The death of singer Prince rocked the world to its core, but not everyone dealt with their grief in the same way. Some people cried, and others listened to their favorite songs of his on repeat. But one York student went a totally different route.

Senior Grant Mitchell recreated one of his most famous songs, “Kiss.”  He used different clips of him singing, playing the recorder, playing guitar, and blowing glass bottles which, when combined together, created an incredible tribute.

Mitchell valued Prince as an artist, so when he heard of the death, he knew he had to do something.

“I greatly respected Prince as a musician and as a person so his death really affected me,” said Mitchell. “I wanted to make a Prince tribute, but I didn’t want to do a straight-forward cover of one of his songs because I don’t think that would adequately express what he meant to me.”

Mitchell did not want to convey his sorrow for Prince’s death, but rather the joy his life had given him.

“The greatest posthumous tribute to a musician would be Prince’s tribute to George Harrison shortly after he died,” said Mitchell.  “At his tribute concert, many other musicians decided to play sappy covers of ‘My Sweet Lord’ and ‘Here Comes the Sun’ but Prince played this face-melting guitar solo in ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps.’ Prince understood that it’s better to celebrate someone’s life and achievements, not mourn their loss. I hoped my tribute did that for Prince.”

The video itself was mostly unplanned when Mitchell started it; he added layers of videos and sound where he thought the video needed it. It took him around 20-30 hours, but he doesn’t regret how he went about the project.

“If I had planned it out beforehand, it would have saved a lot of time, but I also felt that it would have come across as less genuine and fun,” said Mitchell.

The feedback has been overwhelming. Almost 30,000 people have seen his video on Facebook.  

“Most of the feedback I’ve heard has been positive which is very encouraging to me as an artist,” said Mitchell. “I’m ecstatic that so many people are having fun with this thing!”

Mitchell plans to attend Indiana University for Recording Arts, and he hopes to continue creating music and videos similar to his tribute to Prince.

“I don’t think I’ll make a video in the same style because that would get redundant, but I do plan on uploading similar videos to my YouTube and Facebook pages in the future,” said Mitchell.

Check out Grant Mitchell’s video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt014n3BduM

Be sure to watch his YouTube and Facebook pages for more videos.