Watch D’Angelo’s Tender Cover of Prince’s ‘Sometimes It Snows in April’
The Tonight Show offered Prince fans a moment to grieve Tuesday as D’Angelo and Princess – the Prince cover group composed of Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum – performed an emotive take on “Sometimes It Snows in April.”
Accompanied by purple stage lighting and a white piano, D’Angelo delivered the Parade ballad while Princess provided soothing background vocals.
On the song’s closing verse, D’Angelo tweaked one of the lyrics to: “I often dream of Heaven and I know that Prince is there,” an alteration that made the singer visibly emotional and caused him to miss the next line (“I know that he has found another friend”), although Princess sang it for him.
After filming the performance, Questlove tweeted: “No Performance On #FallonTonight has EVER moved me like this one. If you felt robbed in saying goodbye 2 a loved one. Watch #Dangelo 2nite. Still in my dressin room #CryinNDrinkin.”
The drummer also watched D’Angelo’s “Sometimes It Snows in April” on the East Coast Tonight Show broadcast and shared some more thoughts. “Cot damn man. I wanna thank @FallonTonight staff for letting that happen. Us fans are hurting because we didn’t have a ‘goodbye’ or a chance to mourn,” Questlove wrote.
Rudolph and Lieberum’s Princess previously honored Prince with a Saturday night celebration of his music in Austin, Texas. Fallon also remembered Prince on two occasions, first as host of Saturday Night Live‘s Prince tribute episode and then with a story about the artist’s ping-pong skills.
Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and performed “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Watch his incredible solo here.