New York – Artists will come together for a tribute concert to late pop icon Prince in October in his hometown Minneapolis, his family says.
The show will take place on October 13 at the newly built US Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings football team, Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson wrote on Facebook.
The lineup has not been announced, but Nelson said that tickets would go on sale later in August.
Prince, one of the most influential artists of his generation who popularised the “Minneapolis sound” of infectious funk, died on April 21 from a painkiller overdose at his Paisley Park estate outside the city.
Reuters, AFP
The tribute concert could be a boon to his family amid question marks over the future of his estate.
Prince, who was outwardly a model of health, did not leave a will and had no recognised children. Tyka Nelson is his closest relative and he also had five half-siblings, but a number of other people have also claimed to be heirs.
The family put a professional administrator in charge of Prince’s affairs. A judge in June gave the green light for the service to seek business deals, saying the estate likely risked a shortfall in cash needed to pay taxes in the wake of Prince’s death.
The concert would be the only publicly sanctioned memorial event for Prince, who was guarded about his personal life despite his flamboyant stage presence.
His body was cremated and family and friends held a small gathering at Paisley Park shortly after his death, followed by a private service among his Jehovah’s Witness religious community.
David Bowie, another music legend whose death stunned fans this year, was similarly discreet with his family holding no public events to mourn him.
In contrast, King of Pop Michael Jackson – sometimes described as Prince’s rival in the 1980s – was mourned with a star-studded concert in Los Angeles in 2009 with his gold-plated casket in front of the stage.
Perhaps the best-known tribute concert in rock history was for Queen singer Freddie Mercury. His 1992 show was broadcast internationally from London’s Wembley Stadium to raise money for AIDS research.
