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Maya Rudolph Has a Prince Cover Band and Her "Purple Rain" Performance Is a Revelation
Witness the power of Princess in this emotional 2017 performance of Prince's biggest ballad.
You can call Maya Rudolph "Mother," but you can also call her Princess.
Since 2012, the former Saturday Night Live cast member and her friend, singer-songwriter Gretchen Lieberum, have been intermittently performing as Princess, a Prince tribute act. After first becoming friends in college, Rudolph and Lieberum took their shared lifelong love of the "Raspberry Beret" singer to the stage, and they've been singing Prince ballads and bops for over a decade now.
The duo have performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, 2024's Netflix Is A Joke Fest, and they even recently opened for Vampire Weekend.
If you haven't had the chance to see Princess live, you can enjoy a perfect example of what their shows deliver via a video from their Brooklyn Bowl concert in October 2017.
Watch Maya Rudolph's Prince cover band's stunning "Purple Rain" performance here.
The 10-minute clip is worth every second of your time, as Rudolph and Lieberum command the stage wearing Purple Rain-inspired outfits, passing out flowers to the enthusiastic audience.
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The crowd waves their arms in unison, joining in to sing the iconic chorus of the 1984 hit as the Princess guitarist shreds the solo. Rudolph and Lieberum then hug in what is clearly an emotional moment for the friends, as they finish their love letter to the High Priest of Pop.
“The thing about Prince that was so amazing was that if there was a Prince single out, there was always a 12-inch version out," Rudolph told Billboard in 2023, when asked about her favorite Prince songs.
"You were always going down this extra road, like finding out your favorite book has more chapters," Rudolph said. "His live shows were like that, too, and we try to incorporate that into our live shows to make it a little extra special.”
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Maya Rudolph's Prince cover band was approved by the Artist himself
The LOOT star's first Prince concert was during his Lovesexy tour when she was in eighth grade, In 2016, Rudolph spoke to Rolling Stone about Princess, and recounted how her and Lieberum got to go backstage at a Prince concert in Anaheim to meet the singer, where he gave his stamp of approval to their tribute band.
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“It was amazing... and we got to meet him backstage," said Rudolph. “He was so f---ing cool. He knew that we did Princess and he really supported it, because he knew that it came from love.”
The power of Princess!
