On the tenth anniversary of Prince’s death, Prince’s unreleased song “With This Tear” is released from the superstar’s archive. The artwork is clearly reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s “Cry” – coincidence or homage?
On April 21st, “With This Tear,” a previously unreleased song from the archives of the pop genius Prince, was released. The cover of the single, which has strong parallels to Michael Jackson’s “Cry” from 2001, caused a stir.
Prince song from the Vault
Prince had written “With This Tear” back in 1991 and later gave it to Céline Dion, who recorded the ballad for her self-titled album in 1992. Now Prince’s own version is officially released for the first time and opens a new series of releases from the artist’s famous “Vault”.
Artwork is reminiscent of “Cry”
The look of the single with the pixelated eye with its associated eyebrow and the highlighted tear is strikingly reminiscent of the design of “Cry”, a single by Michael Jackson from his flopped last album, INVINCIBLE, from 2001.
Coincidence or homage?
Coincidence, intention or homage? There are two reasons why this is certainly not a tribute to the fallen “King of Pop”: Firstly, “Cry” was a huge failure for Jackson, it didn’t even reach the top 100 of the US charts and is therefore largely unknown. The allusion would therefore hardly register. On the other hand, the two stars were considered bitter rivals for years. The competition was based on mutual respect, but also on rejected advances, such as when Prince didn’t want to take part in Jackson’s charity extravaganza “We Are The World” and also turned down a duet contribution for “Bad”.
