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Grammys to host all-star Prince tribute concert run by Sheila E., Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis

Seating plan for 'Let's Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince.' (AXS)
Seating plan for 'Let's Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince.' (AXS)

by Jay Gabler

January 09, 2020

The Grammys will host an all-star Prince tribute concert that will take place Jan. 28 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. "Let's Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince" promises "performances by Alicia Keys, Beck, Coldplay's Chris Martin, Common, Gary Clark Jr., H.E.R., John Legend, Juanes, Sheila E., Usher and more."

Tickets ($60-$300) are now on sale for seats surrounding a stage shaped like the Love Symbol. The concert will be recorded for broadcast in April, the month that will mark four years since Prince's death. Rolling Stone reports that Prince's peers Sheila E., Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis will serve as music directors for the concert. The Revolution; Morris Day and the Time; and Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles are also set to perform.

The show follows in the mold of similar post-Grammys tributes to artists including the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder. This year's Grammys, with one-time Prince collaborator Lizzo leading nominees, take place on Sunday, Jan. 26.

"Sometimes you worry about these things, because when an artist is so iconic, so individualistic and so unique, you get a little bit nervous about having people interpret their work,” producer Ken Ehrlich told Rolling Stone. “But I think, if anything, based on what we’ve done with these past shows, either we’ve gotten a little foolhardy to think that we could do Prince, or we’ve gotten confident that there are artists out there who fit; who will be faithful to what he did and reverent enough not to f--k around with him."

The show's star power will finally give Prince a tribute on the magnitude of the stadium show announced by Prince's family just two months after the star's death. That evolved into a smaller and stranger arena show that featured tributes ranging from Stevie Wonder and Chaka Khan doing "I Feel For You" to Mayte Garcia belly-dancing to Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls singing Vanity 6's "Nasty Girl."

The Grammy tribute's set list is still in flux, but it seems certain we'll at least hear "Manic Monday" and — "for obvious reasons," Sheila E. told Rolling Stone — "The Glamorous Life."

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