Who's performing at Prince tribute concert in St. Paul?

How the performers at Thursday's big tribute concert are connected to Prince.

October 12, 2016 at 3:22PM
Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder (Marci Schmitt — Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Credit — or blame — Prince's estate and Irving Azoff, the most influential power broker in the music biz. They were responsible for lining up the talent for Thursday's official Prince tribute concert at Xcel Energy Center. Morris Hayes, one of Prince's former keyboardists, is the music director, in charge of the batting order and set list. Here's who's who in the lineup — and how each is connected to the Purple One.

Stevie Wonder

Prince and Wonder were mutual admirers. The Minnesotan sat in on a couple of tunes at a Wonder show in Las Vegas a few years ago. Having done Prince salutes at the Billboard Awards and BET Awards this year, Wonder has become a go-to name for Purple tributes.

Chaka Khan

FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2014, file photo, Chaka Khan performs at the 13th annual "A Great Night in Harlem" gala concert in New York. Chaka Khan and her sister have both entered a drug rehabilitation program to battle their addiction to prescription drugs. In a statement released, Sunday, July 10, 2016, Khan said she has been battling with an addiction to he same medication that led to Prince�s death last April.
(Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Prince had a Chaka Khan poster in his apartment as a teenager. In 1984, she recorded his "I Feel for You," which went to No. 3 and earned him a Grammy for best R&B song. In 1998, he produced a Khan album for his NPG label.

Christina Aguilera

FILE - In this May 28, 2016 file photo, Christina Aguilera performs during a concert at the annual Mawazine Music Festival in Rabat, Morocco. Aguilera, Stevie Wonder, and members of Prince's inner circle will highlight a family-sanctioned Prince tribute concert in St. Paul on Oct. 13, 2016. The lineup also includes Chaka Khan, John Mayer, Tori Kelly, Anita Baker, Doug E. Fresh, Luke James, Bilal and Mint Condition.
(Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Like Prince, she measures 5 feet 2 — without high heels.

Tori Kelly

Stevie Wonder, left, and Tori Kelly perform �Take Me With U� during a tribute to Prince at the BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday, June 26, 2016, in Los Angeles.
(Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Prince and members of his group 3rdEyeGirl went to see newcomer Kelly in concert at the Varsity Theater in 2015, and the girls were so taken that they brought her to Paisley Park to meet Prince. Kelly sang with Stevie Wonder on the BET Awards' Prince salute.

Bilal

Bilal Sayeed Oliver as Bilal performs during the ONE Musicfest at Aaron's Amphitheatre at Lakewood on Saturday, Sep. 13, 2014, in Atlanta.
(Katie Darby/invision/ap/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The Philly soul man performed Prince songs as part of a tribute at the BET Awards in June and with the Revolution, Prince's "Purple Rain" era band, at First Avenue in September.

Morris Day & the Time

Morris Day and his sidekick Jeromw Benton.Review of the Original 7ven, the 7 original members of the Time were in a rare hometown concert at the Stae Theater Saturday night. [ TOM WALLACE • twallace@startribune.com _ Assignment _#20020452A__November 5, 2011 _ SLUG: original1107_ EXTRA INFORMATION: The band members are Jellybean Johnson on drums, Jimmy Jam and Monte Moir on keyboards, and Terry Lewis on bass. To this base were added Jesse Johnson on guitar and a lead singer and childhood friend n
(Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

In 1981, Prince created the Time around lead singer Day, who had been the drummer in one of Prince's high school bands, Grand Central. Under a pseudonym, Prince wrote and produced the Time's records. On the silver screen, Day portrayed Prince's rival in "Purple Rain" (1984) and "Graffiti Bridge" (1990).

Mint Condition

Mint Condition
(Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

They are from St. Paul, and Prince was from Minneapolis, but he was a fan of the veteran R&B band that scored hits in the '90s. They opened for him in Europe and America on the Welcome 2 Tour in 2010-11. Also, Mint lead singer Stokley Williams sang on Prince's "Call My Name" in 2004; Mint's O'Dell has two guitars Prince gave him.

Liv Warfield

Liv Warfield arrives at the Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sunday, May 18, 2014, in Las Vegas.
(John Shearer/invision/ap/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

She was a backup singer in Prince's band, New Power Generation, in recent years and sang on his 2009 "LotusFlow3r" project. As a frontwoman with a powerhouse rock-soul voice, she has performed regularly at Paisley Park and as an opening act for Prince. He was executive producer of her 2014 album, "The Unexpected," and wrote songs for the disc.

Judith Hill

Judith Hill performed as the opening act for Josh Groban at the Target Center in Minneapolis Min., Saturday, October 19, 2013
(Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

After impressing on NBC's "The Voice" and in the doc "20 Feet From Stardom," the ex-Michael Jackson backup singer needed Prince to help her get out of her Sony record deal. He not only helped produce and write her "Back in Time" disc in 2015, but he enlisted her as an opening act on his shows. She was on the private jet with him that made an emergency landing a week before he died.

Luke James

Luke James arrives at Republic Records & Big Machine Label Group Private Celebration After Party at The Warwick on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rob Latour/Invision/AP) ORG XMIT: INVW
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The New Orleans R&B singer opened for Liv Warfield at the Dakota two years ago and for Prince once in New York in 2013. When James met his idol, he was blown away that Prince knew the title to one of his songs, "Strawberry Vapors."

Anita Baker

She went to Paisley Park to talk to him about producing her album. "I got scared. He overwhelmed me," she told the Star Tribune. However, when Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, Baker sat at his table along with Larry Graham, Prince's then-wife, Manuela, and others at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Doug E. Fresh

Prince dug this 1980s beatboxing rapper, who joined him in 2015 at the Rally 4 Peace in Baltimore. Fresh once told BET that Prince invited him to join the New Power Generation.

Official Prince tribute concert
When: 7 p.m. Thu.
Where: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul.
Tickets: Sold out

Jon Bream • 612-673-1719 • @JonBream

about the writer

about the writer

Jon Bream

Critic / Reporter

Jon Bream has been a music critic at the Star Tribune since 1975, making him the longest tenured pop critic at a U.S. daily newspaper. He has attended more than 8,000 concerts and written four books (on Prince, Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan). Thus far, he has ignored readers’ suggestions that he take a music-appreciation class.

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