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Mariah Carey Pays Moving Tribute To Prince In Paris Concert, Says She’ll ‘Never Get Over’ His Death

By Lawrence Arboleda
Published on: 19:27 PST, Apr 21, 2016

During her concert in Paris Thursday, Mariah Carey asked the audience for a moment of silence to honor Prince’s memory in the wake of his death.

“He was a friend to me,” Carey told the audience. “He was an incredible person, if you didn’t ever get to meet him, and I’m sure his music has touched every single person in here.”

After her concert, Carly Steel of ET had an opportunity to conduct a short interview with Maria backstage. During the interview, Carey took the time to open up about the tragic death of the legendary singer.

“It’s such a loss that he’s gone,” Carey said. “I’ll never get over it.”

Mariah recalled how she and Prince got to know each other “later in life.” For a time, she and Prince collaborated on a song, which was never released. Mariah, who recently got engaged to Australia businessman James Packer, recalled how the “Purple Rain” singer helped her in her career.

“He helped me through so many moments where I needed somebody to guide me through,” Carey said. “[He was] just a true genius… There will never be anybody else like him.”

Shortly after Prince’s untimely death was confirmed by the singer’s publicist today, Carey took to Twitter to pay tribute to Prince.

“Genius, legend, inspiration, friend. The world will miss you. I’ll never get over it,” Carey tweeted.

As The Inquisitr previously reported, Prince was found dead at the Paisley Park Studios complex in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Prince was 57.

https://twitter.com/HistoryFlick/status/723409488774979585

“It is with profound sadness that I am confirming that the legendary, iconic performer, Prince Rogers Nelson, has died at his Paisley Park residence this morning at the age of 57,” his publicist said in a statement to ET. “There are no further details as to the cause of death at this time. ”

The cause of death has not been announced yet, but the Carver County Sherrif’s Office confirmed that an investigation is now being conducted at Paisley Park, where Prince’s recording studio is located.

The tragic death of the singer comes just a week after a private plane carrying the singer made an emergency landing in Molline, Illinois, where Prince was delivered to the hospital to receive treatment for flu-like symptoms. Before long, the singer’s spokesperson confirmed that Prince had been sent home after a brief hospitalization so he could recover from his illness.

News reports in early April indicated that Prince was battling the flu, which had caused him to cancel many of his concerts. Prince, however, appeared fine and had high energy in what would be his final career performance at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre on April 14.

“He showed off his beautiful new purple Yamaha piano and a new custom guitar,” a source for ET said. “He played briefly on the piano…. The dance party was a great time, as usual.”

It was only last year when Prince performed with Sir Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, HAIM, and Debbie Harry at Saturday Night Live‘s grand 40th anniversary after-party.

Born in 1958, Prince was already a musical prodigy at a young age, already writing his first song at age seven.

Prince wasn’t just a singer. He was also a producer and multi-instrumentalist. Before his death, Prince had 30 albums to his name, 10 of them earning platinum status. He had 30 top 40 singles, 7 Grammy awards, and 30 nominations, making him one of the world’s most accomplished musicians ever.

Prince also wrote music for other artists, the most notable of them being “Nothing Compares 2 U” performed by Sinead O’Connor in 1990.

[Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images]

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