Music

A Hologram of Prince Might Appear At The Super Bowl, And People Are Mad

Prince thought holograms were "the most demonic thing imaginable".

by Patrick Lenton  4 February 2018
Super Bowl

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Dancing boy Justin Timberlake is scheduled to perform the Super Bowl Halftime show tomorrow night, and the internet is awash with rumours about who he’ll appear with, the strongest contender being an actual hologram of Prince for some bizarre reason. And boy oh boy, people are not happy at the idea.

The extremely unverified scoop comes from TMZ, and reports that Timberlake potentially intends the hologram as a tribute to Prince. The famous football game/ music concert is being held in Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis . Other rumours that have been circulating include a reformation of Timberlake’s old boy band N’Sync, or even bringing Janet Jackson on stage in an homage to his controversial 2004 Super Bowl performance.

The Prince hologram concept was floated by Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson last year, but longtime collaborator Sheila E. took to Twitter to firmly state it would be against the late musician’s wishes.

“Prince told me don’t ever let anyone do a hologram of me. Not cool if this happens!”

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In an interview with Guitar World in 1998, Prince, when asked if he would ever perform alongside a hologram of a dead musician also said: “That’s the most demonic thing imaginable. 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.”

 

Timberlake’s show has already been awash in controversy, with a #JusticeForJanet hashtag trending on Twitter, as users call out the hypocrisy of Timberlake being asked to perform again, while Janet Jackson remained blacklisted. It all stems from the infamous 2004 Super Bowl “Nipplegate” in which planned stunt turned into a costume malfunction, leaving Jackson’s bare breast exposed, much to the world’s horror.

If the hated hologram plan does go ahead, it will at least be fun to watch Justin Timberlake be outperformed by a famously dead musician. However, Prince’s estate has firmly denied that his hologram will appear in the show, even going so far as to release this rather non-cryptic Tweet.

Since the supposed plan was announced, people have reacted strongly against the idea, calling for Timberlake to change his mind, boycotts against the performance and even sabotage.