Prince (musician): Difference between revisions
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Template:Short description Template:About Template:Pp-move Template:Protection padlock Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American English Template:Infobox person Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958Template:SpndApril 21, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation,<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Prince was known for his flamboyant, androgynous persona,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> wide vocal range, which included a far-reaching falsetto and high-pitched screams, as well as his skill as a multi-instrumentalist, often preferring to play all or most of the instruments on his recordings.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref> His music incorporated a wide variety of styles, including funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul, synth-pop, pop, jazz, blues, and hip hop. Prince produced his albums himself, pioneering the Minneapolis sound.
Born and raised in Minneapolis, Prince signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records at the age of 18, soon releasing the studio albums For You (1978) and Prince (1979). He went on to achieve critical success with the influential albums Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981), and 1999 (1982). In 1984, Prince became the first singer to simultaneously have a number-one film, album and single in the US, with the film Purple Rain, its soundtrack and his first Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping single "When Doves Cry". The album, recorded with his new backing band the Revolution, spent six consecutive months atop the US Billboard 200 chart<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. The movie grossed $70.3 million worldwide and it has been regarded as one of the greatest musical films.<ref name="Rockhall">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After disbanding the Revolution, Prince released the album Sign o' the Times (1987), widely hailed by critics as the greatest work of his career.
In 1993, in the midst of a contractual dispute with Warner Bros, he changed his stage name to the unpronounceable symbol Logo. Hollow circle above downward arrow crossed with a curlicued horn-shaped symbol and then a short bar (known to fans as the "Love Symbol") and was often referred to as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (or TAFKAP) or simply The Artist.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After moving to Arista Records in 1998, Prince reverted to his original name in 2000. Over the next decade, six of his albums entered the U.S. top 10 charts.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In April 2016, at the age of 57, Prince died after accidentally overdosing on fentanyl at his Paisley Park home and recording studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. He was a prolific musician who released 39 albums during his life, with a vast array of unreleased material left in a custom-built bank vault underneath his home, including fully completed albums and over 50 finished music videos.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Numerous posthumous collections of his previously unheard work have been issued by his estate.
Prince has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, ranking him among the best-selling music artists of all time.<ref name="Hanrahan">Template:Cite news</ref> His awards include the Grammy President's Merit Award, the American Music Awards for Achievement and of Merit, the Billboard Icon Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2016, and was inducted twice into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in 2022.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Estimates of the complete number of songs written by Prince range anywhere from 500 to well over 1,000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Early life
[edit]Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis on June 7, 1958, the son of jazz singer Mattie Della (née Shaw) and pianist and songwriter John Lewis Nelson.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> All four of his grandparents were from Louisiana.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His grand-aunt was the black nationalist Mittie Maude Lena Gordon, who established the Peace Movement of Ethiopia and advocated emigration to West Africa in response to American white supremacy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The jazz drummer Louis Hayes was his paternal cousin.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Prince was named after his father's most popular stage name, Prince Rogers, which his father used while performing with Prince's mother in a jazz group called the Prince Rogers Trio.<ref name="BMRJ">Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1991, Prince's father told A Current Affair that he named his son "Prince" because he wanted Prince "to do everything I wanted to do".Template:Sfn Prince was not fond of his name and wanted people to instead call him "Skipper", a name which stuck throughout his childhood.<ref name="BMRJ"/>Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Prince said he was "born epileptic" and had seizures when he was young. He stated, "My mother told me one day I walked in to her and said, 'Mom, I'm not going to be sick anymore,' and she said, 'Why?' and I said, 'Because an angel told me so.Template:'"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Prince's younger sister, Tyka, was born on May 18, 1960.<ref name="auto"/>Template:Sfn Both siblings developed a keen interest in music, which was encouraged by their father.<ref name="prince">Template:Cite news</ref> His parents were both members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, an evangelical denomination.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2022, during a Minneapolis teachers' strike, Minneapolis-St. Paul news station WCCO-TV was researching a previous teacher's strike in April 1970 and accidentally uncovered an interview they had done with Prince about that 1970 strike. Prince, who was 11 years old at the time, said about the strike, "I think they should get a better education too cause, um, and I think they should get some more money cause they work, they be working extra hours for us and all that stuff." While he never identifies himself in the interview, it was confirmed to be him through interviews with a historian in Minneapolis who is also a fan of Prince, as well as by a former classmate who was a member of Prince's first band. The video is one of very few videos of Prince from that stage of his life.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Prince wrote his first song, "Funk Machine", on his father's piano when he was seven years old.<ref name="prince" /> His parents divorced when he was 10. His mother remarried Hayward Baker, with whom she had a son named Omarr; Prince had a fraught relationship with Omarr, to the extent that it caused him to repeatedly switch homes, sometimes living with his father and sometimes with his mother and stepfather.<ref name="prince" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Baker took Prince to see James Brown in concert, and Prince credited Baker with improving the family's finances. After a brief period of living with his father, who bought him his first guitar, Prince moved into the basement of the Anderson family, a neighbor, after his father threw him out.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He befriended the Andersons' son, Andre, who later collaborated with Prince and became known as André Cymone.<ref name="guardiansweeting">Template:Cite news</ref>
Prince attended Minneapolis's Bryant Junior High, where he helped test the original The Oregon Trail,<ref name="gh20240411">Template:Cite AV media</ref> then Central High School, where he played football, basketball, and baseball. He played on Central's junior varsity basketball team, and continued to play basketball for fun as an adult.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was trained in classical ballet at the Minnesota Dance Theatre through the Urban Arts Program of Minneapolis Public Schools,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Prince became an advocate for dancers, and used his wealth to save the failing Joffrey Ballet in Chicago during the 1990s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He met songwriter and producer Jimmy Jam in 1973 and impressed Jam with his musical talent, early mastery of a wide range of instruments, and work ethic.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Career
[edit]1975–1984: Beginnings and breakthrough
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In 1975, Pepe Willie (the husband of Prince's cousin Shauntel), formed the band 94 East with Marcy Ingvoldstad and Kristie Lazenberry, hiring André Cymone and Prince to record tracks.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Draper2016">Template:Cite book</ref> Willie wrote the songs, and Prince contributed guitar tracks, and Prince and Willie co-wrote the 94 East song, "Just Another Sucker".<ref name=":1">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The band recorded tracks which later became the album Minneapolis Genius – The Historic 1977 Recordings.<ref name=":1" /> In 1976, shortly after graduating from Central High School, Prince created a demo tape with producer Chris Moon, in Moon's Minneapolis studio.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Unable to secure a recording contract, Moon brought the tape to Owen Husney, a Minneapolis businessman, who signed Prince, aged 19, to a management contract, and helped him create a demo at Sound 80 Studios in Minneapolis (with producer/engineer David Z).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The demo recording, along with a press kit produced at Husney's ad agency, resulted in interest from several record companies, including Warner Bros. Records, A&M Records, and Columbia Records.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
With the help of Husney, Prince signed a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records in 1977.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The record company agreed to give Prince creative control for three albums and retain his publishing rights.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Husney and Prince then left Minneapolis and moved to Sausalito, California, where Prince's first album, For You, was recorded at Record Plant Studios. The album was mixed in Los Angeles and released on April 7, 1978.Template:Sfn According to the For You album notes, Prince wrote, produced, arranged, composed, and played all 27 instruments on the recording, except for the song "Soft and Wet", whose lyrics were co-written by Moon. The cost of recording the album was twice Prince's initial advance. Prince used the Prince's Music Co. to publish his songs. In the United States, "Soft and Wet" reached No. 12 on the Hot Soul Singles chart and No. 92 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song "Just as Long as We're Together" reached No. 91 on the Hot Soul Singles chart.Template:Citation needed
Around this time, a side enterprise that Prince began to pursue involved a then-teenage singer Sue Ann Carwell, whose career as a solo artist he hoped to mould after hearing her talented performance on the Minneapolis R&B scene; however, Carwell resisted his suggestion that she used the name "Susie Stone",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and recordings he had been working on with her for a projected 1978 album ("I'm Saving It Up", "Make It Through the Storm", "Since We've Been Together" and "Wouldn't You Love To Love Me?") went unreleased.<ref name="Susie Stone">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Carwell was subsequently signed by Warner Bros. Records.<ref name="Susie Stone" />
In 1979, Prince created a band with André Cymone on bass, Dez Dickerson on guitar, Gayle Chapman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, and Bobby Z. on drums. Their first show was at the Capri Theater on January 5, 1979. Warner Bros. executives attended the show but decided that Prince and the band needed more time to develop his music.Template:SfnTemplate:Page needed In October 1979, Prince released the album Prince, which was No. 4 on the Billboard Top R&B/Black Albums charts and No. 22 on the Billboard 200, and went platinum. It contained two R&B hits: "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover", which sold more than a million copies, and reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 for two weeks on the Hot Soul Singles chart. Prince performed both these songs on January 26, 1980, on American Bandstand. On this album, Prince used Ecnirp Music – BMI.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1980, Prince released the album Dirty Mind, which contained sexually explicit material, including the title song, "Head", and the song "Sister", and was described by Stephen Thomas Erlewine as a "stunning, audacious amalgam of funk, new wave, R&B, and pop, fueled by grinningly salacious sex and the desire to shock".<ref name="Erlewine">Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "[[[:Template:AllMusic]] Dirty Mind – Prince]." AllMusic. Retrieved January 1, 2010.</ref> Recorded in Prince's studio, this album was certified gold, and the single "Uptown" reached No. 5 on the Billboard Dance chart and No. 5 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. Prince was also the opening act for Rick James' 1980 Fire It Up tour.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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In February 1981, Prince made his first appearance on Saturday Night Live, performing "Partyup". In October 1981, Prince released the album Controversy. He played several dates in support of it, as the first of three opening acts for the Rolling Stones, on their US tour. In Los Angeles, Prince, who appeared in a trench coat and black bikini briefs, was forced off the stage after just three songs by audience members throwing trash at him.<ref>"Rolling Stones Open 2-Day Stand In LA" Template:Webarchive, Oxnard (CA) Press-Courier, October 10, 1981, p. 3.</ref><ref name="12 Wildest Prince Moments">Template:Cite magazine</ref> He began 1982 with a small tour of college towns where he was the headlining act. The songs on Controversy were published by Controversy Music<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – ASCAP, a practice he continued until the Emancipation album in 1996. Controversy also marked the introduction of Prince's use of abbreviated spelling, such as writing the words you as U, to as 2, and for as 4; by 2002, MTV News noted that "[n]ow all of his titles, liner notes, and Web postings are written in his own shorthand spelling, as seen on 1999's Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, which featured 'Hot Wit U.Template:'"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1981, Prince formed a side project band called the Time. The band released four albums between 1981 and 1990, with Prince writing and performing most of the instrumentation and backing vocals (sometimes credited under the pseudonyms "Jamie Starr" or "The Starr Company"), with lead vocals by Morris Day.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
In late 1982, Prince released a double album, 1999, which sold more than four million copies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The title track was a protest against nuclear proliferation and became Prince's first top 10 hit in countries outside the US. Prince's "Little Red Corvette" was one of the first two videos by black artists (along with Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean") played in heavy rotation on MTV, which had been perceived as against "black music" until CBS President Walter Yetnikoff threatened to pull all CBS videos.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn Prince and Jackson had a competitive rivalry which lasted for many years.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The song "Delirious" also placed in the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "International Lover" earned Prince his first Grammy Award nomination at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards.<ref name=GMP>Template:Cite web</ref>
1984–1987: Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day and Parade
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During this period Prince referred to his band as the Revolution.<ref name=rhinoprtour>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=raftery>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The band's name was also printed, in reverse, on the cover of 1999 inside the letter "I" of the word "Prince".Template:Sfn The band consisted of Lisa Coleman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, Bobby Z. on drums, Brown Mark on bass, and Dez Dickerson on guitar. Jill Jones, a backing singer, was also part of the lineup for the 1999 album and tour.Template:Sfn Following the 1999 Tour, Dickerson left the group for religious reasons.Template:Sfn In the book Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince (2003), author Alex Hahn says that Dickerson was reluctant to sign a three-year contract and wanted to pursue other musical ventures. Dickerson was replaced by Coleman's friend Wendy Melvoin.<ref name=rhinoprtour /> At first, the band was used sparsely in the studio, but this gradually changed during 1983.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Template:Listen According to his former manager Bob Cavallo, in the early 1980s Prince required his management to obtain a deal for him to star in a major motion picture, even though his exposure at that point was limited to several pop and R&B hits, music videos and occasional TV performances. This resulted in the hit film Purple Rain (1984), which starred Prince and was loosely autobiographical, and the eponymous studio album, which was also the soundtrack to the film.<ref name=raftery /> The Purple Rain album sold more than 13 million copies in the US and spent 24 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The film won Prince an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and grossed more than $68 million in the US ($Template:Inflation million in Template:Inflation-year dollarsTemplate:Inflation-fn).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Songs from the film were hits on pop charts around the world; "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" reached No. 1, and the title track reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.<ref name=princeBBhits /> At one point in 1984, Prince simultaneously had the No. 1 album, single, and film in the US;Template:Sfn it was the first time a singer had achieved this feat.Template:Sfn The Purple Rain album is ranked 8th in Rolling StoneTemplate:'s "500 Greatest Albums of All Time";<ref name="RollingStone">Template:Cite magazine</ref> it is also included on the list of Time magazine's All-Time 100 Albums.<ref name="TIMEMagazine">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The album also produced two of Prince's first three Grammy Awards earned at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards—Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.<ref name=GMP/>
In 1984, pop artist Andy Warhol created the painting Orange Prince. Warhol was fascinated by Prince and ultimately created a total of twelve unique paintings of him in different colorways, all of which were kept in Warhol's personal collection.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Four of these paintings are now in the collection of The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. In November 1984, Vanity Fair published Warhol's portrait to accompany the article Purple Fame<ref name=VanityFair2016>Template:Cite magazine</ref> by Tristan Fox, and claimed that Warhol's silkscreen image of Prince with its pop colors captured the recording artist "at the height of his powers". The Vanity Fair article was one of the first global media pieces written as a critical appreciation of the musician, which coincided with the start of the 98-date Purple Rain Tour.Template:Citation needed
After Tipper Gore heard her 11-year-old daughter Karenna listening to Prince's song "Darling Nikki" (which gained wide notoriety for its sexual lyrics and a reference to masturbation), she founded the Parents Music Resource Center.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The center advocated the mandatory use of a warning label ("Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics") on the covers of records that have been judged to contain language or lyrical content unsuitable for minors. The recording industry later voluntarily complied with this request.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1985, Prince announced that he would discontinue live performances and music videos after the release of his next album. His subsequent recording, Around the World in a Day (1985), held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for three weeks. From that album, the single "Raspberry Beret" reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Pop Life" reached No. 7.<ref name=princeBBhits>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
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In 1986, his album Parade reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the R&B charts. The first single, "Kiss", with the video choreographed by Louis Falco, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.<ref name=princeBBhits /> (The song was originally written for a side project called Mazarati.) In the same year, the song "Manic Monday", written by Prince and recorded by the Bangles, reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart. The album Parade served as the soundtrack for Prince's second film, Under the Cherry Moon (1986). Prince directed and starred in the movie, which also featured Kristin Scott Thomas. Although the Parade album went platinum and sold two million copies,<ref>Stuckey, J. Ken. "Prince's Legacy: 'Set your mind free'." The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, vol. 23, no. 5, 2016, p. 20+.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the film Under the Cherry Moon received a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture (tied with Howard the Duck), and Prince received Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Director, Worst Actor, and Worst Original Song (for the song "Love or Money").<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn Some critics later re-evaluated Under the Cherry Moon after Prince's death and declared it a cult classic, comparing it to films such as 8½, Casablanca and It Happened One Night.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1986, Prince began a series of live performances called the Hit n Run – Parade Tour. After the tour, Prince disbanded the Revolution and fired Wendy & Lisa.<ref name=raftery /> Brown Mark quit the band; keyboardist Doctor Fink remained. Prince recruited new band members Miko Weaver on guitar, Atlanta Bliss on trumpet, and Eric Leeds on saxophone.Template:Sfn
1987–1991: Sign o' the Times, Lovesexy, Batman and Graffiti Bridge
[edit]Before disbanding the Revolution, Prince was working on two separate projects, the Revolution album Dream Factory and a solo effort, Camille.Template:Sfn Unlike the three previous band albums, Dream Factory included input from the band members and featured songs with lead vocals by Wendy & Lisa.Template:Sfn The Camille project saw Prince create a new androgynous persona primarily singing in a sped-up, female-sounding voice. With the dismissal of the Revolution, Prince consolidated material from both shelved albums, along with some new songs, into a three-LP album to be titled Crystal Ball.Template:Sfn Warner Bros. forced Prince to trim the triple album to a double album, and Sign o' the Times was released on March 31, 1987.<ref name="Billboard Sign o the times">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
The album peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.<ref name="Billboard Sign o the times" /> The first single, "Sign o' the Times", charted at No. 3 on the Hot 100.<ref name="Prince chart history billboard">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The follow-up single, "If I Was Your Girlfriend", charted at No. 67 on the Hot 100 but went to No. 12 on R&B chart.<ref name="Prince chart history billboard" /> The third single, a duet with Sheena Easton, "U Got the Look", charted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and No. 11 on the R&B chart,<ref name="Prince chart history billboard" /> and the final single, "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man", finished at No. 10 on Hot 100 and No. 14 on the R&B chart.<ref name="Prince chart history billboard" />
It was named the top album of the year by the Pazz & Jop critics' poll and sold 3.2 million copies.Template:Sfn In Europe, it performed well, and Prince promoted the album overseas with a lengthy tour. Putting together a new backing band from the remnants of the Revolution, Prince added bassist Levi Seacer Jr., keyboardist Boni Boyer, and dancer/choreographer Cat GloverTemplate:Sfn to go with new drummer Sheila ETemplate:Sfn and holdovers Miko Weaver, Doctor Fink, Eric Leeds, Atlanta Bliss, and the Bodyguards (Jerome, Wally Safford, and Greg Brooks) for the Sign o' the Times Tour.Template:Citation needed
The Sign o' the Times tour was a success overseas, with Warner Bros. and Prince's managers wanting to bring it to the US to promote sales of the album.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Prince balked at a full US tour, as he was ready to produce a new album.Template:Sfn As a compromise, the last two nights of the tour were filmed for release in movie theaters. The film quality was deemed subpar, and reshoots were performed at Prince's Paisley Park studios.Template:Sfn The film Sign o' the Times was released on November 20, 1987. The film got better reviews than Under the Cherry Moon, but its box-office receipts were minimal, and it quickly left theaters.Template:Sfn
The next album intended for release was The Black Album.Template:Sfn More instrumental and funk- and R&B-themed than recent releases,Template:Sfn The Black Album also saw Prince experiment with hip hop on the songs "Bob George" and "Dead on It". Prince was set to release the album with a monochromatic black cover with only the catalog number printed, but after 500,000 copies had been pressed,Template:Sfn Prince had a spiritual epiphany that the album was evil and had it recalled.Template:Sfn It was later released by Warner Bros. as a limited edition album in 1994.
Prince went back in the studio for eight weeks and recorded Lovesexy. Released on May 10, 1988, Lovesexy serves as a spiritual opposite to the dark The Black Album.Template:Sfn Every song is a solo effort by Prince, except "Eye No", which was recorded with his backing band at the time. Lovesexy reached No. 11 on the Billboard 200 and No. 5 on the R&B albums chart.<ref name="Lovesexy billboard">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The lead single, "Alphabet St.", peaked at No. 8 on the Hot 100 and No. 3 on the R&B chart;<ref name="Billboard Sign o the times" /> it sold 750,000 copies.Template:Sfn
Prince again took his post-Revolution backing band (minus the Bodyguards) on a three-leg, 84-show Lovesexy World Tour; although the shows were well-received by huge crowds, they failed to make a net profit due to the expensive sets and props.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
In 1989, Prince appeared on Madonna's studio album Like a Prayer, co-writing and singing the duet "Love Song" and playing electric guitar (uncredited) on the songs "Like a Prayer", "Keep It Together", and "Act of Contrition". He also began work on several musical projects, including Rave Unto the Joy Fantastic and early drafts of his Graffiti Bridge film,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but both were put on hold when he was asked by Batman (1989) director Tim Burton to record several songs for the upcoming live-action adaptation. Prince went into the studio and produced an entire nine-track album that Warner Bros. released on June 20, 1989. Batman peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200,<ref name="batman billboard">Template:Cite magazine</ref> selling 4.3 million copies.Template:Sfn The single "Batdance" topped the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts.<ref name="Billboard Sign o the times" />
The single "The Arms of Orion", with Sheena Easton, charted at No. 36, and "Partyman" (also featuring the vocals of Prince's then-girlfriend, nicknamed Anna Fantastic) charted at No. 18 on the Hot 100 and at No. 5 on the R&B chart, while the love ballad "Scandalous!" went to No. 5 on the R&B chart.<ref name="Billboard Sign o the times" /> Prince had to sign away all publishing rights to the songs on the album to Warner Bros. as part of the deal to do the soundtrack.Template:Citation needed
In 1990, Prince went back on tour with a revamped band for his back-to-basics Nude Tour. With the departures of Boni Boyer, Sheila E., the Horns, and Cat, Prince brought in keyboardist Rosie Gaines, drummer Michael Bland, and dancing trio the Game Boyz (Tony M., Kirky J., and Damon Dickson). The European and Japanese tour was a financial success with a short, greatest hits setlist.Template:Sfn As the year progressed, Prince finished production on his fourth film, Graffiti Bridge (1990), and the 1990 album Graffiti Bridge. Initially, Warner Bros. was reluctant to fund the film, but with Prince's assurances it would be a sequel to Purple Rain as well as the involvement of the original members of the Time, the studio greenlit the project.Template:Sfn Released on August 20, 1990, the album reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and R&B albums chart.<ref name="Graffiti Bridge billboard">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The single "Thieves in the Temple" reached No. 6 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on the R&B chart;<ref name="Billboard Sign o the times" /> "Round and Round" placed at No. 12 on the US charts and No. 2 on the R&B charts. The song featured the teenage Tevin Campbell (who also had a role in the film) on lead vocals. The film, released on November 20, 1990, was a box-office flop, grossing $4.2 million.Template:Sfn After the release of the film and album, the last remaining members of the Revolution, Miko Weaver, and Doctor Fink, left Prince's band.Template:Citation needed
1991–1996: Name change, Diamonds and Pearls and The Gold Experience
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1991 began with a performance in Rock in Rio II<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and marked the debut of Prince's new band, the New Power Generation. With guitarist Miko Weaver and long-time keyboardist Doctor Fink gone, Prince added bass player Sonny T., Tommy Barbarella on keyboards, and a brass section known as the Hornheads to go along with Levi Seacer (taking over on guitar), Rosie Gaines, Michael Bland, and the Game Boyz.<ref name=":02">Template:Cite magazine</ref> With significant input from his band members, Diamonds and Pearls was released on October 1, 1991. Reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart,Template:Sfn Diamonds and Pearls saw four hit singles released in the United States. "Gett Off" peaked at No. 21 on the Hot 100 and No. 6 on the R&B charts, followed by "Cream", which gave Prince his fifth US No. 1 single. The title track "Diamonds and Pearls" became the album's third single, reaching No. 3 on the Hot 100 and the top spot on the R&B charts. "Money Don't Matter 2 Night" peaked at No. 23 and No. 14 on the Hot 100 and R&B charts respectively.<ref name="billboard1">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Diamonds and Pearls would sell more than 2 million copies in the United States alone.<ref name=billboard>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1992, following the success of Diamonds and Pearls, Prince renewed his contract with Warner Bros., agreeing to what was reportedly a $100 million deal to release six more albums with the label.<ref name="Philips 1992">Template:Cite news</ref> In November, Prince released his 14th studio album, the second to feature the New Power Generation. It bore only an unpronounceable symbol on the cover (later copyrighted as "Love Symbol #2") as its title;<ref name="Carter 1999">Template:Cite news</ref> the symbol was explained as being a combination of the symbols for male (♂) and female (♀). It was preceded by the releases of "Sexy MF" and "My Name Is Prince", which reached No.66 and No. 36 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100. The third single "7" would peak at No.7.<ref name="billboard1" /> The album, later referred to as Love Symbol, peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and went on to sell 2.8 million copies worldwide, falling short of expectations.Template:Sfn
In 1993, in rebellion against Warner Bros., which refused to release Prince's enormous backlog of music at a steady pace,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Prince formally adopted the "Love Symbol" as his stage name.<ref name="Carter 1999" /> To use the symbol in print media, Warner Bros. organized a mass mailing of floppy disks with a custom font.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At this time, Prince was often referred to as "the Artist Formerly Known as Prince" or "the Artist".<ref name="bass player"/> That same year, Warner Bros. released a greatest hits compilation with the three-disc The Hits/The B-Sides in 1993. The first two discs were also sold separately as The Hits 1 and The Hits 2. The collection features the majority of Prince's hit singles, and several previously hard-to-find recordings, including B-sides from across Prince's career and previously unreleased tracks such as the Revolution-recorded "Power Fantastic" and a live recording of "Nothing Compares 2 U" with Rosie Gaines. Two new songs, "Pink Cashmere" and "Peach", were chosen as promotional singles.
In 1994, Warner Bros. allowed the single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" to be released via a small, independent distributor, Bellmark Records, in February. The release reached No. 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 in many other countries. Prince began to release albums in quick succession as a means of releasing himself from his contractual obligations to Warner Bros. This led to the previously aborted Black Album being given a limited official release seven years after its initial recording. Prince pushed to have his next two albums, Come and The Gold Experience, released simultaneously. Warner Bros. accepted both albums, but delayed the release of The Gold Experience, fearing market saturation. In retaliation, Prince began making public appearances with "slave" written on his face.<ref name="12 Wildest Prince Moments" /> The Gold Experience would not be released until September 1995. The album was not in print for a long period due to a plagiarism case relating to "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", but the album was released on streaming with Prince’s catalog in 2018, and reissued on CD and vinyl in 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1996, the album Chaos and Disorder was released. Prince submitted another album titled The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale to Warner Bros. that same year, completing his contract with the label. Although the album was not released until 1999, Warner Bros. agreed to release Prince from his contract now that he had delivered the promised number of albums to them.
1996–2000: Emancipation, Crystal Ball and Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic
[edit]Free of any further contractual obligations to Warner Bros., Prince attempted a major comeback later that year with the release of Emancipation, a 36-song, three-CD set (each disc was exactly 60 minutes long). The album was released via his own NPG Records with distribution through EMI. To publish his songs on Emancipation, Prince did not use Controversy Music – ASCAP, which he had used for all his records since 1981, but rather used Emancipated Music Inc.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – ASCAP.
Emancipation was certified Platinum by the RIAA. It is the first Prince record featuring covers of other artists' songs: Joan Osborne's top ten hit song of 1995 "One of Us";<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> "Betcha by Golly Wow!" (written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed);<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "I Can't Make You Love Me" (written by James Allen Shamblin II and Michael Barry Reid);<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and "La-La (Means I Love You)" (written by Thom Bell and William Hart).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Prince released Crystal Ball, a five-CD collection of unreleased material, in 1998. The distribution of this album was disorderly, with some fans pre-ordering the album on his website up to a year before it was shipped; these pre-orders were delivered months after the record had gone on sale in retail stores. The retail edition has only four discs, as it is missing the Kamasutra disc. There are also two different packaging editions for retail; one is a four-disc sized jewel case with a white cover and the Love Symbol in a colored circle while the other contains all four discs in a round translucent snap jewel case. The discs are the same, as is the CD jacket. The Newpower Soul album was released three months later. His collaborations on Chaka Khan's Come 2 My House and Larry Graham's GCS2000, both released on the NPG label around the same time as Newpower Soul, were promoted by live appearances on Vibe with Sinbad and the NBC Today show's Summer Concert Series.
In 1999, Prince once again signed with a major label, Arista Records, to release a new record, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic.
The pay-per-view concert, Rave Un2 the Year 2000, was broadcast on December 31, 1999, and consisted of footage from the December 17 and 18 concerts of his 1999 tour. The concert featured appearances by guest musicians, including Lenny Kravitz, George Clinton, Jimmy Russell, and the Time. It was released to home video the following year.
2000–2007: Musicology and 3121
[edit]On May 16, 2000, Prince stopped using the Love Symbol as his name, since his publishing contract with Warner/Chappell had expired. In a press conference, he stated that after being freed from undesirable relationships associated with the name "Prince", he would revert to using his real name. Nevertheless, Prince continued to use the symbol as a logo and on album artwork and to play a Love Symbol–shaped guitar. For several years following the release of Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, Prince primarily released new music through his Internet subscription service, NPGOnlineLtd.com, which later became NPGMusicClub.com.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Albums from this period are Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic (2001), The Rainbow Children (2001), One Nite Alone... (2002), Xpectation (2003), C-Note (2004), The Chocolate Invasion (2004) and The Slaughterhouse (2004).
In 2001, Warner Bros. released a second compilation album, The Very Best of Prince, containing most of his commercially successful singles from the 1980s. In 2002, Prince released his first live album, One Nite Alone... Live!, which features performances from the One Nite Alone...Tour. The three-CD box set also includes a disc of "aftershow" music entitled It Ain't Over!. During this time, Prince sought to engage more effectively with his fan base via the NPG Music Club, pre-concert sound checks, and at yearly "celebrations" at Paisley Park, his music studios. Fans were invited into the studio for tours, interviews, discussions and music-listening sessions. Some of these fan discussions were filmed for an unreleased documentary, directed by Kevin Smith.
On February 8, 2004, Prince appeared at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards with Beyoncé.<ref name="guardiansweeting" /><ref name="billboardrys">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In a performance that opened the show, they performed a medley of "Purple Rain", "Let's Go Crazy", "Baby I'm a Star", and Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love".<ref name="usatodayryan">Template:Cite news</ref> The following month, Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.<ref name="mtvwiederhorn">Template:Cite web</ref> The award was presented to him by Alicia Keys along with Big Boi and André 3000 of OutKast.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As well as performing a trio of his own hits during the ceremony, Prince also participated in a tribute to fellow inductee George Harrison in a rendering of Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", playing a two-minute guitar solo that ended the song.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="timelocker">Template:Cite magazine</ref> He also performed the song "Red House" as "Purple House" on the album Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In April 2004, Prince released Musicology through a one-album agreement with Columbia. The album rose as high as the top five on some international charts (including the US, UK, Germany, and Australia). The US chart success was assisted by the CDs being included as part of the concert ticket purchase, thereby qualifying each CD (as chart rules then stood) to count toward US chart placement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Three months later, Spin named him the greatest frontman of all time.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> That same year, Rolling Stone magazine named Prince as the highest-earning musician in the world, with an annual income of $56.5 million,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> largely due to his Musicology Tour, which Pollstar named as the top concert draw among musicians in the US. He played 96 concerts; the average ticket price for a show was US$61 (Template:Inflation). Musicology went on to receive two Grammy wins, for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Call My Name" and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for the title track. Musicology was also nominated for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Album, and "Cinnamon Girl" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Rolling Stone ranked Prince No. 27 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.<ref name="rollingstone2004">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In April 2005, Prince played guitar (along with En Vogue singing backing vocals) on Stevie Wonder's single "So What the Fuss", Wonder's first since 1999. In late 2005, Prince signed with Universal Music to release his album, 3121, on March 21, 2006. The first single was "Te Amo Corazón", the video for which was directed by actress Salma Hayek and filmed in Marrakech, Morocco, featuring Argentine actress and singer Mía Maestro. The video for the second single, "Black Sweat", was nominated at the MTV VMAs for Best Cinematography. The immediate success of 3121 gave Prince his first No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 with the album.
To promote the new album, Prince was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on February 4, 2006, 17 years after his last SNL appearance on the 15th-anniversary special, and nearly 25 years since his first appearance on a regular episode in 1981.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the 2006 Webby Awards on June 12, Prince received a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his "visionary use of the Internet to distribute music and connect with audiences", exemplified by his decision to release his album Crystal Ball (1998) exclusively online.<ref name="cnetsandoval">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="postohlheiser">Template:Cite news</ref>
In July 2006, weeks after winning a Webby Award, Prince shut down his NPG Music Club website, after more than five years of operation.<ref name="efinn">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="billboardnpg">Template:Cite magazine</ref> On the day of the music club's shutdown, a lawsuit was filed against Prince by the British company HM Publishing (owners of the Nature Publishing Group, also NPG). Despite these events occurring on the same day, Prince's attorney stated that the site did not close due to the trademark dispute.<ref name="efinn" />
Prince appeared at multiple award ceremonies in 2006: on February 15, he performed at the 2006 Brit Awards, along with Wendy & Lisa and Sheila E.,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and on June 27, Prince appeared at the 2006 BET Awards, where he was awarded Best Male R&B Artist. Prince performed a medley of Chaka Khan songs for Khan's BET Lifetime Achievement Award.<ref name="smhbet">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2006, he was invited to dub the Prince XII cat in the film Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, but gave up for unknown reasons and was replaced by actor Tim Curry.
In November 2006, Prince was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame;<ref name="guardiansweeting" /> he appeared to collect his award but did not perform. Also in November 2006, Prince opened a nightclub called 3121, in Las Vegas at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. He performed weekly on Friday and Saturday nights until April 2007, when his contract with the Rio ended.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On August 22, 2006, Prince released Ultimate Prince. The double-disc set contains one CD of previous hits, and another of extended versions and mixes of material that had largely only previously been available on vinyl record B-sides. That same year, Prince wrote and performed a song for the hit animated film Happy Feet (2006). The song – "The Song of the Heart" – appears on the film's soundtrack, which also features a cover of Prince's earlier hit "Kiss", sung by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. In January 2007, "The Song of the Heart" won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2007–2010: Super Bowl XLI show, Planet Earth and Lotusflower
[edit]
On February 4, 2007, Prince played at the Super Bowl XLI halftime show in Miami, Florida, on a large stage shaped like his symbol. The event was carried to 140 million television viewers, his biggest-ever audience.<ref name="Hoekstra">Template:Cite news</ref> His 12-minute performance in the rain began with an intro of the Queen song "We Will Rock You" and concluded with "Purple Rain".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2015, Billboard ranked it the greatest Super Bowl performance ever.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Prince played 21 concerts at the O2 Arena in London during the Earth Tour in mid-2007. Tickets for the 20,000-capacity venue were capped by Prince at £31.21 ($48.66). Featuring Maceo Parker in his band, Prince's residency at the O2 Arena was increased to 15 nights after all 140,000 tickets for the original seven sold out in 20 minutes,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> before it was then further extended to 21 nights.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Prince performed with Sheila E. at the 2007 ALMA Awards. On June 28, 2007, the Mail on Sunday stated that it had made a deal to give Prince's new album, Planet Earth, away for free with the paper, making it the first place in the world to get the album. This move sparked controversy among music distributors and also led the UK arm of Prince's distributor, Sony BMG, to withdraw from distributing the album in UK stores.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The UK's largest high street music retailer, HMV, stocked the paper on release day due to the giveaway. On July 7, 2007, Prince returned to Minneapolis to perform three shows. He performed concerts at the Macy's Auditorium (to promote his new perfume "3121") on Nicollet Mall, the Target Center arena, and First Avenue.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was the first time he had played at First Avenue (the club appeared in the film Purple Rain) since 1987.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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From 2008, Prince was managed by UK-based Kiran Sharma.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On April 25, 2008, Prince performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where he debuted a new song, "Turn Me Loose". Days after, he headlined the 2008 Coachella Festival. Prince was paid more than $5 million for his performance at Coachella, according to Reuters.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Prince canceled a concert, planned at Dublin's Croke Park on June 16, 2008, at 10 days' notice. In October 2009 promoters MCD Productions went to court to sue him for €1.6 million to refund 55,126 tickets. Prince settled the case out of court in February 2010 for $2.95 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> During the trial, it was said that Prince had been offered $22 million for seven concerts as part of a proposed 2008 European tour.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In October 2008, Prince released a live album entitled Indigo Nights, a collection of songs performed live at aftershows in the IndigO2.
Prince premiered four songs from his new album on LA's Indie rock radio station Indie 103.1 on December 18, 2008.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The radio station's programmers Max Tolkoff and Mark Sovel had been invited to Prince's home to hear the new rock-oriented music. Prince gave them a CD with four songs to premiere on their radio station. The music debuted the next day on Jonesy's Jukebox, hosted by former Sex Pistol Steve Jones.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On January 3, 2009, the new website LotusFlow3r.com was launched; streaming and selling some of the recently aired material and concert tickets. On January 31, Prince released two more songs on LotusFlow3r.com: "Disco Jellyfish", and "Another Boy". "Chocolate Box", "Colonized Mind", and "All This Love" were later released on the website. Prince released a triple album set containing Lotusflower, MPLSoUND, and an album credited to Bria Valente, called Elixer, on March 24, 2009, followed by a physical release on March 29.
On July 18, 2009, Prince performed two shows at the Montreux Jazz Festival, backed by the New Power Generation, including Rhonda Smith, Renato Neto and John Blackwell. On October 11, 2009, he gave two surprise concerts at the Grand Palais in Paris.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On October 12, he gave another surprise performance at La Cigale. On October 24, Prince played a concert at Paisley Park.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2010–2016: Final albums
[edit]In January 2010, Prince wrote a new song, "Purple and Gold", inspired by his visit to a Minnesota Vikings football game against the Dallas Cowboys.<ref name="Vikings">Template:Cite web</ref> The following month, he let Minneapolis-St. Paul public radio station 89.3 The Current premiere his new song "Cause and Effect" as a gesture in support of independent radio.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In 2010, Prince was listed in TimeTemplate:'s annual ranking of the "100 Most Influential People in the World".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He released a new single on Minneapolis-St. Paul radio station 89.3 The Current called "Hot Summer" on June 7, his 52nd birthday. The same month, Prince appeared on the cover of the July 2010 issue of Ebony magazine,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 BET Awards.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Prince released his album 20Ten in July 2010 as a free covermount with publications in the UK, Belgium, Germany, and France.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He refused album access to digital download services and closed LotusFlow3r.com. On July 4, 2010, Prince began his 20Ten Tour, a concert tour in two legs, with shows in Europe. The second leg began on October 15<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and ended with a concert following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 14.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The second half of the tour had a new band, John Blackwell, Ida Kristine Nielsen, and Sheila E.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Prince let radio station Europe 1 debut the snippet of his new song "Rich Friends" from the new album 20Ten Deluxe on October 8, 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He embarked on the Welcome 2 Tour on December 15, 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Prince was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame on December 7, 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Prince presented Barbra Streisand with an award and donated $1.5 million to charities on February 12, 2011.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On the same day, it was reported that he had not authorized the television show Glee to cover his hit "Kiss", in an episode that had already been filmed.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Prince headlined the Hop Farm Festival on July 3, 2011, marking his first UK show since 2007 and his first-ever UK festival appearance.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite having previously rejected the Internet for music distribution, on November 24, 2011, he released a reworked version of the previously unreleased song "Extraloveable" through both iTunes and Spotify.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Purple Music, a Switzerland-based record label, released a CD single titled "Dance 4 Me" on December 12, 2011, as part of a club remixes package including the Bria Valente CD single "2 Nite" released on February 23, 2012. The CD features club remixes by Jamie Lewis and David Alexander, produced by Prince.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In January 2013, Prince released a lyric video for a new song called "Screwdriver".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In April 2013, Prince announced a West Coast tour titled Live Out Loud Tour with 3rdeyegirl as his backing band.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The final two dates of the first leg of the tour were in Minneapolis-St. Paul, where former Revolution drummer Bobby Z. sat in as guest drummer on both shows.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In May, Prince announced a deal with Kobalt Music to market and distribute his music.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On August 14, 2013, Prince released a new solo single for download through the 3rdeyegirl.com website.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The single "Breakfast Can Wait" had cover art featuring comedian Dave Chappelle's impersonation of him, from a 2004 second-season Chappelle's Show comedy sketch on Comedy Central.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In February 2014, he performed concerts with 3rdeyegirl in London titled the Hit and Run Tour. Beginning with intimate shows, the first was held at the London home of singer Lianne La Havas, followed by two performances of what Prince described as a "sound check" at the Electric Ballroom in Camden,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and another at Shepherd's Bush Empire.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On April 18, 2014, Prince released a new single entitled "The Breakdown". He re-signed with his former label, Warner Bros. Records after an 18-year split.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Warner announced that Prince would release a remastered deluxe edition of Purple Rain in 2014 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album. In return, Warner gave Prince ownership of the master recordings of his recordings with the company.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In February 2014, Prince began what was billed as his "Hit N Run Part One" tour. This involved Prince's Twitter followers keeping an avid eye on second-by-second information as to the whereabouts of his shows. Many of these shows would only be announced on the day of the concert, and many of these concerts involved two performances: a matinee and an evening show. These shows began at Camden's Electric Ballroom, billed as "Soundchecks", and spread throughout the UK capital to KoKo Club, in Camden, Shepherd's Bush Empire and various other small venues. After his London dates, he moved on to other European cities. In May 2014, Prince began his "Hit N Run Part Two" shows, which followed a more normal style of purchasing tickets online and being held in music arenas. In Spring 2014, he launched NPG Publishing, a music company to administer his own music and that of other artists without the restrictions of mainstream record companies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In May 2015, following the killing of Freddie Gray in police custody and the subsequent riots, Prince released a song, "Baltimore", in tribute to Gray and in support of the protesters in that city.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also held a tribute concert for Gray at his Paisley Park estate called "Dance Rally 4 Peace" in which he encouraged fans to wear the color gray in honor of Freddie Gray.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> On May 10, he performed a special concert at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore called "Rally 4 Peace", which featured a special appearance by Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, and one set performed by Prince alone at a keyboard.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Prince's penultimate album, Hit n Run Phase One, was first made available on September 7, 2015, on the music streaming service Tidal before being released on CD and for download on September 14.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His final album, Hit n Run Phase Two, was meant as a continuation of this, and was released on Tidal for streaming and download on December 12, 2015.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In February 2016, Prince embarked on the Piano & A Microphone Tour, a tour that saw his show stripped back to only him and a custom piano on stage. He performed a series of warm-up shows at Paisley Park in late January 2016 and the tour commenced in Melbourne, Australia, on February 16, 2016, to critical acclaim.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Australian and New Zealand legs of the tour were played in small-capacity venues, including the Sydney Opera House. Hit n Run Phase Two CDs were distributed to every attendee after each performance. The tour continued to the United States but was abruptly cut short by illness in April 2016.
Illness and death
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Prince saw Michael T. Schulenberg, a Twin Cities specialist in family medicine, in Excelsior on April 7, 2016, and again on April 20.<ref name=Lambert>Template:Cite news</ref> On April 7, he postponed two performances at the Fox Theatre from his Piano & a Microphone Tour; the venue released a statement saying he had influenza.<ref name=Radford>Template:Cite news</ref> He rescheduled and performed what was to be his final show on April 14, despite still not feeling well.<ref name="horgen">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="blog.thecurrent.org">Template:Cite news</ref> While flying back to the Twin Cities early the next morning, he became unresponsive, and his private jet made an emergency landing at Quad Cities International Airport in Moline, Illinois, where he was hospitalized and received naloxone, a medication used to block the effects of opioids, especially following an overdose. Once he became conscious, he left against medical advice.<ref name=Chanen>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=nytimes04-23-2016>Template:Cite news</ref> Representatives said he was dehydrated and had influenza for several weeks.<ref name="horgen" /> Prince was seen cycling the next day in his hometown of Chanhassen.<ref name=WWLP>Template:Cite news</ref> He shopped that evening at the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis for Record Store Day and made a brief appearance at an impromptu dance party at his Paisley Park recording studio complex, stating that he was feeling fine.<ref name="blog.thecurrent.org"/><ref name=Bream>Template:Cite news</ref> On April 19, he attended a performance by singer Lizz Wright at the Dakota Jazz Club.<ref name=WCCO>Template:Cite news</ref>
On April 20, 2016, Prince's representatives called Howard Kornfeld, a California specialist in addiction medicine and pain management, seeking medical help for the star. Kornfeld scheduled to meet with him on April 22, and he contacted a local physician who cleared his schedule for an exam on April 21.<ref name=Chanen/><ref name=NYTcatchup>Template:Cite news and Template:Cite news</ref> On April 21, at 9:43 am, the Carver County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call requesting an ambulance be sent to Prince's home at Paisley Park. The caller initially told the dispatcher that an unidentified person at the home was unconscious, then moments later said he was dead, and finally identified the person as Prince.<ref name=Variety>Template:Cite news</ref> The caller was Kornfeld's son, who had flown in with buprenorphine that morning to devise a treatment plan for opioid addiction.<ref name=Chanen/> Emergency responders found Prince unresponsive in an elevator and performed CPR, but a paramedic said he had already been dead for at least six hours,<ref name=DChanen>Template:Cite news</ref> and they were unable to revive him. They pronounced him dead at 10:07 am, 19 minutes after their arrival.<ref name=Chanen/> There were no signs of suicide or foul play.<ref name=Chanen/> A press release from the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office in Anoka County on June 2 stated that Prince had died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl,<ref name=Strobl>Template:Cite press release</ref> at the age of 57.<ref name=Coscarelli2016>Template:Cite news</ref>
The fentanyl that led to his overdose was in counterfeit pills made to look like a generic version of the painkiller hydrocodone/paracetamol.<ref name="Forliti">Forliti, Amy (April 20, 2018). Investigation says Prince was isolated, addicted and in pain. Template:Webarchive Associated Press. Retrieved: May 17, 2020.</ref> The question of how and from what source Prince obtained the drug was the subject of investigations by several law enforcement agencies.<ref name=nytimes04-23-2016/><ref name=NYTcatchup/><ref name=DChanen/> A sealed search warrant was issued for his estate,<ref name="Sealed Search Warrant for Paisley Park">Template:Cite web</ref> and another unsealed search warrant was issued for the local Walgreens pharmacy.<ref name="Walgreens search warrant">Template:Cite news</ref> On April 19, 2018, the Carver County Attorney announced that the multi-agency investigation had ended with no criminal charges filed.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The investigation did reveal that Prince was addicted to opioids.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Forliti" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Following an autopsy performed by A. Quinn Strobl,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Prince's remains were cremated.<ref name=CNN0424>Template:Cite news</ref> On April 26, 2016, Prince's sister Tyka Nelson filed court documents in Carver County, to open a probate case, stating that no will had been found. As of his death, the twice-divorced Prince was neither married nor known to have fathered any surviving children. Under Minnesota law, the absence of a will meant that, in addition to his full sister, Prince's five half-siblings also had a claim to an estate totaling millions of dollars in cash as well as real estate, stocks, and cars.<ref name="Probate Case Opened">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>State of Minnesota Template:Webarchive State of Prince</ref> Within three weeks of his death, 700 people claimed to be half-siblings or descendants.<ref name=Merriman>Template:Cite news</ref> Bremer Trust was given temporary control of his estate, had his vault drilled open,<ref name=Vault>Template:Cite web</ref> and was authorized to obtain a blood sample for DNA profiling from the coroner who had performed the autopsy.<ref name=Puente>Template:Cite news</ref>
Prince's ashes were placed into a custom 3D-printed urn shaped like the Paisley Park estate.<ref name="P4kurn">Template:Cite web</ref> The urn, which was co-designed by his sister Tyka and her son President, was placed on display in the atrium of the Paisley Park complex in October 2016.<ref name="slateurn">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Template:As of, no additional estate claimants were recognized by the courts besides Prince's full sister and five half-siblings.<ref name="Prince's Estate Remains Unsettled">Template:Cite web</ref> It was reported in August 2022 that the Prince estate had settled. Filings in the Minnesota First Judicial District ordered that the cash in Prince's estate be split evenly between Prince Legacy LLC and Prince OAT Holdings LLC.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Remembrances and reactions
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Numerous musicians and cultural figures reacted to Prince's death.<ref name="etonline2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="fact2">Template:Cite web</ref> President Obama mourned him,<ref name=Jaffe>Template:Cite news</ref> and the United States Senate passed a resolution praising his achievements "as a musician, composer, innovator, and cultural icon".<ref name="US Senate Homage">Template:Cite news</ref> Cities across the U.S. held tributes and vigils, and lit buildings, bridges, and other structures in purple.<ref name=AP0422>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=KTLA>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=WBZ>Template:Cite news</ref> In the first five hours after the media reported his death, "Prince" was the top trending (most-used) term on Twitter, and Facebook had 61 million Prince-related interactions.<ref name=Reuters0421>Template:Cite news</ref> MTV interrupted its programming to air a marathon of Prince music videos and Purple Rain.<ref name=Schwindt>Template:Cite news</ref> AMC Theatres and Carmike Cinemas screened Purple Rain in select theaters over the following week.<ref name=Solis>Template:Cite web</ref> Saturday Night Live aired an episode in his honor, titled "Goodnight, Sweet Prince", featuring his performances from the show.<ref name=Russell>Template:Cite web</ref>
Nielsen Music reported that sales of his material spiked 42,000 percent.<ref name="Brown">Template:Cite news</ref> The artist's catalog sold 4.41 million albums and songs from April 21 to 28, with five albums simultaneously in the top ten of the Billboard 200, a first in the chart's history.<ref name=Caulfield>Template:Cite web</ref> At the 59th Grammy Awards, Morris Day with the Time and Bruno Mars performed a tribute.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The May 2, 2016, cover of The New Yorker featured an illustration of purple rain.<ref>[The New Yorker, May 2, 2016]</ref> In June 2016 Vanity Fair/Condé Nast, released a special edition commemorative magazine, The Genius of Prince. It celebrated the star's life and achievements, with new photography and archive articles, including the original Vanity Fair article from November 1984, written in the wake of the singer-songwriter's breakout success, with other content from the magazine, The New Yorker, Wired, and Pitchfork. The cover of The Genius of Prince featured a portrait by Andy Warhol, Orange Prince (1984).<ref name=VanityFair2016/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Casts of the musicals The Color Purple and Hamilton paid tribute to the star during their curtain calls with "Purple Rain" and "Let's Go Crazy", respectively.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2016, Minnesota representative Joe Atkins introduced a bill in the state legislature to memorialize Prince with a statue in the National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol, in recognition of his contributions to music and the state of Minnesota. As of 2020, however, the bill has not had a second reading.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On August 21, 2016, Prince was posthumously inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>
Posthumous projects
[edit]2016–2019
[edit]The first posthumous release from the Estate was 4Ever on November 22, 2016. It was a compilation of Prince's hits plus one previously unreleased song, "Moonbeam Levels", originally recorded for the 1999 sessions in 1982.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
On February 9, 2017, Prince's estate signed a distribution deal with Universal Music Group, which includes the post-1995 recordings on his NPG Records label and unreleased tracks from his vault.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> On June 27, Comerica (acting on behalf of the estate) requested that Carver County District Judge Kevin Eide cancel the estate's deal with Universal, as UMG's contract would interfere with a contract with Warner Music Group that Prince signed in 2014. After Universal's attorneys were granted access to the Warner contract, the attorneys also offered to cancel the deal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On July 13, the court voided Universal's deal with Prince's estate, though Universal will continue to administer Prince's songwriting credits and create merchandise.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
On April 19, an EP featuring six unreleased Prince recordings, Deliverance, was announced with an expected release date for later that week.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The next day, Prince's estate was granted a temporary restraining order against George Ian Boxill, an engineer who co-produced the tracks and was in possession of the master tapes, and halted the release of the EP.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On June 23, a deluxe reissue of Purple Rain was released.<ref name="billboard.com">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The most expansive edition contained the first being a remaster of the original album made in 2015 and overseen by Prince himself, a bonus disc of previously unheard material called From the Vault & Previously Unreleased plus single and maxi-single edits, B-sides and the first DVD issue of Prince and the Revolution: Live recorded in Syracuse on the Purple Rain Tour.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 1 on both the Billboard R&B Albums and Vinyl Albums charts.<ref name="billboard.com"/>
In April 2018, the previously unreleased original recording of "Nothing Compares 2 U" from 1984 was released as a single.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A music video was also released consisting of edited rehearsal footage shot in the summer of 1984.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Troy Carter, adviser for Prince's estate, later announced in an interview with Variety that a full-length album was planned for release on September 28.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In June of that year, the Prince estate signed a distribution deal with Sony Music Entertainment including the rights to all of Prince's studio albums, plus unreleased music, remixes, live recordings, music videos and B-sides.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> From 2021 onwards, Prince's Warner Bros. albums from 1978–1996 are distributed by Sony/Legacy Recordings in the United States, with Warner Music Group still controlling the international rights.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On August 17, all 23 post-Warner Bros. albums by Prince were released digitally on streaming platforms, together with a new compilation album entitled Anthology: 1995–2010.<ref name="OCC">Template:Cite web</ref> Only one song remained unavailable to stream, "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", due to a plagiarism lawsuit in Italy that was not resolved until 2022. On September 21, Piano and a Microphone 1983 was released, an intimate recording of Prince privately rehearsing with a piano.<ref name="nyt">Template:Cite news</ref>
The Sony/Legacy reissues began in 2019. Throughout that year, Musicology, 3121, Planet Earth, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic, Chaos and Disorder and Emancipation were reissued on CD and vinyl. Ultimate Rave was also released, a 2 CD and 1 DVD set which included the concert film of Rave Un2 the Year 2000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Versace Experience - Prelude 2 Gold was also reissued for Record Store Day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In June, a compilation of Prince's original recordings of songs given to other artists, entitled Originals, was released - initially exclusively through TIDAL, then later on CD and vinyl.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In October, a single of Prince's previously unheard original acoustic demo of "I Feel for You"<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> was released digitally and as a limited 7" single.
In October 2019, Prince's incomplete memoir The Beautiful Ones was published by Random House.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Prince had worked on the memoir project with Template:Ill during the Piano and a Microphone Tour in 2016 and had managed to complete around 50 pages before his death.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The book includes those pages plus a lengthy account by Piepenbring of how the project came to be, a scrapbook of rare personal photos and miscellanea from the vault, and Prince's original handwritten concept for the film Purple Rain.
In November, a Deluxe reissue of 1999 was released. This reissue had several configurations, the most expansive including 35 previously unreleased songs and two live concerts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Since 2020
[edit]In 2020, a Super Deluxe reissue of Sign o' the Times was released. This reissue had various configurations, with the most expansive containing the original album, the single and maxi-single mixes, related B-sides, plus 45 previously unissued studio tracks, a live show from the Sign o' the Times Tour in Utrecht plus a DVD featuring the New Year's Eve 1987 show at Paisley Park.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Pitchfork rated the Super Deluxe version 10 out of 10 and named it Best New Reissue.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In June 2021, The Truth was reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The following month saw the release of Welcome 2 America, a completely unheard album originally recorded and shelved in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2022, Prince and the Revolution: Live was reissued on Blu-Ray, along with the soundtrack which was also released on CD and vinyl for the first time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This year also saw the release of "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" on streaming services. It had previously been unavailable due to a plagiarism lawsuit in Italy which the estate has now resolved; Bruno Bergonzi and Michele Vicino are now legally recognized as co-writers in Italy.<ref>Worden, Mark (July 20, 2016), "Prince's Italian Plagiarism Case Drags On", Billboard. Template:Webarchive, Retrieved February 10, 2019. Roger Nelson Prince, Controversy Music inc., Michele Vicino, Bruno Bergonzi, [1] Template:Webarchive. Retrieved April 16, 2019.</ref>
In 2023, a Super Deluxe reissue of Diamonds and Pearls was released, containing the original album plus remixes and B-sides from this era, 33 previously unheard tracks and a Blu-ray of a live concert recorded at Glam Slam in Minneapolis as a rehearsal for the 1992 Diamonds and Pearls Tour.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
As of 2024, a nine-hour documentary on Prince was produced by Ezra Edelman for release on Netflix.<ref name="weiss">Template:Cite news</ref> The estate were reportedly unhappy with the project, considering it a "sensationalized" depiction of his life. A few people saw a rough cut of the film;<ref name=schonfeld/> one of them, Sasha Weiss, wrote in The New York Times Magazine that it contained at least one instance of a former girlfriend accusing him of abuse. She said "We're asked to sit with Prince's multiplying paradoxes for many hours, allowing them to unsettle one another".<ref name=weiss/> In February 2025, the project was officially cancelled and it was announced that "a new documentary featuring exclusive content from Prince's archive" would be produced by the estate instead; this has been described as "a watered-down take, to placate the powers that be".<ref name=schonfeld>Template:Cite news</ref> The Prince estate's social media accounts then posted a video of a vault door being opened with the caption "The vault is free."<ref name="vaultisfree">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Artistry and legacy
[edit]Music and image
[edit]
Prince is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Rolling Stone ranked Prince at No. 27 on its list of 100 Greatest Artists, "the most influential artists of the rock & roll era".<ref name="rollingstone2004" /> In 2010, Prince was ranked number 7 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Prince at No. 16 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In 2003, Rolling StoneTemplate:'s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list included Purple Rain at number 72,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sign o' the Times at number 93,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 1999 at number 163,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Dirty Mind at number 204.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2004, on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, Rolling Stone included "When Doves Cry" at number 52, "Little Red Corvette" at number 108, "Purple Rain" at number 143, "1999" at number 212, "Sign o' the Times" at number 299, and "Kiss" at number 461.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
The Los Angeles Times called Prince "our first post-everything pop star, defying easy categories of race, genre and commercial appeal".<ref name="master of rock">Template:Cite news</ref> Jon Pareles of The New York Times described him as "a master architect of funk, rock, R&B and pop", and highlighted his ability to defy labels,<ref name="nytobituary">Template:Cite news</ref> while Geoffrey Himes described him as a leading artist in "a tradition of left-wing black music", or "progressive soul", although even he conceded the term may be "too narrow".<ref name="Himes">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Los Angeles Times writer Randall Roberts called Prince "among the most versatile and restlessly experimental pop artists of our time," writing that his "early work connected disco and synthetic funk [while his] fruitful mid-period merged rock, soul, R&B and synth-pop."<ref name="latimes">Template:Cite news</ref> Simon Reynolds called him a "pop polymath, flitting between funkadelia, acid rock, deep soul, schmaltz—often within the same song".Template:Sfn AllMusic wrote that, "With each album he released, Prince showed remarkable stylistic growth and musical diversity, constantly experimenting with different sounds, textures, and genres [...] no other contemporary artist blended so many diverse styles into a cohesive whole."<ref name="allmusic">Template:Cite web</ref> Jon Pareles has named Prince among the "pantheon" of artists in the album era, in which the album format was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant style and showmanship.<ref name="nytobituary" /> He came to be regarded as a sex symbol for his androgynous, amorphous sexuality,<ref name="floridian">Template:Cite web</ref> play with signifiers of gender,<ref name="Prince, Bowie, and Gender">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Transcended Categories">Template:Cite magazine</ref> and defiance of racial stereotypes.<ref name="guard">Template:Cite web</ref> His "audacious, idiosyncratic" fashion sense made use of "ubiquitous purple, alluring makeup and frilled garments".<ref name="master of rock" /> His androgynous look has been compared to those of Little Richard<ref name="floridian" /><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Sfn and David Bowie.Template:Sfn In 2016, Reynolds described it as "Prince's '80s evasion of conventional gender definitions speaks to us now in this trans-aware moment. But it also harks backwards in time to the origins of rock 'n' roll in racial mixture and sexual blurring".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Prince was known for the strong female presence in his bands and his support for women in the music industry throughout his career.<ref name="Strong Female Presence">Template:Cite web</ref> Slate said he worked with an "astounding range of female stars" and "promised a world where men and women looked and acted like each other".<ref name="Champion of Women">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Prince also wore high-heeled shoes and boots both on and off-stage.
Many artists have cited Prince as an influence and inspiration, including Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Usher, Janelle Monáe, the Weeknd, Lady Gaga, Lorde,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Marilyn Manson,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Lenny Kravitz, André 3000, Mark Speer, Jamie Lidell, Frank Ocean, Miguel,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Mya,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Robyn,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> D'Angelo, H.E.R.,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ciara,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The-Dream,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> St. Vincent,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ween,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and Beck.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref name="Speer">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Jamie">Template:Cite web</ref> Bono of U2 regarded Prince as one of his "favorite composers of the twentieth century".<ref name="Bono">Template:Cite book</ref> Beyoncé expressed her admiration for Prince in the book Prince: A Private View, calling him "my mentor" and also praising his independence: "He dared to fight for what was rightfully his: his freedom, wrapped up in words and music he created."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In August 2017, Pantone Inc. introduced a new shade of purple (Template:Color sample) in their color system in honor of Prince. The shade is called Love Symbol #2.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Influences and musicianship
[edit]Prince's music synthesized a wide variety of influences,<ref name="nytobituary" /> and drew inspiration from a range of musicians, including Ike Turner,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> James Brown,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn George Clinton,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Joni Mitchell,Template:Sfn Duke Ellington,Template:Sfn Jimi Hendrix,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn the Beatles,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Chuck Berry,Template:Sfn David Bowie,Template:Sfn Earth, Wind & Fire,Template:Sfn Mick Jagger,Template:Sfn Rick James,Template:Sfn Jerry Lee Lewis,Template:Sfn Little Richard,Template:Sfn Curtis Mayfield,Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Elvis Presley,Template:Sfn Todd Rundgren,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Carlos Santana,Template:Sfn Sly Stone,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Jackie Wilson,Template:Sfn and Stevie Wonder.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Prince has been compared with jazz artist Miles Davis in regard to the artistic changes throughout his career.Template:Sfn<ref name="Miles & Prince">Template:Cite news</ref> Davis said he regarded Prince as an otherworldly blend of James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone, Little Richard, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Chaplin.<ref name="Prince, Charlie Chaplin, et al.">Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Prince and Miles Davis performed together in December 1987 for a Charity Event at Paisley Park. This performance was viewed as the pinnacle of their on-again, off-again partnership.<ref name="BMRJ" />
Journalist Nik Cohn described him as "rock's greatest ever natural talent".<ref name="gqcohn">Template:Cite news</ref> Prince was a natural tenor,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but he had a wide vocal range from falsetto to baritone, and performed rapid, seemingly effortless shifts of register.<ref name="Petridis">Template:Cite news</ref> Prince was also renowned as a multi-instrumentalist.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He is considered a guitar virtuoso and a master of drums, percussion, bass, keyboards, and synthesizer.Template:Sfn On his first five albums, he played nearly all the instruments,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> including 27 instruments on his debut album,Template:Sfn among them various types of bass, keyboards and synthesizers. Prince was also quick to embrace technology in his music,<ref name="blackent">Template:Cite web</ref> making pioneering use of drum machines like the Linn LM-1 on his early '80s albums and employing a wide range of studio effects.<ref name="fact14">Template:Cite web</ref> The LA Times also noted his "harnessing [of] new-generation synthesizer sounds in service of the groove", laying the foundations for post-'70s funk music.<ref name="latimes" /> Prince was also known for his prolific and virtuosic tendencies, which resulted in him recording large amounts of unreleased material.<ref name="bill">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Prince also wrote songs for other artists, and some songs of his were covered by musicians, such as the hit songs "Manic Monday" (performed by the Bangles), "I Feel for You", originally on Prince's self-titled second album from 1979, covered by Chaka Khan, and "Nothing Compares 2 U", written for Prince's side project the Family, and covered very successfully by Sinéad O'Connor. Prince co-wrote "Love... Thy Will Be Done" with singer Martika, for her second album, Martika's Kitchen, and also gifted Celine Dion a song for her second album, Celine Dion, titled "With This Tear"; it was a song Prince had written specifically for her.<ref>James Wigney, Prince's output in the '80s and '90s was amazing — Sinead, The Bangles and Martika benefited the most Sydney Morning Herald, April 23, 2016</ref> Prince also wrote "U" for Paula Abdul, appearing on her 1991 release Spellbound.
Equipment
[edit]Template:HiddenA guitar virtuoso, Prince was also known to have a stylish and flamboyant custom guitar collection, which consisted of 121 guitars.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> One notable series is his Cloud Guitars, which were commissioned and released in colored versions of white, yellow and purple. The white version is prominently shown in the Purple Rain film and the "Raspberry Beret" video.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Other notable guitars are The Love Symbol guitars, which were designed in the separate colors of gold and purple. The guitar that was used for the majority of Prince's music career was the H.S. Anderson Madcat guitar – a Telecaster copy created by Hohner. Several versions of the guitar were used throughout his career – due to one being donated for charitable reasons, while one or more were stolen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another guitar primarily used in his later years was the Vox HDC-77, which was introduced to him by 3rdeyegirl member Ida Kristine Nielsen, both a Blackburst version, and a White Ivory version.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Two other noteworthy guitars are the G1 Purple Special, and the black-and-gold Gus G3 Prince bass, which would become the last two guitars to ever be made for him.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Legal issues
[edit]Pseudonyms
[edit]In 1993, during negotiations regarding the release of The Gold Experience, a legal battle ensued between Warner Bros. and Prince over the artistic and financial control of his musical output. During the lawsuit, Prince appeared in public with the word "slave" written on his cheek.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He explained that he had changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol to emancipate himself from his contract with Warner Bros., and that he had done it out of frustration because he felt his own name now belonged to the company.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Prince sometimes used pseudonyms to separate himself from the music he had written, produced or recorded, and at one point stated that his ownership and achievement were strengthened by the act of giving away ideas.<ref name="bass player">Template:Cite news</ref> Pseudonyms he adopted, at various times, include: Jamie Starr and The Starr Company (for the songs he wrote for the Time and many other artists from 1981 to 1984), Joey Coco (for many unreleased Prince songs in the late 1980s, as well as songs written for Sheena Easton and Kenny Rogers), Alexander Nevermind (for writing the song "Sugar Walls" (1984) by Sheena Easton), and Christopher (used for his songwriting credit of "Manic Monday" (1986) for the Bangles).
Copyright issues
[edit]On September 14, 2007, Prince announced that he was going to sue YouTube and eBay, because they hosted his copyrighted material, and he hired the international Internet-policing company Web Sheriff.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In October, Stephanie Lenz filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Publishing Group claiming that they were abusing copyright law after the music publisher had YouTube take down Lenz's home movie in which the Prince song "Let's Go Crazy" played faintly in the background.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Cbignore</ref> On November 5, several Prince fan sites formed "Prince Fans United" to fight back against legal requests which, they claim, Prince made to prevent all use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers, and anything linked to his likeness.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Prince's lawyers claimed that this constituted copyright infringement; Prince Fans United said that the legal actions were "attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince". Prince's promoter AEG stated that the only offending items on the three fansites were live shots from Prince's 21 nights in London at the O2 Arena earlier in the year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On November 8, Prince Fans United received a song named "PFUnk", providing a kind of "unofficial answer" to their movement. The song originally debuted on the PFU main site,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> was retitled "F.U.N.K.", but this is not one of the selected songs available on the iTunes Store. On November 14, the satirical website b3ta.com pulled their "image challenge of the week" devoted to Prince after legal threats from the star under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
At the 2008 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival ("Coachella Festival"), Prince performed a cover of Radiohead's "Creep"; however, immediately afterward, he forced YouTube and other sites to remove footage that fans had taken of the performance despite Radiohead's request to leave it on the website.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Days later, YouTube reinstated the videos, as Radiohead had said: "It's our song, let people hear it." In 2009, Prince put the video of the Coachella performance on his official website.Template:Citation needed
In 2010, Prince declared: "the internet is completely over", elaborating five years later that "the internet was over for anyone who wants to get paidTemplate:Nbsp... tell me a musician who's got rich off digital sales".<ref name="Petridis" />
In 2013, the Electronic Frontier Foundation granted Prince the inaugural "Raspberry Beret Lifetime Aggrievement Award"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> for what they said was abuse of the DMCA takedown process.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In January 2014, Prince filed a lawsuit titled Prince v. Chodera against 22 online users for direct copyright infringement, unauthorized fixation, contributory copyright infringement, and bootlegging.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Several of the users were fans who had shared links to bootlegged versions of Prince concerts through social media websites like Facebook.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the same month, he dismissed the entire action without prejudice.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Prince was one of a small handful of musicians to deny "Weird Al" Yankovic requests to parody his music. (Yankovic does not always need legal permission to parody songs, but he requests artists' permission as a professional courtesy.)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> By Yankovic's account, he'd done so "about a half-dozen times" and has been the sole artist not to give any explanation for his rejection beyond a flat "no".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Personal life
[edit]
Prince had seven siblings, six of whom were half-siblings. As Prince had no will, the six siblings who survived him at the time of his death could inherit his estate.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As of November 2024, only three of them, half sisters Sharon and Norraine Nelson and half brother Omar Bakker, are still living.<ref name="estatesheirs">Template:Cite news</ref> However, only the two surviving half sisters still have shares in Prince's estate.<ref name="estatesheirs" />
His half sister Lorna died in 2006. Another half brother Alfred Jackson died in August 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On September 3, 2021, John R. Nelson, Prince's eldest half brother, died.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On November 4, 2024, musician Tyka Nelson, who was Prince's only full sibling,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> died.<ref name="tykadies">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="tykarip">Template:Cite news</ref> In July 2021, Omar Bakker and late half brother Alfred Jackson's interest would sell all of the shares they owned of Prince's estate to Primary Wave Music, while Tyka Nelson would sell 90%.<ref name="estatesheirs" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Relationships
[edit]Prince was romantically linked with many women over the years, including Kim Basinger, Madonna, Vanity, Jill Jones, Sheila E., Carmen Electra, Susannah Melvoin, Ophélie Winter and Sherilyn Fenn.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref name="bbc.com">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Susannah Melvoin recalled how, around the time of Sign o' the Times, "Wendy [Melvoin, her twin sister] and Lisa [Coleman] and I lived together and we would have [Prince] stay at our place. We became really close. He got to be in a family of three women, and we got to have our Prince. Not many people had that kind of relationship with him."<ref name="bbc.com" />
In 1990, he saw 16-year-old dancer Mayte García standing outside his tour bus and referred to her as his "future wife" when pointing her out to bandmate Rosie Gaines. García began working as one of his backup singers and dancers after graduating from high school. They were married on February 14, 1996, when he was 37 and she was 22.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to García, she and Prince had a son named Amiir (born October 16, 1996), who died a week after being born due to Pfeiffer syndrome. Attempts by publications to independently verify the child's name, birth, and cause of death proved difficult due to Prince's focus on privacy. The distress of losing a child and García's subsequent miscarriage took a toll on the marriage, and the couple divorced in 2000.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Prince married Manuela Testolini, a Canadian businesswoman of Italian and Egyptian descent, in a private ceremony in 2001; she hails from Toronto, which led the couple to live there part-time.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> They separated in 2005 and filed for divorce in May 2006,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which was finalized in October 2007.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Religious beliefs
[edit]Prince was an observant religious person from childhood and throughout his life. An abiding love of God and Jesus were recurring themes in his work, often closely intertwined with romance, sexuality and sensuality on songs such as "I Would Die 4 U" and albums such as Lovesexy. In March 2016, while discussing his childhood during a show in Oakland, he told the audience: Template:Blockquote
A complete recitation of The Lord's Prayer featured in the full-length album version of his 1981 hit "Controversy." His 1984 track "Darling Nikki", while dealing with explicit subject matter involving an encounter with a sex worker, contained the following backward message: "Hello, how are you?/Fine, fine, ’cause I know that the Lord is coming soon/Coming, coming soon." That same year, he released a B-side simply entitled "God."
Prince became a Jehovah's Witness in 2001 as a result of his friendship with bassist Larry Graham. He did not consider it a conversion but a "realization", comparing his connection with Graham to Morpheus and Neo in the film The Matrix. He attended meetings at a local Kingdom Hall and occasionally knocked on people's doors to discuss his faith.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="wsjhagertyaudi">Template:Cite news</ref> His newfound faith would also heavily influence his 2001 album The Rainbow Children. The CD edition of his 2003 instrumental album N.E.W.S contained an Adobe Flash file that slowly display the words "He Causes 2 Become" when the disc was inserted into a computer, being a reference to the name of Jehovah in Witness theology.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Shortly after he became a Witness, former bandmates Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman reached out to him for a potential reunion of their 1980s band the Revolution. Melvoin claims he declined due to her lesbian and Jewish identities, then asked her to hold a press conference in which she would disavow homosexuality and become a Jehovah's Witness herself. She resigned herself to never hearing from him again.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> However, Prince later reunited with Melvoin in 2004 to perform a stripped-back acoustic version of the song "Reflection" on the Tavis Smiley Tonight Show<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and subsequently performed "Purple Rain" with her and Coleman at the Brit Awards 2006. Anti-gay marriage comments were attributed to him in 2008 but later denied by his management<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and walked back by him personally, as he later stated, "I have friends who are gay, and we study the Bible together."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite his ambiguous, contradictory and evolving personal convictions throughout his lifetime, Prince is often considered a queer icon by his fans for his influence on music, fashion and culture in a manner infused with religious themes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
García said of Prince's religious beliefs: "He was always a spiritual seeker ... fascinated in all possibilities to integrate the signs of the zodiac and third eye and reincarnation into the Christian beliefs his Baptist mother and Seventh-day Adventist father had exposed him to."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> At the time of his passing, Prince's display picture on Twitter was an illustration of him with both eyes closed and a third eye on his forehead open.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Political beliefs and activism
[edit]Prince rarely expressed partisan political beliefs directly for the majority of his career. However, he did not shy away from political themes and commentary in early songs such as "Partyup", "Ronnie Talk to Russia" (which directly addressed then-President Ronald Reagan), "America", "Sign O' the Times" and later "Money Don't Matter 2 Night", in part a protest against the Gulf War. His 2002 song "Avalanche" contained the lyric "Abraham Lincoln was a racist" and discussed the Thirteenth Amendment. In 2004, the music video for his single "Cinnamon Girl" depicted a young Muslim woman facing Islamophobia and racial abuse and then detonating a suicide bomb in a crowded airport, before revealing it had all been a dream.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In a 2009 interview with Tavis Smiley, when asked for his opinion on the recent election of Barack Obama, Prince replied that he did not vote for him and has in fact never voted at all. He also expressed a belief in the chemtrail conspiracy theory during the same interview.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Towards the end of his life, Prince was a supporter of Black Lives Matter. According to Al Sharpton, he donated to the family of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and later arranged for Eric Garner's family to attend one of his concerts.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Before handing out the Grammy for Best Album in 2015, he told the audience, "Albums — remember those? Albums still matter. Albums, like books and black lives, still matter.”<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He organized a "Rally 4 Peace" concert in the city of Baltimore in the aftermath of the killing of Freddie Gray.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The following day, he released a single entitled "Baltimore" with lyrics that mentioned Gray and Michael Brown. The music video for "Baltimore" featured footage of Black Lives Matter protests in the city, and closed with a message from Prince: Template:Blockquote
Animal rights
[edit]Prince was an animal rights activist who followed a vegan diet for part of his life but later described himself as vegetarian.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He previously adhered to a pescetarian diet in the 2000s<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and according to an interview with the Vegetarian Times, Prince first expressed curiosity in removing meat from his diet around 1987 when he ceased eating all red meat.<ref name=":5" /> Prince required Paisley Park guests and staff to maintain a vegetarian diet or pescetarian diet while present in order to keep the environment meatless. In honor of Prince's personal ethos, Paisley Park continues to require that individuals leave the premises if they would like to eat meat.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The liner notes for his album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic featured a message about the cruelty involved in wool production.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Charitable endeavors
[edit]Prince did not speak publicly about his charitable endeavors. The extent of his activism, philanthropy, and charity was only publicized after his death, and much of it remains undocumented.<ref name="Anonymous Activism, Philanthropy & Charity">Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2001, he anonymously donated $12,000 to the Louisville Free Public Library system to keep the historic Western Branch Library (the country's first full-service library for African-Americans) from closure.<ref name="Anonymous $12,000,000 donation to the Western Branch Library">Template:Cite web</ref> That same year, he anonymously paid off the medical bills of drummer Clyde Stubblefield, who was undergoing cancer treatment.<ref name="pr-stubblefield">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In 2015, he conceived and launched YesWeCode, paying for many hackathons outright and performing musical acts at some of them.<ref name="Anonymous Activism, Philanthropy & Charity" /><ref name="Inspiration for #YesWeCode">Template:Cite web</ref> He also helped fund the Green for All initiative.<ref name="Anonymous Activism, Philanthropy & Charity" />
According to Australian musician Ed Le Brocq's autobiography Danger Music, written about Le Brocq's time as a music teacher in Afghanistan, Prince had "quietly donated to PARSA (Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Services for Afghanistan) for years" which had funded the revival of the Afghanistan Scout Association.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Achievements
[edit]
Prince sold at least 150 million records worldwide,<ref name="Hanrahan" /> ranking him among the best-selling music artists of all time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2016, and Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2024.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016, he was posthumously honored with a Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of Minnesota.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in 2022.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Prince was named the 14th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2023.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
He has won seven Grammy Awards, seven Brit Awards, six American Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, an Academy Award (for Best Original Song Score for the film Purple Rain), and a Golden Globe Award.<ref name=":3">*Template:Cite web
- Template:Cite web
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- Template:Cite web</ref> Two of his albums, Purple Rain and Sign o' the Times, received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year nominations. 1999, Purple Rain and Sign o' the Times have all been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.<ref name=":4" /> At the 28th Grammy Awards, Prince was awarded the President's Merit Award.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref> Prince was also honored with the American Music Award for Achievement and American Music Award of Merit at the American Music Awards of 1990 and American Music Awards of 1995 respectively. At the 2013 Billboard Music Awards, he was honored with the Billboard Icon Award.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2019, the 1984 film Purple Rain was added by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref name="Chow">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Prince has been honored with a star on the outside mural of the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue,<ref name="FirstAveStars">Template:Cite web</ref> recognizing performers that have played sold-out shows or have otherwise demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue.<ref name="StarTribune2019">Template:Cite news</ref> Receiving a star "might be the most prestigious public honor an artist can receive in Minneapolis", according to journalist Steve Marsh.<ref name="MSPMag2019">Template:Cite news</ref> The Revolution also has a star on the mural, to the immediate right of Prince's. Originally painted silver like the other stars on the mural, Prince's star was repainted in gold leaf during the night of May 4, 2016, about two weeks after Prince's death.<ref name="StarTribune2016goldstar">Template:Cite news</ref> Originally anonymous, the artist was revealed a few months later to be graphic designer and graffiti artist Peyton Russell, who had worked for Prince at his club Glam Slam in the 1990s and wanted to pay tribute.<ref name="MSPMag2016">Template:Cite news</ref>
Discography
[edit]Template:Div col Studio albums
- For You (1978)
- Prince (1979)
- Dirty Mind (1980)
- Controversy (1981)
- 1999 (1982)
- Purple Rain (1984)
- Around the World in a Day (1985)
- Parade (1986)
- Sign o' the Times (1987)
- Lovesexy (1988)
- Batman (1989)
- Graffiti Bridge (1990)
- Diamonds and Pearls (1991)
- Love Symbol Album (1992)
- Come (1994)
- The Black Album (1994Template:Efn)
- The Gold Experience (1995)
- Chaos and Disorder (1996)
- Emancipation (1996)
- Crystal Ball (1998)
- The Truth (1998)
- The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale (1999)
- Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999)
- The Rainbow Children (2001)
- One Nite Alone... (2002)
- Xpectation (2003)
- N·E·W·S (2003)
- Musicology (2004)
- The Chocolate Invasion (2004)
- The Slaughterhouse (2004)
- 3121 (2006)
- Planet Earth (2007)
- Lotusflow3r (2009)
- MPLSound (2009)
- 20Ten (2010)
- Plectrumelectrum (2014)
- Art Official Age (2014)
- HITnRUN Phase One (2015)
- HITnRUN Phase Two (2015)
- Welcome 2 America (2021)
Collaborative albums
- 8 (1987) (with Madhouse)
- 16 (1987) (with Madhouse)
- Gold Nigga (1993) (with the New Power Generation)
- Exodus (1995) (with the New Power Generation)
- Newpower Soul (1998) (with the New Power Generation)
- Kamasutra (1997) (with NPG Orchestra)
Demo albums
- Piano and a Microphone 1983 (2018)
- Originals (2019)
Filmography
[edit]| Year | Film | Role | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Purple Rain | The Kid | Albert Magnoli |
| 1986 | Under the Cherry Moon | Christopher Tracy | Prince |
| 1987 | Sign o' the Times | Himself | Prince |
| 1990 | Graffiti Bridge | The Kid | Prince |
| 1994 | 3 Chains o' Gold | Himself | Prince |
| Year | Show | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Muppets Tonight | Himself | Episode 11 |
| 2014 | New Girl | Himself | Episode: "Prince" |
| 2020 | Let's Go Crazy: Grammy Salute to Prince | Himself (archive footage) |
Tours
[edit]- Prince Tour (1979–1980)
- Dirty Mind Tour (1980–1981)
- Controversy Tour (1981–1982)
- 1999 Tour (1982–1983)
- Purple Rain Tour (1984–1985)
- Parade Tour (1986)
- Sign o' the Times Tour (1987)
- Lovesexy Tour (1988–1989)
- Nude Tour (1990)
- Diamonds and Pearls Tour (1992)
- Act I and II (1993)
- Interactive Tour (1994)
- The Ultimate Live Experience (1995)
- Gold Tour (1996)
- Love 4 One Another Charities Tour (1997)
- Jam of the Year World Tour (1997–1998)
- New Power Soul Tour/Festival (1998)
- Hit n Run Tour (2000–2001)
- A Celebration (2001)
- One Nite Alone... Tour (2002)
- 2003–2004 World Tour (2003–2004)
- Musicology Live 2004ever (2004)
- Per4ming Live 3121 (2006–2007)
- Earth Tour (2007)
- 20Ten Tour (2010)
- Welcome 2 (2010–2012)
- Live Out Loud Tour (2013)
- Hit and Run Tour (2014–2015)
- Piano & a Microphone Tour (2016)
Books
[edit]See also
[edit]- List of bestselling music artists
- List of highest-certified music artists in the United States
- List of dancers
- Unreleased Prince projects
- List of artists who reached number one in the United States
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]Sources
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Further reading
[edit]External links
[edit]- Template:Official website
- Template:IMDb name
- Template:AllMusic
- [[[:Template:BillboardURLbyName]] Prince] at Billboard.com
- Performance at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at his induction in 2004
Template:Prince Template:Prince albums Template:Prince singles Template:Navboxes
- Pages with broken file links
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