“I Know That Prince Is There”: Newly Unearthed Tonight Show Footage Captures D’Angelo’s Most Emotional Tribute — A Moment That Now Hits Even Harder
OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
As the world mourns the loss of D’Angelo, who passed away on October 14, 2025, fans are revisiting one of the most powerful performances of his career — and one that now feels unbearably prophetic.
In 2016, just days after Prince’s death, D’Angelo appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to perform a tribute. Backed by Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum — known together as the Prince cover duo Princess — he delivered a soul-shattering rendition of Prince’s “Sometimes It Snows in April.”
But it was one subtle moment — barely captured on camera — that would become legend.
The Line That Stopped Time
Midway through the song, D’Angelo altered a lyric.
“I often dream of Heaven… and I know that Prince is there.”
He looked upward. His hands trembled slightly on the piano — a rare crack in the poise of an artist known for emotional restraint. The studio fell silent. Even Maya Rudolph, whose musical heritage runs deep as the daughter of Minnie Riperton, turned toward D’Angelo, visibly moved.
In that moment, it stopped being a performance. It became prayer.
A Tribute That Now Feels Like Farewell
With D’Angelo’s own passing, fans are revisiting the footage with new eyes.
“I feel like Prince just gave him his purple wings,” one viewer commented on a resurfaced clip — a line now echoed across social media tributes.
Dressed in a black hat and a snow-white fur vest, D’Angelo played each chord with reverence, stretching silence between notes as if reluctant to let the moment go. Questlove, his longtime friend and collaborator, watched from backstage — the two having shared a brotherhood forged through the making of Voodoo, the Grammy-winning album often called “a perfect record” by industry legends.
Two Icons, One Song, and a Legacy That Lives On
This performance wasn’t just a tribute — it was a moment of communion between two artists whose music shaped generations. Prince once said that great songs “don’t die — they wait.” Watching D’Angelo that night, it felt like he was reaching out to someone only he could feel in the room.
The newly circulated footage now carries a different gravity. When he whispered “I know that Prince is there,” it feels, in hindsight, like a message meant for him too — a quiet acknowledgment of the journey all great artists eventually take.
A Final Bow in Purple Light
With Questlove’s documentary Sly Lives! set to feature D’Angelo one final time, fans are bracing themselves for another emotional tribute. Because for those who watched him honor Prince that night, it’s clear:
He wasn’t just singing about loss. He was showing us what it means to love art — and artists — beyond time.
If Prince’s performance of “Sometimes It Snows in April” was a farewell to innocence,
D’Angelo’s was a farewell to silence.
And now, both are echoes — reverberating forever in the same song.
