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The year 2026 marks a full decade since the awful news broke of Prince’s death on 21 April 2016. In honour of this occasion, BBC Four is dedicating its Friday night schedule to his music and legacy on 17 April. The programming begins at 21:05 with Prince and His Songs at the BBC, re-broadcasting many of his most iconic moments recorded for and previously shown by the BBC over the years. Prince and The Revolution: Live follows at 22:05 – the recently restored footage of the concert captured during the closing stages of Purple Rain Tour and originally simulcast in Europe in 1985, this is also currently available on iPlayer. At 23:25, the documentary Prince: A Purple Reign concludes the evening. All programmes have been previously broadcast.
BBC 6 Music is also streaming an entire Prince‑themed schedule, starting at 7am on 21 April, with the day’s highlight being Prince Forever a series of contributions, opening with Chaka Khan at 7am, followed by Lianne La Havas at 10am. At 12:30, the station is airing Prince’s set originally recorded for BBC’s Radio 1 on 7 September 1993 as a thank you to fans for the success of Act II Tour. Then at 1pm Craig Charles explores Prince’s enduring influence in music, featuring Wendy and Lisa. Elijah Wood is contributor on ‘the perfection of 1999′ aired at 3pm, and the schedule concludes at 4pm with songs from Yard Act and Tyka Nelson.
In Minneapolis, Paisley Park is hosting A Day 2 Reflect which starts at 10am on 21 April, where a livestreamed candle lighting will take place in the NPG Music Club room at precisely 4:21pm. The evening session includes a concert screening and self-guided tour of the studios. Tickets $40.
Celebration 2026 programme announcement
From 3 to 7 June, attention return to Paisley Park for the annual Celebration event organised by The Prince Estate. The much‑anticipated Vault Discussion Panel returns to this year’s schedule, where The Estate is expected to confirm its progress (or expose the lack of it) on their release schedule for 2026 and beyond. Concern has grown over recent years, that since the new management of The Prince Estate took over in July 2022 following settlement of the long-running saga of Prince’s probate, precious few releases have seen light of day since.
That concern intensified to such extent that at Celebration 2025 a special Q&A session was held to directly address the issue to the fanbase. Which did little to allay fans’ apprehension. The Estate stated that digitisation of the tracks removed from the Paisley Park vault and put into Iron Mountain for preservation was nearly halfway complete. Yet it is now understood until January 2026 no further digitisation had taken place since, and that neither does The Estate employ staff other than its two administrators. So it is hoped this year’s session will lay out the Estate’s plans for the material going forward. For context, the Estate has not issued a physical release with songs from Prince’s vault since Diamonds And Pearls Super Deluxe in October 2023 – a package prepared under its previous management.
Vault Discussion Panel’s 2025 session offered a candid insight into the Estate’s plans, confirming releases of the Around The World In A Day Deluxe and vinyl editions of HITNRUN Phase One and Phase Two. But a tweet from the Estate on 31 March this year, the date of the fortieth anniversary of Prince’s eighth album Parade, confused matters by hinting that the planned anniversary release has been downgraded from the Super Deluxe already prepared under the previous administration. Ambiguity remains over whether the already confirmed 2026 reissue of Parade has been pared‑down to Deluxe offering a single disc of vault material – along the lines of Purple Rain Deluxe of 2017, or as an Expanded Edition similar to Around The World In A Day – a broadly criticised deluxe-lite reissuing of the remastered original album accompanied by promotional singles in both 7” and 12” cuts. The speculation was greeted with consternation on twitter to which representatives of the Estate urged fans to wait and see before jumping to conclusions. Parade Deluxe/Expanded is hotly rumoured to include Prince’s much-bootlegged birthday performance filmed at Detroit’s Cobo Arena 7 June 1986 for the album’s supporting Hit And Run Tour. As yet it remains uncertain if any previously unreleased studio tracks will be included with this set.
Parade is the theme for Celebration 2026, which falls on the tenth anniversary of Prince’s death. Organisers have released the details of the event programming, which begins on 3 June. The headlining concert is a first of a kind union comprising members of The Revolution and New Power Generation (the lineup is Bobby Z, Lisa Coleman, Morris Hayes, Tony M., Levi Seacer Jr., Sonny T., Cora Coleman, Cassandra O’Neal, Greg Boyer, Kenni Holman). Other guest performers include Chaka Khan, Morris Day and Tevin Campbell.
There will be panel discussions with Jerry Jam and Terry Lewis, and Bootsy Collins and The Twinz. The much anticipated Vault & Future Plans panel promises to layout the Estate’s ten year plan and, in the spirit of opening dialogue with fans, there will also be a ‘FAM Forum’. The ten year plan is doubtless to outline the Broadway musical – which is undergoing rewrites to address feedback and not likely to surface until 2027/28. Plus all has gone painfully quiet on the replacement Netflix documentary. Its in fighting with Prince’s former collaborators The Time and Apollonia over their use of their decades-old stage names. The Hollywood Walk of Fame star has by accounts been dropped too. The lack of releases. All this, many fans have argued, has done nothing to build Prince’s legacy, but instead lose momentum to a trickle.
As with recent Celebrations, some of the programming takes place away from the Paisley Park compound, including the DJ kick-off dance party and Block Party in downtown Minneapolis. Given the expanse of Greater Minneapolis, no shuttle service is being offered to the boat cruise on Lake Minnetonka on 7 June. Tickets remain available at $1,400 for VIP and $900 for GA and attract a $2.75 booking fee. VIP holders will be invited to apply to attend the annual Prince Night at the Minnesota Twins baseball game on 4 June.
There is no substitute for the real thing, but Prince left a legacy of thirty-nine studio albums, released 100 singles, as well as created many albums for other artists. Prince is one of the most prolific and successful songwriters in history.
