Did he go against the late singer's wishes?
Justin Timberlake's eagerly anticipated halftime show at Super Bowl LII has become the subject of some controversy after his tribute to Prince seemingly went against the late singer's wishes for his legacy. It wasn't the hologram that was previously suggested, but it came close.
Justin Timberlake at the Academy Awards
When fans heard that Justin and his team were thinking of a holographic tribute to the deceased legend for the halftime show, given that the Super Bowl LII game was being held in his hometown of Minneapolis, there was an outpouring of opposition towards it. Drummer Sheila E., a close friend of Prince, was one of the most vocal about it.
'Prince told me don't ever let anyone do a hologram of me. Not cool if this happens!' She wrote on Twitter. Thankfully, it wasn't long before she managed to get into contact with Justin and confirm that this was never going to go ahead.
'I spoke with Justin tonight and he shared heartfelt words of respect for Prince and the Purple fans', she said. 'I look forward to seeing what I'm sure is going to be a spectacular halftime show. There is no hologram.'
However, what fans did witness at the halftime show yesterday (February 4th 2018) was projected video of The Purple One on a fluttering sheet of fabric that almost gave an illusion of his presence, and then Justin singing along with Prince's vocal recording of his 1984 hit 'I Would Die 4 U'.
'We got the actual vocal stems from 'I Would Die 4 U'. The actual recording', Justin later revealed on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon'. 'And then we got uncut footage from his performance of it in Purple Rain and somehow, some way, by the grace of... probably Prince looking down on us, it synced up.'
The only issue is, many of Prince's fans don't believe Prince would have approved at all of this set up, hologram or no hologram. He previously described holograms as 'the most demonic thing imaginable' in a 1998 interview with Guitar World, but went on to clarify that he wasn't a fan of any kind of manipulation of dead artists.
More: Justin Timberlake talks THAT Janet Jackson incident
'Everything is as it is, and it should be. If I was meant to jam with Duke Ellington, we would have lived in the same age', he said. 'That whole virtual reality thing... it really is demonic. And I am not a demon. Also, what they did with that Beatles song ['Free As a Bird'], manipulating John Lennon's voice to have him singing from across the grave. that'll never happen to me. To prevent that kind of thing from happening is another reason why I want artistic control.'
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