3 Pop Artists That Prince Wasn’t Fond Of

The “Purple Rain” hitmaker was never one to keep his opinions to himself. And a lot of the time, he wasn’t exactly wrong with his criticisms of other musicians and the music industry as a whole. Let’s take a look back at some well-aged drama and explore three pop artists Prince was notably not a fan of.

1. Katy Perry (And Ed Sheeran)

There’s written proof out there that Prince really didn’t like pop star Katy Perry… and also Ed Sheeran. A few years after Prince’s death, his estate released his memoir, titled The Beautiful Ones. It’s a great read full of lyrics, drawings, and photos taken by and of the superstar. It provides an intimate look into a somewhat private life. However, the memoir is also full of some pretty scathing criticisms of the music industry, much of which was pretty understandable coming from an old-school star like Prince.

Specifically, one line in the memoir notes: “We need to tell music execs that they keep ramming Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran down our throats and we don’t like it no matter how many times they play it.” Ouch.

2. Madonna

Out of all of the pop artists that Prince had some not-exactly-thrilling things to say about, this one isn’t surprising. After all, Madonna was the diva of the 1980s; and in a way, so was Prince. So when they had a romantic entanglement that ended in an abrupt breakup, it makes sense why their relationship turned into a years-long feud.

We’d say that Madonna was more on the “not fond of” side of the situation than Prince; though obviously, he wasn’t that fond of her, considering he dumped her and then meandered down the street as she berated him. What a Prince thing to do.

3. Adam Levine

Throughout the majority of his career, Prince was not a fan of other artists covering his songs. Originality was a big part of his artistic ethos, so “cheap” imitations weren’t exactly interesting to him. In 2013, Prince even had some negative things to say about Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, who famously covered his song “Kiss”.

“Why do we need to hear another cover of a song someone else did?” said Prince of the cover. “Art is about building a new foundation, not just laying something on top of what’s already there.”

Photo by Crollalanza/Shutterstock

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