Kanye previews new song called “Water” 🙌🏼🙌🏼 pic.twitter.com/QfsCtJ0bc9

— The Chosen Jay (@jaycutzz) April 21, 2019

Kanye West’s performance at Coachella is being talked about because he brought his Sunday Service to the festival and debuted a new song called “Water.” West has been hosting the Sunday Service by invite-only near his home in California since January. The Coachella show took place on a hillside with his band and choir. Teyana Taylor, Chance The Rapper and DMX shared the stage to sing, dance and pray. West’s setlist included gospel, house, R&B songs and his own music. It is assumed that “Water” which he performed with past collaborator Ant Clemons, will be on his forthcoming Yandhi album. 

[youtube id=”gkKOIQwTiKE”]Aretha Franklin’s long-awaited Amazing Grace concert film will finally be in theaters this spring. Franklin’s January 1972 performance at New Bethel Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles was kept away all these years. The public has never seen the film because Franklin was not happy with the end result and there were also legal issues. The album from the performance is the highest-selling live gospel album ever and it is also Franklin’s most sold disc. Producer Alan Elliott acquired the rights to the film in 2007 and was able to work with Franklin’s estate to release it. Amazing Grace debuted at the DOC NYC last November and it will be in theaters nationwide April 5th. Franklin passed in 2018 at age 76 after a battle with cancer. In other news about Franklin, Variety reports that her biopic Respect, with Jennifer Hudson starring as her, will be released August 20, 2020. 

[youtube id=”e5-HEBGPzFM”]Prince’s estate has released an official video for his stripped down version of “Mary Don’t You Weep.” The clip follows Prince’s activism in 2015 regarding victims of police shootings and the high profile death of Freddie Gray. Actress Zabryna Guevara is cast as the mother of a male victim and she is seen holding his limp body and later grieving at the funeral. Prince wrote the song “Baltimore” in response to the violence and the subsequent rioting by the people in the city. The video ends with a quote taken from his speech at his 2015 Rally 4 Peace concert. The Piano & A Microphone album comes out tomorrow (Friday, September 21st). 

[youtube id=”90d7r3cvZJc”] Chaka Khan “Going Up Yonder”  [youtube id=”w0_eqZ7gzZ0″] Stevie Wonder “The Lord’s Prayer” “As” [youtube id=”SZpsUQLhiCI”]  Jennifer Hudson “Amazing Grace”  [youtube id=”qO8F40SHMa8″] Fantasia “Precious Lord Take My Hand” “You’ve Got A Friend”   [youtube id=”tvZtnDGQxy0″]  Jennifer Holliday “Climbing Higher Mountains”

Aretha Franklin’s funeral took place today at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit and it was an eight-hour celebration with speeches and performances from her family, some of the most celebrated artists, former presidents and politicians. Cicely Tyson, Tyler Perry, Michael Eric Dyson, Bill Clinton, Smokey Robinson, Clive Davis and Judge Greg Mathis were among those who spoke at the podium. Whoopi Goldberg, Valerie Simpson, Gladys Knight, Omarosa Manigault-Newman Big Sean and Angie Stone were in attendance. The music performances lived up to the expectations for a homegoing service for one of the most important singers ever. The four-day celebration, Swanson Funeral Home’s changing of Franklin’s outfits, the gold coffin, the streaming of the service around the world and the 100 pink Cadillacs within the procession were all appropriate for the Queen Of Soul. Fans camped outside the church to watch the service on a big screen while others waited patiently across the street from Woodlawn Cemetery to watch Franklin’s hearse be transported to her final resting place. Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Fantasia, Jennifer Hudson and Jennifer Holliday paid tribute to Franklin with performances that brought the church to their feet.