Was Powerline supposed to be Prince or Michael Jackson?

Prince

Obama

Neither. He's supposed to be more of a new jack swing type of artist like Bobby Brown or Jodeci. He's literally voiced by Tevin Campbell.

Definitely both. The dance moves are extremely Michael Jackson, but the music is more in line with how Prince sang.

https://www.slashfilm.com/573719/a-goofy-movie-oral-history/
>Kevin Lima: Powerline was always a pop superstar. We were looking at folks like Prince, Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown. There's been a rumor for a long time that he's based on Bobby Brown and that Bobby Brown actually recorded some of the tracks for the film. It's not true at all. He never recorded anything as far as I know.

>Bambi Moé: Bobby Brown was certainly somebody that we talked about [as an influence]...I'm really thinking back. There might have been an initial inquiry, like would he at all be interested, and that might have been something where we didn't hear back from his people. But it never went anywhere. That's why I don't even remember it, except that he would have certainly been somebody that we would have looked at and listened to, and some of the animation of Powerline dancing and performing – you could see Bobby Brown, you could see Prince, you could see Michael Jackson.