MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The Grammy Awards isn’t the only music-related news on people’s minds Monday: The internet can’t get enough of WCCO’s archive footage discovery of Prince when he was 11 years old.
The date was April 1970. Minneapolis Public Schools educators went on strike. WCCO recently restored the film to offer context to the educators strike that happened in the same district just last month. Inside one reel, a treasure lay hidden, untouched for 52 years.
Prince Nelson, the Minneapolis kid who would turn into an international music icon, was among some of the students interviewed for their thoughts on the strike. The rest, as they say, was history.
Following the report Sunday evening, the internet erupted in buzz about the video discovery. That included QuestLove, who just won Best Music Film at the 2022 Grammys.
“Wow Y’all. This is crazy,” he said in a tweet, linking to the WCCO story.
Wow Y’all. This is crazy. https://t.co/cEANG9JBiB
— Questo (@questlove) April 4, 2022
Coincidentally, there was April snow Sunday evening into Monday, because, indeed, “Sometimes It Snows In April.”
Check out more reactions below:
Yep, that’s Prince. Giving side eye since 1970 https://t.co/0VQyGm1uwd pic.twitter.com/4Rteh6gLL7
— J.A. Adande (@jadande) April 4, 2022
What we love about @WCCO‘s story of finding footage of Prince (aka Skipper) in the film archives is how excited the reporters got when sharing it. This is how we feel about historic footage every day.
— Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection (@BMAatUGA) April 4, 2022
OMG @wcco found footage of Prince while looking at archival footage of a teachers’ strike! That FACE — !! The jumping !!!
“they should get extra money because they are working extra hours for us”https://t.co/wNzzbRh6GT pic.twitter.com/GnGwhohUHZ
— Marie Myung-Ok 명옥 Lee (@MarieMyungOkLee) April 4, 2022
This is such a great story about how footage of #Prince as an 11-year-old kid weighing in on the side of school teachers during a strike was uncovered by this local Minneapolis station @WCCO. What a treasure!
— Donna Young
(@DonnaYoungDC) April 4, 2022
RARE PRINCE FILM: @WCCO discovers never-seen-in-public footage of the world famous musician as a boy in Minneapolis- stored for 52 years in the TV station’s basement. https://t.co/C0URSM2wsO
— Patrick Kessler (@PatKessler) April 4, 2022
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