Prince may have spent some time shooting hoops with Michael Jackson at Paisley Park and the pair did “share” the stage once, but there’s no doubt they had more than a bit of a rivalry in the 1980s and beyond. As MTV’s Kyle Anderson noted, the similarities between the King of Pop and the Purple One—reclusiveness, similar combination of genres, peaking on the charts around the same time, etc.—made their competition for the pop music crown kind of inevitable.
In the wake of Michael Jackson’s tragic passing, a response from his former foe appears to have finally arrived in the form of a musical tribute. MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett reports that organizers of the World Music Awards have booked Janet Jackson to accept an award on her brother’s behalf (he was set to receive it before he died) and… drum roll… Prince is in talks to do a tribute performance.
Interestingly, the World Music Awards is taking place this fall in Monaco where Prince is scheduled to perform next week at the Monaco Opera House. Warm-up show, n’est-ce pas?