What happened
Pop icon Prince recently signed on to headline day two of the ninth annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which will run from April 25-27 in Indio, California. He will be paid $4.8 million for his performance, according to the blog PerezHilton.com. Among the other artists scheduled to perform throughout the festival are Jack Johnson, Roger Waters, the Raconteurs, and Kraftwerk. (AP)
What the commentators said
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“Prince is top of the tree of pop’s bourgeoisie,” said Metro.co.uk, “so it comes as little surprise the star is breaking new ground in diva-ish appearance fee demands.” But the festival’s organizers seem to really need him: Supposedly, they called on the “Purple Prancer” at the “last minute” to “help bolster flagging ticket sales.”
That’s because most of the acts are pretty boring this year, said Chris Riemenschnneider in StarTribune.com. When “the rest of the Coachella lineup” was “announced back in January,” it “was widely considered lackluster compared with past years.” It seems pretty obvious that Prince was “brought in to raise interest.”
Well, whatever the reason, it was a smart move, said Jeffrey Mitchell in HollywoodToday.net. “Promoters and fans alike are a buzz with excitement after Prince’s last major super show electrified audiences two years ago”—that was “perhaps the most solid Super Bowl halftime show ever.” Prince “rocked the world despite having to perform through a thunder and lightning” storm—imagine what he could do on a warm night in the desert.
