "Around the World in a Day" will be available on Nov. 21. (Prince Official Store) The lack of a super-deluxe edition with coveted unreleased and rare tracks from Prince’s vaunted vault has fans fuming. Here are some comments on X: Scott4343: “This kind of mistreatment of princes estate risks diminishing his legacy and reverence to future generations” Vince Mon: “7 inch edits but no vault tracks. I usually bite my tongue but this takes the cake. It keeps getting worse and worse” Daniel Wood: “This is trash. Do better” DCO75: “Please, everyone responsible for this, step down” Giacomo Burrasca: “Utterly pointless” Nina: “Who wants vault tracks when you can buy t-shirts, mugs and stickers? I must have been dreaming when they said the vault was free” This forthcoming reissue contains B-sides like “She’s Always in My Hair” and “Girl” plus dance mixes and remixes of several tracks, including a nearly 22-minute version of “America.” The follow-up to the blockbuster “Purple Rain,” this Prince & the Revolution project featured the hits “Raspberry Beret,” “Pop Life” and “America” as well as “Paisley Park.” This will be the first major Prince reissue since “Diamonds & Pearls” in 2023, but that super-deluxe version included three discs of vault tracks plus two discs of concert recording and a concert Blu-ray. Meanwhile, while announcing the reissue, the official Prince store unveiled a new line of “Around the World in a Day” merchandise including T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and a $140 hard-cover suitcase. One fan calculated that it would cost a total of $527.70 to buy one of each new item. Source : https://www.startribune.com/prince-arou ... /601472465

Une crainte devenue réalité !

[tieri6]

Dans liberation ce 11 octobre,interview du photographe Claude Gassian,auteur de la photo de pochette de l album "vault, old friends 4 sale"
Une question reponse au sujet du One

[Gaspard Elliott]

Le chanteur D'Angelo, icône de la soul, est mort à l'âge de 51 ans.
https://www.rtl.fr/culture/musique/le-c ... 7900553042

[Greghost]

La vache !

[Minder One]

Je ne pense pas que ça ait été posté ailleurs, je viens de lire que Jellybean Johnson serait décédé le 21 novembre, à 69 ans:
https://www.fox9.com/news/jellybean-joh ... -69-nov-22

[Minder One]

Je ne pense pas que ça ait été posté ailleurs, je viens de lire que Jellybean Johnson serait décédé le 21 novembre, à 69 ans.

[Greghost]

RIP

[Purple Man 1992]

J'ai également vu cela sur le Facebook de Wendy & Lisa...

[laurent]

Nouveau clip pop life
https://www.reddit.com/r/PRINCE/comment ... ife_music/

[DandyMoove]

Pouvons nous espérer la sortie du concert au First Avenue "remasterisé" entre aperçu au milieu du gloubiboulga de ce clip pourri ?..

[SIGNO'THETOM]

Pouvons nous espérer la sortie du concert au First Avenue "remasterisé" entre aperçu au milieu du gloubiboulga de ce clip pourri ?..

L'espoir fait vivre...

[Greghost]

Merci pour le lien vidéo du clip.
Quel dommage de ne pas diffuser le concert qui semble avoir été parfaitement restauré.

[Purple Man 1992]

Je vous trouve un peu durs L'imagerie du clip est cohérente avec la chanson et l'album, c'est assez chouette je trouve. Les Américains ont l'air plutôt enthousiastes. Et puis, ces quelques extraits du First Avenue me font saliver (et je suis d'accord que c'est bien dommage de ne pas le diffuser restauré comme il l'est maintenant. Peut-être en 2026 avec une ressortie de Parade ?).

[Jul3s]

Après le commentaire de Purple Man 1992, j'ai été voir le clip. Ben franchement je suis plutôt agréablement surpris. Ce n'est pas Prince bien sûr, mais c'est frais, c'est fun, à l'image de la chanson. Et c'est rempli de symboles et d'allusions au monde princier de l'époque, et même d'autres albums. Disons qu'à l'ère post-Prince, c'est une chouette vidéo de promotion. A destination du grand public donc, pas des fans. Je salue quand même l'effort, ça change d'autres trucs bâclés pondus par l'estate.

[Virgile]

Je trouve aussi que c'est une bonne initiative. C'est émouvant de retrouver "Pop Life" sous les projecteurs. Certains "vieux" titres des années 50/60 ont pu recouvrer dans les années 80, 90 une nouvelle "jeunesse"(au détour de films le plus souvent) , c'est sans doute la bonne façon de faire.

L'édition cd Deluxe d'ATWIAD à un format un peu problématique: un peu trop grand, (comme celui de Rave ou du live Purple Rain) et un sticker, au dos, pour lier le packaging, qui est tout un "poème". A décoller avec prudence pour ne pas abimer la pochette, mais à maintenir, pour pouvoir la refermer (fallait y penser...). Ce constat fait, je suis très heureux du choix effectué. Ce disque s'est toujours suffit à lui même et ce qui est intégré (b side, extended, 4 the tears...) ne fait que valider à un très haut niveau de qualité sur l'ensemble de la séquence. Je pense qu'il faudrait ne pas passer 10 ans à rééditer les années Warner de cette façon. Je pense que des coffrets "The Vault", ou "Crystal Ball", affranchis d'une vision d'archiviste (Les Super Deluxe), voire vulgaire (The Originals) serviront mieux le coffre princier. Il faut aussi mettre en valeur de nouvelles périodes. Si des projets complets existent, rien n'empêche l'Estate de la jouer comme Prince avec "The Truth".

[SIGNO'THETOM]

Le clip et cette sortie sont indignes de son Héritage : clip amateur qui mélange les époques et les symboles dans sa carrière (moto et logo de l'époque Purple Rain) avec des effets vraiment cheap... Quant au CD : le packaging est cheap aussi (CD + livret au même endroit, emballage cartonné qui ne se referme pas...) A part l'effet argenté en couverture (en adéquation avec les autres ressorties) cet objet est pas terrible : et son contenu est un peu léger pour un artiste aussi prolixe ! Bref : cet Estate est à pleurer pour ma part !

[Purple Man 1992]

clip amateur qui mélange les époques et les symboles dans sa carrière (moto et logo de l'époque Purple Rain).

À leur décharge, si ATWIAD est bien différent de PR, il reste que sa conception s'est totalement confondue avec la période PR, et que certains morceaux de ATWIAD auraient pu, d'un point de vue esthétique, figurer sur PR sans jurer avec les autres morceaux (l'exemple le plus frappant étant The Ladder, cousin musical de PR (même son global, avec certes un sax en plus).
Les références a PR m'ont fait tiquer un peu aussi, mais en même temps, cela doit correspondre à peu près à la perception de l'album à l'époque...

[Jul3s]

Je j'évoquais que la vidéo, pas le coffret que je trouve également pas top.

Prince aussi était capable de faire des propositions cheap ou kitch, voire de mauvais goût, ou carrément moches. Des pochettes d'album et des vidéos par exemple. Tant que la musique est là, je reste ouvert sur l'emballage et la promotion.

Et le cheval ailé du second album princier qui apparaît à la fin du clip, vous en dites quoi ?
Heureusement ils ont pas été jusqu'à insérer des love symbols dans la vidéo !

[Gaspard Elliott]

Des nouvelles de Duane Tudahl :

I recently revealed that I am Producing / Directing a Feature Documentary Film about CRACK THE SKY and their 50th anniversary! Growing up in Baltimore, I loved this band, and they are all very excited about telling their story. The campaign on Kickstarter has now raised almost 60% of its target, and has about 2 1/2 weeks to go to raise the rest. It was just named a "Project We Love" by Kickstarter itself (they only do that with 6% of projects), and both John Palumbo and Rick Witkowski - whose Rewards had sold out - have added new ones. Whether or not you back it for a Reward or not, check it out, please check out the trailer, and read the stories - after all, this film took 50 years to make.

Message publié sur sa page Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/ur ... 218972162/
Lien vers la campagne : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11 ... ntary-film

Pour les studio book series comme pour le vault, même combat : on ne voit "rien que le soleil qui poudroie et l'herbe qui verdoie".

[julep]

https://www.liberation.fr/culture/musiq ... Z3CMBA7WY/

[Greghost]

Pfff.
"inspiré par le psychédélisme du mouvement californien Paisley Underground". Y'a Paisley dans le mot donc je place un truc pour faire genre ...

[daviddu13]

exactement ce que j'ai pensé

[Ghost Dog]

On parlait déjà du mouvement Paisley qui était à la mode en Californie lors de la sortie de l'album en 85 donc la phase est tout à fait légitime

[Gaspard Elliott]

Son intérêt pour le mouvement Paisley Undeground est bien documenté, via les Bangles mais pas seulement.

'He was a huge fan': how Prince became the patron of the psychedelic underground
The Guardian
Michael Hann
Sun 24 Apr 2016

One of the unlikely byways of Prince’s career was his interest in the Los Angeles Paisley Underground scene – and it was his patronage that made the Bangles stars.

“He was a distant figure,” Michael Quercio of the Three O’Clock told me of his single encounter with Prince, his label boss and a man he believes had been inspired by the music he and a handful of other bands had been making in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. “We met him once. He had opened up the Paisley Park complex of studios in Minneapolis at that same time and had people come out. He put us up in a hotel, and we all went to this party after his concert there in Minneapolis. I remember being on a shuttle bus from the hotel to the party. I get on the bus, and it’s me with George Clinton, Mavis Staples, Wendy and Lisa and Apollonia. Everybody’s very quiet, we’re just going to the complex, and everybody’s staring at me. Finally, Mavis Staples, who’s sitting next to me, puts her hand on my knee and very nicely says, ‘Who are you, honey?’”

What’s odd about this story isn’t that Quercio and his bandmates were invited to Minneapolis. Or that Mavis Staples had no idea who Quercio was. It’s that the Three O’Clock, a cult psychedelic garage band from Los Angeles, were signed to Prince’s Paisley Park imprint, and part of a movement of bands that briefly held him thrall, likely contributing to the naming of his studio and label, and to the sound of his 1985 album Around the World in a Day.

The Three O’Clock were one of the bands from Los Angeles who formed the scene known as the “Paisley Underground”, a term first used in late 1982, coined by Quercio himself to describe his own band, the Dream Syndicate, the Rain Parade and an all-woman quartet called the Bangs, later to change their name to the Bangles. It was that last group who really attracted Prince’s attention.

“He apparently saw the video for [the 1984 single] Hero Takes a Fall – one of our first professional videos,” Bangles guitarist Vicki Peterson told me – she and Quercio were both speaking to me when I was researching an oral history of the Paisley Underground in 2013. “He saw that and was just intrigued with the band. And he started showing up at shows. We’d find out after we’d left the stage and before we did the encore: ‘Prince is here and he’d like to play with you.’ OK. Here’s my guitar.”

It was always rumoured that Prince was romantically interested in the Bangles’s lead singer, Susanna Hoffs. But his interest was certainly professional, too. In 1984, he had written a song called Manic Monday and recorded it for the debut album by his protegees Apollonia 6. He pulled it and sat in it for two years. And then he decided to gift it to the Bangles.

“He presented us with a cassette tape of two songs – ‘Here, do you want to record these?’ And one of them was Manic Monday,” Peterson recalled. And so we picked that song – it felt pretty Bangle-ish, like something we could have written. He said if we wanted to use the tracks we could just re-sing it [over the top of his backing track]. Well, thank you so very, very much, but we’ll record it.”

For the Bangles, who – like all the Paisley Underground bands – had seen their record sales fail to match their reputation, Prince’s intervention was life-changing, not least because he had just become an international superstar himself off the back of albums 1999 (in 1982) and Purple Rain (in 1984). “They were trying to figure out how to get us to radio,” Peterson said. “We were getting a lot of good press and our shows were doing well, but really the idea of getting a single to radio was still a bit of a challenge, and once you have this great hook – Look! Prince wrote them a song! – it definitely helps.”

Manic Monday became a worldwide hit, peaking at No 2 in the US and the UK, and began a period in which everything the Bangles touched turned to gold. Sid Griffin of the Long Ryders, a group who joined the original four in the Paisley Underground, was living in a shared house with Bangles drummer Debbi Peterson when their success hit in 1985.

“Everyone’s equipment was in our house,” he told me, “because we had a house and most people had flats. There’d be an amp of of Steve Wynn’s [from the Dream Syndicate] or Green on Red’s, a bunch of Long Ryders’ gear, various other bands, the Celibate Rifles from Australia had some equipment there. There was a klieg light – it’s incredibly bright. So Debbi got a cheque from Bill Graham Associates, who were doing their merchandise, her piece of the pie. My friend said: ‘How much do you think it is? Do you think she got a million bucks?’ ‘No, she didn’t get a million bucks, but pick up the klieg light, and I’ll hold it up to the light. You turn it on, and I’ll be able to read the cheque.’ I’d seen it done in the movies – and it works! I held it up - and it was a sizeable cheque.”

From the Bangles, Prince’s interest moved to the Three O’Clock. “I’m told by one of the Bangles that he saw our video for Her Head’s Revolving, which was before Around the World in a Day,” Quercio said. “He started listening to these bands, and took a bit of it. I’m sure he was a huge fan of that music – I know he was a fan of Arthur Lee and Love and I think naming the record company Paisley Park right at the same time … I can put two and two together! I think it really influenced him.”

The Three O’Clock were signed to Prince’s Paisley Park imprint, although by the time he signed them, the Paisley Underground’s psychedelic swirl had rather lost its vivid colour. The one album the group recorded for Paisley Park – their final record, Vermillion, released in 1988 – was dissimilar to what had come before and is regarded as the worst of their four full-length releases, despite Prince giving them a song, Neon Telephone.

By that point, Prince’s psychedelic phase was passing. Around the World in a Day proved to be an outlier in his discography, followed by Parade, Sign o’ the Times and Lovesexy, each featuring a defining single – Kiss, Sign o’ the Times and Alphabet Street – in a way Around the World in a Day hadn’t, despite the DayGlo charm of Raspberry Beret. Peterson remembered Prince coming to see the Bangles play for a couple of years after Manic Monday, and then nothing. He had moved on.

For a moment, though, Prince was the patron of the LA psychedelic underground, a characteristically perverse and quixotic gesture from an artist who always wanted to surprise and be surprised.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/music ... nderground

[Greghost]

J'entends bien sauf que là ça place Prince comme un suiveur de tendance. Pas comme précurseur. Le petit tacle inutile au passage bien libé, bien pompeux.

[Nevermind2b]

Franchement, c'est quoi ces remarques ?
Gaspard explique la référence de Libé, qui est donc pertinente !
Et pourquoi Prince n'aurait pas eu le droit d'être influencé par des artistes contemporains (ou mouvements) de son "présent". Il l'a été par Hendrix, Sly, Santana, en fait il suffit de se référer à sa NPG Radio List sur ONA Live…
Donc, merci à Gaspard pour le renvoi à l'article du Guardian, j'ignorais cette phase de la story Princière ; et par le fait, à l'auteur de l'article de Libé

[SIGNO'THETOM]

Ce n'est pas une critique ! Ca fait 3 lignes... et en plus ils ont du recopier un message préparé de la maison de disques pour écrire des inepties pareil : en substance "Whaou c'est génial, ça se suffit à lui-même , pas besoin de ces gros coffrets avec tous ces inédits du Vault..." Autant de connerie et amateurisme : ça me ferait presque chialer ! Quand on ne connait pas : on demande à un spécialiste, ou on ne dit rien ! C'est mieux...

[Nevermind2b]

En l'occurrence, ce n'est pas du petite article (une news plus qu'une critique) dont on parle mais de la référence au mouvement californien "Paisley Underground".
J'aurais peut-être du être plus précis dans ma réponde à Greghost mais ça me paraissait clair…
Et je le redis, cette référence ne me semble pas du tout "pompeuse" puisque ayant lu beaucoup de livres sur Prince (dont celui sur Dickens et Prince de Nick Hornby), je n'avais pas mémoire de celle-ci et le renvoi de Gaspard* vers l'article du Guardian m'a bien éclairé sur cette influence évoqué par le journaliste de Libé.
Et m'a donné du coup, probablement, l'explication du choix pour son label et ses studios du nom de "Paisley Park"…

*Je lui renouvelle mes remerciements.

[Victor761993]

When Doves Cry et Purple Rain avec une place de choix dans le dernier épisode (S05E08) de la série Stranger Things sur Netflix.

[Jul3s]

"Since the episode debuted on New Year’s Eve, “Purple Rain” has seen a 243 percent increase in Spotify global streams and a 577 percent surge in global Gen-Z streams specifically, Variety can exclusively reveal. “When Doves Cry” also saw a 200 percent boost in global streams, as well as a 128 percent increase in Gen Z streams."

D'après Variety
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/stra ... 236622700/

[Greghost]

En voyant ce qu'ils avaient fait avec Kate Bush l'an dernier je m'étais dit c'est dommage que ...

Ils ont fait coup double.
Y'a que comme ça (film, pubs,...) que la musique de Prince peut être connue et régulièrement entendue. C'est dommage mais nous sommes dans l'artificial âge.

[daviddu13]

bien d'accord avec toi Greghost

[daviddu13]

Cela étant dit, c'est bien si des jeunes découvrent la musique de Prince, tant mieux pour eux

[Gaspard Elliott]

‘Stranger Things’ and Prince: The Complicated Road to Bringing ‘When Doves Cry’ and ‘Purple Rain’ to the Show’s Finale
Variety
Jan 2, 2026

Securing the rights to use a song in film or TV is a challenging and expensive task — and the more iconic the song, the more challenging and expensive the clearance is likely to be.

So when two of Prince’s most legendary songs, “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain,” appeared in the finale of “Stranger Things,” it was obvious that therein lay a tale. And the tale is even more complicated than virtually anyone would have thought.

Why? Not only because of the challenges in clearing the songs with the Prince estate — but because of the show’s plot: The two songs required for that segment of the show had to be the first and last songs on one side of a single vinyl album, which, to use a reference from the show, is like a Rubik’s Cube for the music supervisor, and much more challenging than selecting Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” or any of the show’s many other iconic music moments.

The hard work paid off: Since the episode debuted on New Year’s Eve, “Purple Rain” has seen a 243 percent increase in Spotify global streams and a 577 percent surge in global Gen-Z streams specifically, Variety can exclusively reveal. “When Doves Cry” also saw a 200 percent boost in global streams, as well as a 128 percent increase in Gen Z streams.

And as you’ll see below, Nora Felder, president of Picture Music Company and a veteran music supervisor who has been on board for the entirety of “Stranger Things,” was more than up to the task — which doesn’t mean it was easy! Variety caught up with Felder on Friday afternoon to find out how she got it done …

Did you do anything special for the finale?

Yes, I saw it in a theater with my family — I’ve never seen “Stranger Things” like that, with an audience. It was the first time I was able to really experience how they’re so emotionally attached to the characters — they were cheering and shrieking, some of them were crying. I can’t think of another way I would rather have seen it.

I think the music in the show does so well because it stems from the fans being so attached to the characters and the stories, and the music extends their journeys, so they naturally become attached to it as well.

Music plays a bigger role in “Stranger Things” than a lot of similar episodic shows or films. Was that intentional from the jump?

I think the intention was just to find songs to push the narrative of the story, and rolling up our sleeves and keying in on “What is the right song for this character?” and “What is the right song for each moment? Should this be score or a song?” I can’t speak on behalf of the Duffers, but I don’t think there was an overall sense of “We’re going to create something that’s going to make music such a main character that it’s going to blow up all over their world!” No, they just wanted songs that accented their characters, pushed the narrative, and showed the attachment of music to the characters — and how music can sometimes save you.

Did we know the Clash was going to have a moment? Or Kate Bush or Metallica, or possibly what’s going on now? No, it’s always been about what is the most effective choice to either move this narrative or represent the true essence of this character. And I think that because we always constantly stayed true to that, the show became what it was.

Those two Prince songs were a surprise, and I’m sure it was a challenge clearing them. Why those songs? And how do you think they spoke to those moments in the show?

I’m glad you say “do you think” because songs can be interpreted in so many different ways. But they came about in a similar way to Kate Bush and “Running Up That Hill”: They were not scripted. They were “TBD” moments in the two spots in the script where a song needed to play: [SPOILER ALERT] for the scene when Hopper and Murray set off the bomb detonation to collapse the Upside Down gate, which was set off from the record player. So it needed to be the first song from one side of a [vinyl album], and then it needed to segue to the last song on that same side of the [same album], to play through Eleven’s emotional stand against that leads into the collapsing dimension of the Upside Down. So they needed to hit those two spots.

The Duffers reached out to me about this before the scene was shot — I didn’t even have a shooting schedule, I think they had just written the script and only the cast had seen it. They’d been going through songs, I think they were asking for ideas from the cast. And they said, “This one is a little more tricky because of the way the scenes are going to be set up: We need something preferably from 1987 — but it could be from before — the songs have to be from the same artist; and the first song has to start the A or B-side of an album by that artist, and the second song has to end the A or B side of that album.

That is an incredibly narrow window!

Exactly! So my heart stopped, like, ooh, that’s a tough one. And remember, the scene’s not shot yet, so I haven’t seen the footage and this is just me imagining it in my head — and it’s got to play through this big, emotional, sad scene that’ll lead into a dimension collapsing! I’ve been doing this for 20 years, but there’s still always a first.

Obviously I have various ways of finding music: Sometimes songs just pop into my head — and I know the ‘80s quite well — sometimes it’s just e-surfing, Spotify or streaming this or that; sometimes it’s just driving in a car and somebody drives by with a song playing; and I also have 15,000 or 20,000 CDs and albums. But for this one, I needed to go to my research books. I found a couple that listed the albums [by side], and I literally had to go and flip through the book for ideas and then see if the first and last tracks on a side could line up to our needs. And in a lot of cases, they just didn’t. I mean, I stayed up all night, and I think I came up with just two ideas.

Just to step away from Prince for a second, in these situations, I like to give the Duffers a lot of different flavors to choose from to find what works best. Like in the scene where [SPOILER ALERT] Karen is fighting the monster to save Holly, I tried all kinds of songs, from Frank Sinatra to you name it, and they fell in love with the ABBA song, “Fernando,” which was actually the first song I sent them.

So what was the other album you sent them, along with Prince’s “Purple Rain”?

Part of me doesn’t want to say what it is, because I don’t want people to feel bad. But I did send a classic artist from the ‘70s, big artists, and I said, “We could end it with this, but I’m not sure about the starting song — and honestly, I don’t even know if those guys will clear it, and it’s going to cost megabucks.”

Or, I said, “We could end it with ‘Purple Rain’ and start with ‘When Doves Cry’ — but honestly, I don’t even know if I can clear it.” I mean, I had not heard of [“Purple Rain”] clearing before, although I know now that it did clear for something right after Prince died [in 2016] — there was a relationship with someone who did a [“Black-ish”] series episode about a character mourning Prince’s death, but that was a one-off situation.

So the Duffers wrote back to me and said, “Do you think we could get this cleared?” And I’m like gulp, “I’m really not sure, but I’d be willing to try.” And they said, let’s try. Double gulp! Because this means they really want it — they weren’t having me clear anything else.

The good news is, I majored in English in college, and that helped with creating what I call “theses”: where you give the rights owners all the information of how the song’s going to be used, and the backstory of it, the meaning of it — Jennifer Barron, my clearance coordinator, and I went deep on this one. So we spoke to Marty Silverstone at Primary Wave. He goes, “Well, we all know it’s a tough one, but let’s try.” I said, “If there’s anything that they might clear it for, it would be ‘Stranger Things,’ right?” He goes, “Let’s hope!,” because the estate has so many approvals.

Then I talked to Joy Murphy at Universal Music Publishing [which administers the songs’ publishing], and she said the same thing — “Nora, let’s give it a try, we’ll do everything we can to position this in the right way.” So that was two. Then I had Thuy Lam at Warner Records — which controls the master [recording] — who I’d been down this road before with Kate Bush, and she said, “We support this.” And then we waited — that was grueling, and it took a few weeks — we were getting closer to shooting and so the Duffers made a plan to shoot the scenes in a way where the song could be added later. But shortly after that, I got the answer that [the Prince tracks were approved.]

Now, I know the Duffers feel that Prince’s estate cleared the songs because of Kate Bush, and I’m sure that had something to do with it, as the parties reminded them of the impact the show had with “Running Up That Hill.” And I did tell them I thought this was going to be one of the most significant moments in the season, although no one has a crystall ball. But still, for the rights owners, it’s not just about the money, it’s about what lines up with what Prince would have wanted, and to do it in the most respectful manner possible. As we do with the trickier clearances, I do believe the hard work we put into the “theses” made sure everyone fully understood these uses and what they meant to the characters.

For “Running Up That Hill,” though, there were hundreds of other songs that could have worked, you didn’t need songs that began and ended an album side.

Yeah, for [the Kate Bush slot], I had 9 or 10 other songs in my pocket — but I said, “This is the best one. This does everything we want it to do.” I don’t think it could have been [as good with] anything else — because the lyrical content lined up so perfectly with what the characters were going through and needed to do. You know, they needed to step outside of their own world and step into someone else’s shoes to truly understand and reconnect. I’m not saying we couldn’t have gotten something else, but I don’t know if it would have lined up as perfectly, not only with the melodic structure in the building, but also with the intricate message that seemed to speak on a deeper level and relate to our characters.

Also, those two Prince songs are so heavily associated with the “Purple Rain” film and the emotions and visuals that go with it — was that a concern?

No, not for me, and the Duffers never mentioned that. We’ve never been against using songs that have been tied to other stories because this is a completely different, unique story. And again, going back to the special relationship that the fans have with this show, once you attach it to their characters and this story, it’s almost as if it takes on a different meaning. And remember, a lot of the young people are not going to have that association. Even the older people that knew and grew up with these songs, they’re listening to it in a different way.

They kind of line up in that way as well, because “Purple Rain” is obviously the climax of that film, and here it’s part of the climax.

Yeah, when things are beginning to be resolved and [SPOILER ALERT] Eleven has made her decision that she needs to cease existing in order to save them. And “When Doves Cry” — doves have always represented love and peace, right? And in this case, they’re crying because they’re sorrowful — if we want to get heavy here, and pretend we just smoked some pot together (laughter).

But from what I’ve always understood, the song is about the conflicts that exist within relationships, right? So to me, it was interesting to put the song in that spot, because they’re feeling hopeful, but things aren’t resolved — their mission is not done; there’s still people in danger; the world is not one. So even though the song has a kind of a lightness to it, I think that’s why it worked well. And “Purple Rain” has always symbolized the chaotic, sad world that we live in, but it’s also ultimately about redemption, love, and transformation.

[Marty Silverstone, President of Global Sync at Primary Wave Music, tells Variety: “We’re thrilled that we could play a part in bringing these very special uses to life and have Prince’s music included in the phenomenon that is ‘Stranger Things.’ You have to admire the unique connection the show has with its fanbase, its brilliant music curation over its entire run, and its spotlight on the cosmic importance of music in the lives of young people, and all people!”]

OK, can I guess the other one you considered? Led Zeppelin? The Eagles?

No, it wasn’t the Eagles. And I’m not going to say Led Zeppelin didn’t come up — I tried Led Zeppelin, but it didn’t work because I was thinking “Stairway to Heaven” and it wasn’t a first [song on album side] and a last situation. And I thought maybe Pink Floyd with “The Wall,” but I can’t remember if the right song was an ending or not. I don’t know how many times I went through this: One song would work and the other one wouldn’t. I mean, that’s why I stayed up all night with my books!

Are you having separation anxiety now that the show is over?

I’m sad, but I’m about to go into “Yellowjackets” right now, literally on Monday. And I love that show. And I’m working on the Duffer Brothers’ other project that they’re executive-producing, “The Boroughs,” that’s coming out this year. And then we’ll see about after that! I really want to take some time and find something really special to work on.

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/stra ... 236622700/

[Gaspard Elliott]

Apollonia Kotero : « Prince serait horrifié » par sa succession
Rolling Stone
21/01/2026

Apollonia Kotero, dans un nouveau dossier judiciaire, affirme que deux mois avant la mort de Prince par overdose, ce dernier était « inflexible » sur le fait qu’elle devait continuer à utiliser et à se produire sous son nom.
Apollonia Kotero affirme que Prince n’a jamais voulu lui causer le moindre chagrin, et que sa succession ne devrait pas le faire non plus.

Dans une nouvelle déclaration déposée vendredi dans le cadre de son procès devant le tribunal fédéral, le mannequin et actrice connue sous le nom d’Apollonia Kotero affirme que Prince était « inflexible » lors d’une rencontre en face à face deux mois avant sa mort : elle devait continuer à utiliser et à se produire sous le nom qu’il lui avait donné pour jouer son amoureuse dans le film emblématique de 1984, Purple Rain.

Apollonia, 66 ans, déclare que Susan Moonsie, une autre membre du groupe féminin Apollonia 6 que Prince avait formé après la sortie du film, était avec elle lors de la réunion du 28 février 2016. Cette rencontre a eu lieu immédiatement après le concert Piano and a Microphone de Prince à Oakland, en Californie.

« Au cours de nos conversations ce soir-là, Prince était inflexible sur le fait que nous devions poursuivre nos projets tels que les performances musicales, le merchandising et les projets audiovisuels, et qu’il voulait que nous utilisions toutes les deux nos marques Apollonia et Apollonia 6 afin de pouvoir gagner notre vie, rester créatives et être financièrement en sécurité dans nos dernières années », a écrit Apollonia, née Patricia Kotero.

Une bataille pour l’identité
Kotero, qui poursuit désormais la succession, affirme que Prince n’a jamais déposé la marque de ce nom de son vivant. Par conséquent, la société de la succession, Paisley Park Enterprises (PPE), a dépassé les bornes lorsqu’elle a pris le contrôle de la marque Apollonia en juin dernier et a cherché à annuler ses autres enregistrements et demandes lors d’une procédure auprès de l’Office américain des brevets et des marques (USPTO). Kotero demande maintenant au tribunal de rejeter la demande de la succession visant à faire annuler son procès.

« La vérité est qu’aucun de ces litiges n’aurait eu lieu si Prince était encore en vie », a-t-elle écrit dans sa déclaration déposée vendredi. « Il serait horrifié par la conduite inappropriée de PPE et par les efforts de PPE pour usurper ses souhaits. Je ne fais pas confiance à PPE, et j’ai peur que si PPE parvient à atteindre son objectif de me prendre les marques Apollonia, mon identité sera perdue, mes droits seront diminués, mes affaires seront interrompues et je serai incapable d’utiliser les marques Apollonia sans répercussion de la part de PPE. »

Kotero a déposé sa plainte pour la première fois en août, affirmant qu’elle avait « célèbrement joué » dans Purple Rain, et que Prince avait « consenti et encouragé » son utilisation du nom de son personnage avant son overdose accidentelle de fentanyl en avril 2016, à l’âge de 57 ans. Elle a affirmé qu’il était « hautement probable » que la succession la poursuive pour contrefaçon de marque si elle l’emportait dans ses efforts auprès de l’office des marques ; elle a donc demandé au tribunal une déclaration judiciaire confirmant qu’elle a droit à son nom et à ses marques.

La réponse de la succession
Dans un communiqué publié sur le compte Instagram officiel de Prince en août dernier, la succession a déclaré qu’elle avait le droit de « protéger et préserver les actifs et l’héritage de Prince ». Le communiqué indiquait que la succession avait tenté à plusieurs reprises de résoudre le différend en privé et affirmait également avoir offert à Kotero de multiples opportunités de se produire à Paisley Park.

Dans une motion de rejet du procès déposée le 13 octobre, la succession a réitéré qu’elle n’avait aucune intention d’empêcher Kotero d’utiliser le nom. « Le défendeur n’a jamais menacé de poursuivre la plaignante, ne lui a jamais demandé de cesser d’utiliser son nom de scène adopté, ni ne lui a jamais demandé de cesser l’une de ses activités commerciales », indique la motion obtenue par Rolling Stone. La succession a fait valoir que la question de la propriété devrait être résolue par l’office des marques, et non par le tribunal.

Le conflit autour de la comédie musicale
Dans une plainte modifiée, Kotero a déclaré qu’elle pensait que la succession tentait de s’assurer le contrôle d’Apollonia pour des projets tels que la comédie musicale Purple Rain montée au State Theater de Minneapolis, avant une éventuelle exploitation à Broadway. Elle a cité une image promotionnelle de la production montrant l’actrice Rachel Webb avec le nom « APOLLONIA » imprimé bien en évidence. Kotero a déclaré que l’image violait son droit à l’image (right of publicity).

« Les défendeurs n’ont pas l’autorité pour permettre à un tiers d’utiliser le nom, l’image, la voix, la ressemblance ou d’autres indices d’identité de la plaignante, y compris la ressemblance de la plaignante issue du film original », indique son dossier.

La succession a rétorqué que l’utilisation du nom sous une photographie d’une autre actrice dans des supports publicitaires était insuffisante pour soutenir une réclamation légale. « La plaignante a seulement allégué que le défendeur a utilisé le nom d’un personnage de Purple Rain, un film dans lequel la plaignante est apparue précédemment », a soutenu la succession dans sa motion de rejet.

« Nous sommes très confiants qu’Apollonia l’emportera pour protéger son nom », déclare l’avocat de Kotero, Daniel M. Cislo, à Rolling Stone. Les avocats de la succession n’ont pas répondu immédiatement à une demande de commentaire vendredi. Une audience sur la motion de rejet de la succession est prévue pour le 13 février.

Après être devenue célèbre grâce à Purple Rain, Kotero a fait des tournées internationales pour promouvoir le film et son tube « Sex Shooter ». Elle et Prince sont devenus des « amis pour la vie », indique son procès, et elle a coécrit le tube des Bangles de 1986, « Manic Monday », avec lui. Elle a également assuré les chœurs sur la chanson de Prince « Take Me With You », en utilisant son nom de scène. En 1985, elle est devenue une habituée de la série télévisée Falcon Crest, utilisant à nouveau le nom Apollonia. Son album solo éponyme est sorti en 1988.

Prince n’avait ni testament ni enfants à sa mort, ce qui a conduit à une bataille complexe pour ses actifs. Ses six frères et sœurs ont finalement hérité de parts égales dans sa succession.

https://www.rollingstone.fr/apollonia-k ... rple-rain/

[Gaspard Elliott]

Jazz Magazine - Avril 2026 - Prince "Une vie au piano"

Pour parler de Prince au piano dans Jazz Magazine, Bojan Z, Éric Legnini, Niels Lan Doky, Bobby Sparks et Bertrand Chamayou évoquent l’héritage de Duke Ellington, parlent « d’énorme intensité émotionnelle », « de couleurs qui viennent de Debussy », « d’un artiste qui déstabilise ses propres certitudes en permanence » et même « de pur génie musical ». Notre grande story aussi émouvante que passionnante revient sur ses amours avec l’instrument qui était aussi celui de son père jazzman. Quant à Bill Frisell, Robben Ford, Miroslav Vitous et tous nos disques Chocs du mois, ils vous attendent dans un nouveau numéro toujours aussi riche et varié.

https://boutique.jazzmagazine.com/produ ... e-au-piano

[lord farell]

Je n'ai pas encore lu mais j'aime beaucoup la couverture, les yeux de Prince, une certaine fragilité, le fond assez gris aussi j'aime bien, qqchose d'éthéré. Bravo et merci ! C'est un dessin exprès pour jazzmag ou une reprise ? Je n'ai pas trouvé qui est l'auteur dans le numéro.

[Nevermind2b]

C'est Fred Beltran, c'est marqué sur la couverture sous le code barre…

[lord farell]

Ah oui d'accord ! Mais qui regarde le code barre ??
Un très beau texte, vraiment. Très belle image aussi page 34 (oui là je sais de qui est l'illustration :-)).
Chamayou, à propos du maxi de Let's go crazy : il propose un développement absolument incroyable, peut-être une des choses les plus expérimentales qu'il ait faites. Il met des espèces de grappes au piano, dans une partie instrumentale foisonnante et fulgurante. On a un mélange de rock et de Stockhausen ou Boulez ! Je ne m'attendais pas à ce qu'on cite Stockhausen !!

[Gaspard Elliott]

Prince’s first ex-wife plans big party on anniversary of his death
The Minnesota Star Tribune
April 13, 2026 at 5:00PM
By Jon Bream

Mayte Garcia wants to continue his philanthropy with a Hollywood benefit.

Mayte Garcia is planning a party in Hollywood on the 10th anniversary of Prince's death.
Mayte Garcia thinks it’s OK to celebrate the anniversary of Prince’s death. In fact, his first ex-wife is presenting a Glam Slam Benefit in Hollywood on April 21.

“Now that it’s been 10 years,” she said this month, “it’s a good time ... to celebrate and listen to his music and smile and share love.”

She likened April to October when Amiir, her son with Prince, was born and died of Pfeiffer syndrome in 1996.

“It’s a good month and it’s a bad month,” she said. “April has turned into that, too.”

For her Purple party, Garcia will have entertainment by Sheila E., St. Paul Peterson & Minneapolis Funk All Stars and Taylor Dayne as well as a group of young student musicians.

Garcia, who used to dance with the New Power Generation, will not be performing, just hosting, she said.

The event will be held on the rooftop of the W Hollywood hotel. There is room for about 300 people, Garcia said. Tickets start at $163.

Meanwhile, Paisley Park, Prince’s complex in Chanhassen, will present separate day and night programs on April 21, with a candle lighting and a concert film, respectively.

Garcia, 52, views her event as a continuation of Prince’s philanthropy she calls Live 4 Love Charities, which will receive proceeds from the benefit.

“It’s something he did,” she said via Zoom. “Not all the people know about it. I’d see him write checks all the time.

“Making sure that his name and all the good he’s done, it’s my job to continue that,” she said.

Under the Live 4 Love Charities, Garcia operates the nonprofits Live for Dance and Live for Music “to give children some kind of hope.” She also operates an animal rescue organization.

Regardless of whether she’s in the Twin Cities for Prince Celebration 2026 in June, she will continue her tradition on Prince’s birthday on June 7.

“I always light a candle. I think about him. I think about our son. It makes me smile to know that they’re together,” she said. “A couple tears will be shed but always, it’s a loss. We miss him physically, but his spirit and his music is there so I’m just going to try to overpower it with that.”

A movie of Garcia’s 2017 memoir, “The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince,” is in development.

“I just had a meeting with the writer. The production company wanted to go a different route,” she said. “They have to take the entire book and put it in 120 pages. Now they’re focusing on flashbacking.

“I’m hoping whoever plays me, it’s not about her look, but her acting ability. It’s a deep story. Prince is in there but it’s more about my story. I’m liking it.”

While raising her 14-year-old daughter in Las Vegas, Garcia tries to stay plugged into the Prince world.

She was interviewed by Oscar-winning Ezra Edelman for the authorized Netflix documentary that was quashed by the estate in late 2024.

“When I was interviewed, he kept asking me certain things that I had no knowledge of,” she said. “I’m not going to start assuming things because I wasn’t there.”

Even when asked about things she experienced, Garcia said it’s difficult to try to explain what it was like in Prince’s universe.

“Someone else said it’s if you go to the moon and you’re an astronaut, you can’t really talk about it,” she said. “That’s kind of like us when we talk about working with Prince and being in that sphere. You can talk about it, but people don’t get it. You have to be in it to understand it.”

[Jibiz]

Pour ceux qui n'auraient pas encore vu, RTBF Belgique va programmer 2 émissions : https://www.rtbf.be/article/prince-clas ... n-11709132

[poilu1418]

Le 21 avril TMC passe "this is it" de MJ
Pas un peu provocateur ?

[Greghost]

Article fleuve.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/ ... fter-death

[mUsic m@n]

Un numéro Hors-Série Les Inrockuptibles est sorti : "Prince : Purple forever" !

https://shop.lesinrocks.com/hors-series ... ie-prince/
114 pages bien fournies.
Peut-être la majeure partie d'entre vous l'avait déjà repéré

Je lirai ce Hors-série le 21 au soir... en écoutant mes albums préférés de Purple Yoda ...

[Gaspard Elliott]

Uptown était un fanzine consacré à l'exploration de l'univers musical de Prince. Créé en 1991 par une équipe passionnée de fans et de collectionneurs, dont les fondateurs Per Nilsen et Lars Einarsson, le magazine s'est rapidement fait connaître pour ses analyses indépendantes et pertinentes. Pendant plus de douze ans, Uptown a publié soixante numéros et plusieurs ouvrages, s'imposant comme une référence incontournable sur l'univers de Prince. L'équipe d'Uptown a également produit plusieurs livres : Days Of Wild, Turn It Up, Turn It Up 2.0 et The Vault, un ouvrage de 700 pages qui marquait l'aboutissement de leur travail, publié en 2004.
Prince leur intenta un procès en 1999 (ainsi que deux autres publications/sites web de fans), sans succès. L'Artiste estimait qu'Uptown nuisait à sa capacité de raconter son histoire à travers l'autobiographie qu'il projetait d'écrire à cette époque. Il considérait qu'il devait avoir le contrôle et la propriété exclusifs de son récit biographique, et qu'un fanzine consacré uniquement à sa personne portait atteinte à ce droit.
Les 60 numéros d'Uptown ont été scannés, numérisés et mis en ligne sur Internet Archives :

https://archive.org/details/uptownfanzine?sort=title

[Gaspard Elliott]

Un Blow up hommage revient sur les rapports féconds entre l'Artiste et le 9ème art.

"Prince : dix ans déjà" de Luc Lagier (26') :
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/130432-02 ... -ans-deja/

[daviddu13]

Également un podcast sur le site de radiofrance avec raphy et mathilda May
Rien de nouveau pour nous,mais ça fait plaisir de voir qu'il n'est pas oublié

[daviddu13]

Et radio nova à bouleversé sa programmation pour faire la part belle à Prince

[laurent]

Sur rtbf on nous parle d'un nouvel album.
https://www.rtbf.be/article/dix-ans-apr ... s-11712846

[robbielive]

Ce matin en réécoutant Prince sur le chemin du taff, j'écoutais Batdance, le titre qui m'a fait devenir fan.
Et là je suis tombé de ma chaise. J'ai réalisé pour la première fois que Prince ne chante presque pas sur ce titre !
Je me suis dit : "Attends quoi ?" Je m'en rends compte 37 ans plus tard ?
Le titre est tellement théâtralisé, le clip tellement "graphique" comme on dit, que je n'en étais jamais rendu compte !
Je crois que c'est là qu'on réalise du génie... un titre qui ne tient que par sa mise en scène...

10 ans...

[Gaspard Elliott]

We want more from Prince’s vault. Here’s why we can’t have it.
The Star Tribune
April 16, 2026
By Jon Bream

https://www.startribune.com/prince-esta ... /601587515

A photograph of Prince at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is among the exclusive pictures captured by Steve Parke for his book "Prince: Black, White, Color.” The Baltimore photographer was on Prince's staff for 13 years. (Steve Parke)
Analysis: Ten years after his death, volumes of the Minnesota megastar’s musical output are still caught up in red tape related to his estate.

Prince deserves better.

He was the complete rock star, rivaling Bob Dylan as the greatest music maker to come out of Minnesota. He became an international sensation with an unparalleled reputation as a concert performer.

A decade after his death, not enough of Prince’s legacy has emerged. A vast vault of unheard material remains unreleased. Little is being done to introduce him to a new generation of music lovers.

What has his estate done for Prince lately?

Prince’s fans are disappointed and frustrated because his visibility is not growing to match his lofty stature.

“I do feel for Prince fans that his legacy has not been looked after,” said Matthew Jeffery of London, who this month published a 10,000-word open letter to the Prince estate on Substack.

A much-anticipated, authorized nine-hour Netflix documentary by an Oscar-winning filmmaker was shelved in late 2024 after nearly five years in the making because the Prince estate objected to its tone and focus.

A highly touted, $26.5 million “Purple Rain” musical staged by a Tony-winning team based on Prince’s hit 1984 movie had a splashy opening in Minneapolis in fall 2025. But it doesn’t seem likely to reach its stated goal of Broadway in the immediate future.

No significant new material has been issued from Prince’s vaunted vault of unreleased recordings and concert videos since 2023’s “Diamonds and Pearls Super Deluxe” boxed set.

“You should understand that we just took over this estate 3½ years ago, and I would say [it’s been] less than a year and a half being able to be free of the restrictions that Netflix had,” said Londell McMillan of Prince Legacy LLC, co-manager of the estate. “Rome wasn’t built in three years.”

Netflix had exclusive access to material in Prince’s vault for its documentary, an arrangement negotiated by a previous estate administrator.

“The estate’s heart is in the right place in terms of protecting his legacy, whether they are popular or not. Their intent is where it should be,” said Donny English, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who saw Prince in concert about 100 times over 35 years.

“Their vision for the future of preserving his legacy and releasing music seems to be a good one. The problem is the execution has been bad,” English said. “You can’t be both the visionary and the person to execute the plan.”

Follow through — or at least communicating what’s happening — is a significant issue.

For instance, in June 2025 at the annual Prince Celebration gathering of fans in the Twin Cities, McMillan and business partner Charles Spicer Jr. touted some upcoming major Prince projects — specifically a jukebox musical film helmed by Oscar winner Ryan Coogler as well as the estate’s own documentary, now that Netflix is out of the picture.

McMillan told the Minnesota Star Tribune this month that the Coogler film and in-house documentary are in development, and the musical is undergoing “edits” with a possible opening on Broadway in 2027 or 2028.

Plans for Prince Celebration 2026 in June were scheduled to be announced on March 25 but weren’t shared until April 14 with Chaka Khan, Morris Day and Miguel among the performers along with appearances by Bootsy Collins and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.

There is apparently no staff at Paisley Park, Prince’s studio complex turned museum in Chanhassen, empowered to make major decisions. Directions seem to come from McMillan, a New York entertainment lawyer, manager and publisher who has other obligations besides co-managing the Prince estate.

McMillan, who has become the face and de facto spokesman for all things Prince these days, acknowledged, “there is a role that we can play better in communicating and embracing fan input.”

Lack of activities and lack of communication have turned off Stacy Morgan, a regular at Paisley Park since she moved to Minneapolis from New York in 2020 because she’s a Prince fan.

“I haven’t been motivated,” said Morgan, who appreciates “Prince Night” at the Twins and Timberwolves games. “I love going to Paisley Park even if it’s parts I’ve seen a million times. But right now, what’s even happening out there?”

Untangling the estate
After years of Prince’s six heirs fighting in probate court, the management of the estate changed in 2022. That’s when Prince’s three eldest surviving siblings transferred their half of the estate to McMillan’s Prince Legacy LLC, and the other surviving siblings sold their interests to Primary Wave Music, a New York management and publishing firm that has worked with the estates of Whitney Houston and Bob Marley.

For the first three years after Prince died, Paisley Park was run by Graceland Holdings LLC. That organization did a commendable job establishing it as a museum and staging Celebration, a multiday fan convention with live performances, panel discussions and listening/viewing parties of material from the vault.

Following the expiration of Graceland’s contract, Paisley Park was operated by an executive staff, hired by a court-appointed administrator. That group notably organized 2021’s striking display “The Beautiful Collection” of 300 pairs of Prince’s bespoke shoes, the best exhibit and thing to happen at Paisley Park since it opened as a museum.

McMillan, who has overseen Paisley for four years, seems as concerned with protecting Prince’s legacy as promoting it. Paisley Park Enterprises, which is run by Prince Legacy and Primary Wave, recently sought to stop Apollonia, Prince’s co-star in the 1984 film “Purple Rain,” from trademarking her stage name, which Prince had coined. Last week, Rolling Stone reported that Apollonia and McMillan had reached a confidential out-of-court settlement.

McMillan scotched plans for Prince’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, set to be unveiled on April 21.

“We had plans to do that. I thought it would be great for his legacy to continue,” Mayte Garcia, Prince’s first ex-wife, told the Star Tribune. “Legalities. I don’t have any comment on it. Unfortunately, the powers that be have plans for another time.”

Prince and his first ex-wife Mayte Garcia, with their dog Mia, in a photo from Steve Parke's new book "Prince: Black, White, Color," which marks the 10th anniversary of Prince's death. (Steve Parke)
McMillan explained that Prince twice declined the Walk of Fame star offer when he was alive because he “didn’t want his name in the ground.” McMillan recently proposed that Prince be honored on a wall instead, as Muhammad Ali is on the Walk of Fame, but the Hollywood honchos nixed that.

While the estate has released some impressively curated reissues of Prince’s albums and material from the vault (see related story), it has done so at a noticeably slower pace than, say, the catalogs of Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen or Neil Young.

Even though the late Michael Jackson didn’t leave behind many unreleased recordings, his legacy has been buoyed by a new biopic opening April 24, two Cirque du Soleil shows that began in the 2010s and the 2021 Broadway hit “MJ the Musical” that has subsequently toured the world.

Pulling together a project from Prince’s treasure trove is not as simple as it might seem, McMillan said. Decisions are made jointly by his Prince Legacy LLC and co-managers Primary Wave, a privately held company that answers to shareholders. The co-managers have to deal with various assets partners such as Warner Bros. and Sony record labels and Universal Music Publishing, not to mention technology, including digitizing the materials in the vault.

In short, it’s more complicated than fans realize to secure agreements and produce new projects.

That said, McMillan mentioned that reissues of a deluxe version of Prince’s “Parade” (1986) and “Musicology” (2004) are in the works.

Reaching Gen Z
Unauthorized things happen outside the Prince estate that promote his legacy, including college classes, photo books and tribute bands like the Minneapolis-based Chase & Ovation.

“Anything that puts Prince in front of people is important,” said Baltimore photographer Steve Parke, who this month will publish his second book, “Prince: Black, White, Color,” after spending 13 years on the icon’s staff.

“I always get people being surprised by the photos of him in the [Minnesota Landscape] Arboretum with all the fall leaves around him. That particular set of photos becomes a meme all over social media in the fall.”

A photo of Prince in his home swimming pool in Marbella, Spain, from photographer Steve Parke's book, "Prince: Black, White, Color." (Steve Parke)
Arguably the best thing that has happened to Prince’s legacy of late is two of his songs, “Purple Rain” and “When Doves Cry,” were featured in the finale of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” in December.

That exposure helped introduce Prince to a younger audience, sparking boosts of 577% and 128% in streams on Spotify for those two songs, respectively, among Gen Z listeners.

“He’s had a resurgence with my generation,” said Sophia Arndt, 21, a University of Minnesota senior from Stillwater who is arts & entertainment editor of the Minnesota Daily. “After the finale of ‘Stranger Things,’ you couldn’t go anywhere on social media without hearing that opening guitar [riff] to ‘Purple Rain.’ I’ve seen that impact especially on my friends who weren’t raised in Minnesota.”

People discover Prince for the first time in different ways.

Morgan, a Minneapolis bank manager, took a group of 30 non-Prince fans from her office on a tour of Paisley Park three years ago.

“It’s one thing to hear about Prince but it’s another thing to be at Paisley,” she said. “They still talk about it to this day. It’s a group that wants to go back.”

What fans want
Longtime fans are speaking up because they would like to see the estate do more to promote Prince.

“Many fans, creators and cultural observers feel a growing unease, not because Prince’s work has lost power but because the structures guiding his legacy still do not reflect the scale, imagination, or ambition he embodied in life,” wrote Jeffery, the British fan who posted a thoughtful, thorough open letter.

“This is not said lightly and it is not said with hostility. It is disappointment born of belief and a sense that something extraordinary is being handled without enough visible direction.”

A Prince fan of more than 40 years in Hungary has started a petition asking the Prince estate to create a panel of fans — a trust of sorts — to advise them on how to proceed. Kares Balogh reports that his petition has more than 200 signatures.

He would like to see the estate publish a full catalog of Prince’s work in a book and then announce a series of releases from the vault as well as an education program.

“The press attention around the book would help keep Prince’s name in the news and support sales of his actual work instead of the exploitative memorabilia currently on offer,” Balogh wrote.

McMillan counters that he appreciates the enthusiasm of the fans, calling them “well-intentioned and ill-informed.”

Other Prince aficionados have specific things on their Purple wish lists.

“Demos might be at the top of my list,” said University of Minnesota professor Elliott Powell, who has taught a class on Prince for 10 years. “I want to get a glimpse into the creative process of Prince even if it’s not finished demos or if it’s things he’s working through.”

Powell, English and Morgan pine for the release of concert films — specifically Aug. 3, 1983 (when “Purple Rain” songs were introduced) and June 7, 1984, (Prince’s birthday) both at First Avenue, and Jan. 21, 2016 (first Piano & a Microphone shows) at Paisley Park. Fans also want to see “The Second Coming,” an unedited movie Prince filmed in 1982 during the Controversy Tour.

“There are so many amazing concerts that should come out,” said ex-wife Garcia. “He was always filming. He was such a creative person. We wrote a children’s book called ‘Happy Tears,’ which is really, really beautiful. I’d love to release that.”

McMillan acknowledges that his team is understaffed. In January, the estate hired a new cohort of archivists and engineers to catalog and digitize the remaining 55% of the vault that’s undocumented.

Superfan English, 54, has spent more than $75,000 on Prince (merchandise, events and four annual tours of Paisley Park plus travel) in the past decade, but he frets that none of his seven kids, ages 13 to 33, had a desire to watch “Purple Rain” with him.

English is concerned that Prince’s core audience — people in their 50s and 60s — will be dying with no new generations of fans to succeed them. He thinks the next 10 to 20 years are crucial to cementing Prince’s legacy.

“Unless we do a better job of preserving that legacy so it does continue to grow, so he isn’t forgotten 100 years from now…,” English said as his voice trailed off. “He should be as much a part of history as Socrates or Plato or some of these people we read about centuries later.”

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the date the management of Prince's estate changed.

[Gaspard Elliott]

10 Years After Prince, His Attorney Still Feels the ‘Heart Drop’
Eurweb
Fisher Jack
April 21, 2026

https://eurweb.com/prince-10th-anniversary/

A decade later, L. Londell McMillan reflects on grief, legacy, and the relentless work behind preserving Prince’s genius.

*Ten years after the death of Prince, the pain hasn’t faded for those who knew him best. If anything, it’s evolved — from shock to responsibility, from grief to purpose.

For longtime attorney and close confidant L. Londell McMillan, the moment he learned Prince was gone still hits the same.

“It was a heart drop,” McMillan said to EURweb’s Lee Bailey. “Like you just felt the heart drop … you didn’t know what to really think other than no. It was a heart drop.”

That feeling — raw, immediate, and overwhelming — hasn’t fully gone away. And in many ways, McMillan says he hasn’t had the time to properly process it.

“It’s been a 10-year fire, brother,” he explained. “I haven’t had a chance to actually grieve… I’m running too fast. So, I’m putting the work in.”

That work has become his way of healing — and his way of honoring one of the most iconic artists in music history.

‘A Force of Nature’
Looking back a decade later, McMillan describes Prince in terms that feel almost too big for one person — yet somehow still not enough.

“He was a force of nature… with a phenomenal and blessed talent that was not only extraordinary, but haunting,” the attorney responded. “He gave it all he had and always kept his pedal to the metal, pushing the music and the culture forward.”

That relentless drive wasn’t reserved for sold-out arenas. It showed up everywhere — even in intimate moments that felt larger than life.

Recalling a private performance for just a few dozen people at Paisley Park, the experience still stands out as unforgettable.

“It was as if it was 30,000 people,” the memory goes. “This guy does not play.”

According to McMillan, that level of intensity wasn’t an exception — it was the standard.

“He didn’t hire band musicians to play for a gig. He hired them to be staff to play for him every day,” McMillan said. “He rehearsed, created, produced… every day for the most part.”

The Prince Most People Didn’t See
While the public often saw Prince as intensely serious and singularly focused, McMillan says that image only tells part of the story.

“One of the biggest misconceptions… is that he was serious all the time,” he told us. “But once you really got to know him, he was very fun, clever, witty… a prankster.”

He joked. He teased. He played the dozens. And he had a competitive streak that bordered on legendary.

“Whether he was playing basketball, ping pong, roller skating, or bowling — he had to win,” McMillan said. “He was hard to beat.”

That same competitive spirit extended to music — including the long-discussed dynamic between Prince and Michael Jackson.

“He had tremendous respect for Michael,” said McMillan. “But he would let you know… ‘I’m a musician.’”

The two icons weren’t close friends, but their mutual respect ran deep.

“They had a profound respect and admiration… but they kept their own respective distances,” he revealed.

For McMillan, grief didn’t lead to stillness — it led to action.

Almost immediately after Prince’s passing, he found himself immersed in the complexities of managing and protecting the artist’s estate.

“I jumped into a fire around his estate… and I’m still in the fire,” he said.

That “fire” has resulted in an enormous amount of work over the past decade — much of it unseen by the public.

Since Prince’s death, the estate has released more than 50 projects, including remastered albums, expanded editions, and previously unreleased material.

“We have to properly curate it, preserve it so that it can last forever,” McMillan said.

Beyond music, the mission has expanded into new generations and new platforms — from high-profile licensing deals to major creative projects.

That includes a film project involving Academy Award-winning director Ryan Coogler, a “Purple Rain” musical headed to Broadway, and continued expansion of Paisley Park as a cultural landmark. A museum

“If you really want to be close to his spirit, come to Paisley Park,” McMillan recommended.

Keeping Prince Alive for the Next Generation
Even after a decade, the focus isn’t just on preserving the past — it’s about ensuring Prince remains relevant for the future.

“It’s very important that we… from a generational perspective, reach out and stay fresh,” Attorney McMillan said.

And for those who already love Prince, he has a simple request.

“Share him with the younger generation,” McMillan pleaded. “Join the FAM community… and let’s continue to party with him like it’s 1999.”

Ten years later, the music hasn’t stopped. The work hasn’t slowed. And for those closest to him, neither has the feeling.

The heart drop is still there.

[Greghost]

50 projets depuis sa mort ? J'ai du en louper un maximum.

[SIGNO'THETOM]

Sa langue de reptile a du fourcher ! Il voulait dire 50 titres !!! J'ai même refait el calcul : depuis leur arrivée à la tête de l'Estate en 2023, ils n'ont sorti que 41 morceaux inédits ... Donc il gruge en plus !!!