It’s getting pretty hard to remain in a state of placid denial over Prince’s death, what with the steady drumbeat of loving musical tributes from Madonna, Sheila E., and other people willing to acknowledge that Prince is, in fact, dead of an accidental drug overdose and not off somewhere being devastatingly awesome. Now the city of Minneapolis is getting in on the Prince tribute mania, as is its right as Prince’s birthplace and the home of his legendary Paisley Park compound.
The Associated Press reports that the City Of Lakes will host the official Prince tribute concert on October 13th at the U.S. Bank Stadium, and tickets will go on sale sometime next month. There’s no word on a lineup yet, and the participating artists will be announced on a rolling basis. But seeing as how this is the official tribute, there will should be no shortage of musicians lining up to pay tribute to a legendary artist.
At the very least, the concert should end the petty squabbling over who had the best Prince tribute since his death in April: Madonna joined Stevie Wonder to celebrate Prince’s musical legacy during May’s Billboard Music Awards, a performance that drew criticism on social media. One of those critics included BET, which not-so-subtly shaded the performance in a since-deleted tweet. BET’s tribute at its annual awards show featured tributes from Jennifer Hudson, The Roots, and Bilal, whose epic performance of “The Beautiful Ones” should be enough to land him on the roster for the Minneapolis show. (If you haven’t seen it yet, change that immediately.)