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Sheila E. and fDeluxe to perform at Paisley Park’s Celebration 2018

by Jay Gabler

February 23, 2018

Sheila E. and fDeluxe will perform at Paisley Park for Celebration 2018 this spring, the venue announced this morning. Paisley Park also announced a list of guest speakers — including the likes of photographer Steve Parke, the Time's Jellybean Johnson, and close Prince confidante Kirk Johnson.

The three-day event, scheduled for April 19-22, is the second annual Celebration hosted by Paisley Park to remember Prince's legacy. Celebration 2017 took place at the one-year mark since Prince's 2016 death, and this year's event lands at the two-year mark. The events are held in the spirit of Celebration gatherings hosted by Prince himself during his lifetime.

Last year's inaugural Celebration featured performances by the Revolution; members of the New Power Generation and 3RDEYEGIRL; and surprise guest George Clinton. Like last year's event, this year's Celebration will also include film screenings and panel discussions.

A new element of this year's Celebration is the April 21 show entitled Prince: Live on the Big Screen. The Target Center performance promises "newly remastered and never-before-released audio and video of Prince accompanied live on the Target Center stage by a super-group of musicians who performed alongside Prince throughout his legendary career."

Tickets to that show are available separately, and are also included in the price of tickets to the overall Celebration event, which a press release from Paisley Park calls "nearly sold out."

Celebration 2018 will be immediately preceded by a University of Minnesota symposium titled Prince from Minneapolis. The symposium, which takes place on the U of M's Twin Cities campus from April 16-18, will climax with the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Prince. An associated exhibit, now on display at the Weisman Art Museum, features various artists' photographs and interpretations of Prince.

Both Sheila E. and fDeluxe took the Nicollet Avenue stage last month for Super Bowl LIVE, a series of free outdoor concerts curated by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Of Sheila E.'s performance, Andrea Swensson wrote,

Sheila hit the stage like a bolt of lightning, powering through her short set with an unbounded energy. Each song she chose had a special connection to Prince, starting with the 1985 single they co-wrote, “A Love Bizarre”; a track from his 2006 album 3121, “Get on the Boat”; and one of the first songs they made together, “The Belle of St. Mark.”

FDeluxe is the current name for the band founded by Prince in 1984 under the name the Family, as a successor project after the Time dissolved. "Tearing through 'High Fashion,' 'The Screams of Passion,' and 'Mutiny,'" I wrote about their Super Bowl LIVE performance, "fDeluxe wound the clock right back to 1985, when the Minneapolis Sound was hot and fresh."

Here's the complete list of guest speakers announced as participants in Celebration 2018. The schedule of specific panels and performances has not yet been announced.

Marcus Anderson

Kip Blackshire

Nancy Bundt

Adrian Crutchfield

Damon Dickson

Josh Dunham

Kat Dyson

Sheila E.

Lynn Grissett

Chance Howard

Shelby J

BK Jackson

Jellybean Johnson

Kirk Johnson

Eric Leeds

Mayte

Maya McClean

Nandy McClean

Susannah Melvoin

Tony Mosley

Mike Nelson

Cassandra O'Neal

Steve Parke

St. Paul Peterson

Joey Rayfield

Xavier Taplin

Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment
This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.