04/21/2026
A World Less Funky: How the world expressed its grief, admiration, and disbelief at Prince's passing 10 years ago...
βπ½: MATT OSGOOD
Not 7 hours and 15 days.
Nor 17 days.
But 21,138 days.
7th June 1958 to 21st April 2016.
The fleeting period Prince Rogers Nelson spent somewhere here on Earth but the legacy of the most enigmatic rock star the world has seen to date will last 4ever.
Today marks the 3,652nd day since the unthinkable; and all of us were left standing alone in a world so cold, one without Prince.
A world less funky.
A decade ago, as the sad news broke, a wave of grief and reverence surged across time zones, and countless tributes poured in from fans, bandmates, fellow artists, friends and public figures around the world.
Not only did the dearly beloved gather, clustering at the fence in front of Paisley Park or dancing through the night at First Avenue in Minneapolis and at Spike Lee's impromptu Brooklyn street party but global landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building were also transformed into glowing night-time vigils, each bathed in a signature hue of purple.
From the cast of Hamilton dancing to
'Let's Go Crazy' to Jennifer Hudson's soaring 'Purple Rain' on the Color Purple stage, Broadway recognised and remembered. Across the globe, fellow artists paused their gigs to speak his name, ensuring that the first night without him was filled with the music he'd left behind.
Also that Thursday night, and in the days that followed, late-night TV show hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, James Corden, Jimmy Fallon and others, reflected on Prince's legacy and shared personal memories during their shows.
Of all these tributes, perhaps the most emotive were the two that Jimmy Fallon hosted. On April 23rd, a special episode aired of Saturday Night Live, titled
'Goodnight, Sweet Prince', featuring clips of Prince's past performances on SNL.
And, on April 25th, D'Angelo paid a moving tribute covering 'Sometimes It Snows in April with help from Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's cover band, Princess, for the Tonight Show audience.
The morning after, not unsurprisingly, the front pages of newspapers across the globe featured Prince. In the weeks and months that followed, multiple international magazines published special commemoratory editions or ran in-depth features remembering the late icon and his workβ¦οΏΌ
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