Throughout his career, Prince championed female musicians, unlike many of his peers. We speak to some of those he influenced – and who, in turn, inspired him
Picture the scene: Prince’s 2005 Grammy’s afterparty, where Maceo Parker, Larry Graham and Stevie Wonder are jamming while Prince solos on guitar and keys at the same time. Comedian Kevin Hart and Patti LaBelle are in the audience. Matthew McConaughey is on percussion, shirtless, “having the time of his life”. Natalie Stewart, British-born poet and founder of Prince-endorsed band Floetry, was there as a guest, or so she thought. “Prince grabbed my hand to come up,” she recalls. “I performed, thought: ‘Phew, I’ve done it.’ Then he threw his hands up in the air to get me to double-time it … I give thanks to all the deities who helped me through that. Then he got me up again to triple-time it, which I do. I would say he was testing me.” As the solo woman in an impromptu supergroup of men, she passed with flying colours.
Stewart was just one of dozens of female musicians that Prince worked with until his death last year. In the manner of his heroes James Brown and George Clinton, in addition to his own music, he also worked on a series of acts – and the acts were predominantly female. Take Vanity6, the girl group formed in the early 80s, and their electrofunk take on the Supremes; Jill Jones, the soulful former backing singer, whose eponymous 1987 album was written and produced by Prince; and, of course, the duo Wendy & Lisa, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, who played with Prince as part of the Revolution during his particularly fertile period in the first half of the 80s. He also gave hit songs to Martika (Love Thy Will Be Done), Sinead O’Connor (Nothing Compares 2 U) and Sheena Easton (Sugar Walls, infamous at the time for its sexual imagery).
April 24, 2017 at 11:32PM
from Lauren Cochrane. Additional research by Hannah J Davies
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