Singer Prince. Biography

15.06.2019

8 chord selections

Biography

Prince (English - Prince Rogers Nelson; b. June 7, 1958, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor.

Prince Roger Nelson was born on June 7, 1958 to jazz musicians John Nelson and Matty Shaw. Despite later claiming he was born into a mixed family, both of his parents were black. Growing up in a musical family, Prince became interested in music from a very young age - his first guitar was bought by his father. His first musical experiments came in high school, where he formed a band with his cousin Charles Smith and neighbor Andre Anderson. At first the group was called Grand Central, then it was renamed Champagne. In 1976, Prince released his first demo tape and major labels took interest in it. A little later, a contract was signed with Warner Bros. His first two albums, "For You" (1978) and "Prince" (1979), hinted little at the great things to come - they were solid, but not outstanding works in the pop funk genre. Although one of the singles from the album "For You" - the song "Soft and Wet" - did well on the charts. Both of these albums were recorded by Prince almost single-handedly - it was then that the famous phrase appeared that later adorned all of Prince's albums: "Written, produced, performed and recorded by Prince."

Prince's first recognized masterpiece was his third album "Dirty Mind", recorded in 1980 - its unique combination of hard funk, amazing melody, sweet soul ballads, juicy guitar rock sound and unprecedented sexual frankness of the lyrics made a splash. The album "Controversy", which appeared a year later, was just a slightly less successful continuation of the ideas found on "Dirty Mind", but with the next album, "1999", recorded a year later with the participation of the band The Revolution assembled by Prince, Prince confirmed his status as an innovator. The album sold over three million copies, but even that success failed to prepare listeners and critics alike for the flurry of acclaim that hit Prince in 1984 with the release of "Purple Rain". Released as the soundtrack to Prince's film of the same name, "Purple Rain" turned Prince into a superstar - the album spent 24 weeks at No. 1 on the US charts and sold tens of millions of copies. Even though it was Prince's most commercially oriented album to that point, he refused to continue like this and a year later released "Around the World in a Day", which suddenly veered towards bizarre psychedelia. Despite such oddities in the change of style, the album still sold quite decent copies. The next album, "Parade", was even weirder, but it came with the brilliant pop single "Kiss", which was so popular that it almost became a pop standard. In 1987, Prince's ambitions continued to grow, and his next album became a double - the massive masterpiece "Sign o" the Times" was considered by many critics as a candidate for the best album of the 80s. By the end of the year, he was already ready to release the next album, hard funk "The Black Album" with lyrics heavily erotic to the extreme, but finally decided to abandon this idea, considering the album too dark and immoral.Instead, he released a hastily recorded "Lovesexy", which could not repeat the success of the previous album. The Black Album meanwhile began to circulate underground, and every fan would have a pirated copy by 1994, when Prince finally decided to release it. , and tickets were not sold in the quantities he had hoped for. A year later, along with the Batman soundtrack, Prince returned to the charts, even though on this album he, in fact, only repeated his previous ideas. The following year, he decided to try acting again and starred in Graffiti Bridge, which was the sequel to Purple Rain. A corresponding album was also released, but neither the film nor the album even came close to the success that "Purple Rain" had.

In 1991, Prince formed a new group - The New Power Generation. Their first joint album "Diamonds and Pearls" was another triumphant return of the musician. Singles such as "Cream" and "Gett Off" hit the top of the charts and surfed radio stations. The next album, released in 1992, was called an obscure curlicue, which was a kind of combination of male and female signs; a year later, the Prince suddenly and quite officially changed his name to this bizarre symbol. The music press, faced with the need to somehow name him in their publications, came up with the name "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" in response. In 1994, between the Artist and his record company Warner Bros. serious controversy arose; Prince independently released his new single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", ostensibly to showcase what he would be capable of on his own. The song became his most successful hit in years. In the same year, Warner released the album "Come", released under the name of Prince; it was quite clear from the album that Prince was just fulfilling his contractual obligations, not trying to put anything into the album. Despite this, the album was a notable commercial success, eventually reaching gold status. In November 1994, Prince agreed to release The Black Album in order to fulfill his contractual obligations, and a little later he again clashed with the management of the record company, refusing to give them his completed new album, The Gold Experience. This time, Prince went all out, calling himself a slave in all interviews and even appearing on television with the word "slave" written in felt-tip pen on his cheek; Warner, tired of fighting the caustic artist, agreed to renegotiate the terms of their contract. Under the new agreement, the company released "The Gold Experience", after which their collaboration ended on the next new work of Prince. The artist quickly built the album "Chaos and Disorder", which freed him from his contract. Prince's next step was to create his own label, NPG, and release a new album, Emancipation. Conceived as a massive blockbuster with singles to be released over the next few years, this triple album lasted over three hours and proved too much for even its most devoted fans. Realizing that the record wasn't the smash hit he'd hoped for, Prince did what fans had been waiting for for years - a collection of rarities and off-album songs dubbed "Crystall Ball". In the same 1998, he released another new album "New Power Soul", but he did not bring success to Prince. Having suffered a relative defeat in his attempts to release his own albums, Prince returned to the camp of major labels, signed a contract with Arista and released the album "Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic" in 2000. Despite the abundance of guest pop stars, the album failed to restore Prince's former popularity.

A year later, Prince officially became a member of Jehovah's Witnesses and, under the influence of this event, recorded the album "The Rainbow Children", which featured an "organic" jazz-funk sound with a lot of live brass and drums (as opposed to earlier experiments with synthesizers and drum machines) . The next album, "One Nite Alone", which was distributed only to members of the Prince's fan club, was recorded almost entirely with piano accompaniment. This was followed by a live box "One Nite Alone... Live!", consisting of three discs. The following albums were even more experimental: jazz instrumental "Xpectation" and jazz live "C-Note" were also distributed through the club system, and his next work "N.E.W.S.", recorded in Prince's studio in one day and released in 2003, consisted of four long instrumental tracks and plunged some fans into delight, and others into complete bewilderment.

In 2004, Prince returned to his usual fusion of pop-funk, soul and rock music with the release of the comeback album "Musicology", which became an unexpected success. This album not only returned him to the charts and allowed him to embark on the largest tour in the last few years, but also earned Prince a Grammy nomination in the category "Best Male Pop Vocal". It was also followed by the very successful and commercially successful "3121" (2006) and "Planet Earth" (2007).

American singer Prince died in a recording studio at his home at the age of 57. The cause of death is not clear, but a few days earlier he had been hospitalized with the flu.

Born in Minneapolis, Prince Rogers Nelson first rose to fame in the late 1970s, but his real fame came from hits like “1999” and “Purple Rain.” He was not only a performer, but also a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist musician. His work left a significant mark on the history of pop music in the 1980s and 1990s. Prince's life was spent under the guns of lenses, but there are several little-known facts in his biography.

Prince at the American Music Awards November 22, 2015.
Photo: rexfeatures

Prince wrote his first song at the age of 7. It was called "Funk Machine".

Prince at the Brit Awards in London on February 15, 2006.
Photo: rexfeatures
The first musical group in which he sang as a teenager was called Grand Central.

Hom Farm Festival in Kent, UK, 2011.
Photo: rexfeatures

At one point, he was so poor that he sniffed food instead of eating. “I didn’t have any money at all, and I just stood near McDonald’s and sniffed,” he told Rolling Stone magazine in 1985.

Prince in the 1990 film musical Graffiti Bridge.
Photo: rexfeatures
Prince is the only one besides The Beatles to have a film, album and single that has topped the charts in the US.

Prince performing at Wembley Stadium in the UK on August 26, 1990.
Photo: rexfeatures
Director Tim Burton originally planned for Prince to write half of the Batman soundtrack and Michael Jackson to write the other half: the former would write funky stuff and the latter would sing ballads.

Prince concert at Wembley Stadium.
Photo: rexfeatures
Eventually, Prince wrote an entire album of Batman material after meeting and falling in love with Kim Basinger. He even canceled a tour to Japan in order to work more on material and impress her.

Prince and his band The New Power Generation, 1991
Photo: rexfeatures
Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" was written by Prince for The Family, but the singer made it an international hit in 1990.

Prince performing the hit "Purple Rain" in 1984.
Photo: rexfeatures
In Madonna's song "Like a Prayer", it is Prince who plays the guitar, though this is not credited anywhere.

Prince in 1984.
Photo: rexfeatures
Michael Jackson wrote the song "Bad" to sing it as a duet with Prince, but he did not like the words very much, and he was against the first line "Your butt is mine" (literally - "Your butt is in my hands").

Brit Awards, London O2 Arena, February 19, 2014.
Photo: rexfeatures

Prince became a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses in 1997 and has since eliminated sexual material from his performances and hasn't written an overly explicit song in many years.
The singer left a huge archive of unreleased and unused songs, albums and abandoned video projects in his home studio.

Hundreds of songs, 39 studio albums, four of which were released in the last year and a half. Singer Prince (Prince Roger Nelson) was talented and mega-popular, which means he could afford to be eccentric and unpredictable, for example, change his stage name to a symbol that is difficult to explain.

He was incredibly hardworking, able to work long hours in his home studio and on recordings. But the real "magic" arose on stage when he went out to a crowd of thousands.

Prince could bring the audience to a frenzy, and then suddenly make them listen carefully to a lyrical composition. This was his magic.

I Wanna Be Your Lover (1979)

This first real hit of Prince brought him not only fame, but also the respect of music critics. Even then, journalists started talking about a special "Minneapolis sound", the ancestor of which was later unconditionally announced by Prince. It is believed that it was he who managed to stylistically combine several directions at once: funk, rock, pop, synth-pop and new wave music.

Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? (1979)

The early 1980s marked a real takeoff in Prince's career. The album "Prince" (which included the song Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?) was written, arranged and performed by himself. The number of copies sold allowed him to be awarded the status of a platinum album.

Purple Rain (1984)

Throughout the 1980s, Prince followed a recipe for success: a mix of different musical styles and provocative lyrics consistently enjoyed success with the public. His band The Revolution made his first appearance on the Purple Rain album. All songs on the disc were included in the film of the same name, which was also released in 1984. The style of this album turned out to be more diverse than Prince's previous work. Here he tried to show all the possibilities of the sound of the group, which from now on accompanied him.

Batdance (1989)

Batman was Prince's 11th and again incredibly popular studio album, in which he actively experimented with electronic sound. It was then that the artist changed his appearance, appearing on stage in more restrained black and white suits.

Nothing Compares 2 U (1990)

In Russia, Prince's popularity has always been much more moderate than in the US and Europe. But even those who have never heard the songs performed by him know exactly the hit Nothing Compares 2 U, which was performed by Sinead O'Connor. Prince wrote this composition back in 1985, but it was in the interpretation of O'Connor that the soulful ballad acquired the right shade and mood and was doomed to success.

Legendary American musician and songwriter Prince, a small and successful rhythm and blues performer, seven-time Grammy winner and Oscar winner, has died at the age of 58. The circumstances of the singer's death are somewhat similar to the circumstances of the death of the King of Pop Michael Jackson, who died seven years ago at his home.

On Thursday, April 21, the police of the American city of Shanhassen (a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota) received a call to the Paisley Park residence, where Prince Rogers Nelson, better known by his stage name Prince, lived. The police immediately reported the case of death, but it became known later that it was the owner of the house who died. The cause of Prince's death has not yet been announced, the police have just started an investigation.

According to Western media, Prince had been ill with the flu for several weeks, and exactly a week ago, on April 15, his personal plane was forced to make an emergency landing during the singer's flight between concerts. The musician needed medical attention, but he spent only three hours in the hospital, after which he returned to his home in Minnesota. In addition to the flu, Prince had serious problems with the hip joints - doctors recommended a prosthesis, but he refused because of his religious beliefs.

One of the reasons for the problems with his feet, he himself called his passion for high-soled shoes, which were part of his stage image.

Prince was born in 1958 and had an interest in music as a child. It happened thanks to his parents: his father was a pianist, and his mother was a jazz singer. He played in school bands, then joined a group that his relative gathered, but soon began a solo career - he signed a contract with Warner Bros and already in 1978 released his debut album "For You", for which he himself wrote all the songs and recorded all musical parts, playing 27 instruments. A second album, entitled "Prince", followed almost immediately, in 1980 he released "Dirty Mind", and in 1981 - a double "1999", which sold 3 million copies. The title track from this album was his first single to chart outside of the US. In general, five years after the start of his career, he was already famous - in any case, only two songs by black musicians, “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson and “Little Red Corvette” by Prince, got into the rotation of the newly formed MTV channel. Even outwardly, the musicians were somewhat similar.

The pinnacle of Prince's creative success and his fidelity to rhythm and blues is the 1984 album "Purple Rain".

The songs from this disc became the soundtrack of the film of the same name (the rock musical "Purple Rain"), in which Prince played the main role and which won him an Oscar for best original music. Also for "Purple Rain" he received two Grammy awards, losing, however, the main one - "best album". But in general, music awards loved him. Prince has 32 Grammy nominations, won seven statuettes, and two of his albums (1999 and Purple Rain) are included in the Hall of Fame of this award. He was also nominated 12 times for the MTV video award - and won this award four times.

He had an absolutely unforgettable image - small, only 157 centimeters tall, he went on stage in shiny and bright clothes, high heels. And he created a real show, which the audience went to - however, there were also failures, like the very first, back in the late 70s, the opening act for the Rolling Stones, which fans of British rockers simply did not appreciate.

By the end of the 80s, the Prince had achieved almost everything he could dream of. And I started experimenting.

He became more and more extravagant - he could cancel the release of an already scheduled album, take on a pseudonym in the form of an unpronounceable symbol, or demand from the press that he be called "The Singer Formerly Known as Prince". He was forgiven, it seems, everything. At the same time, he continued to release records - there are thirty-nine of them in his discography, with the last two ("HITnRUN Phase One" and "HITnRUN Phase Two") released in 2015. Prince was in great demand and sought to convey his work to the public - in 37 years of an active career, he held 28 tours. The last of these, the Hit and Run Tour, took a year and a half and included 39 dates in Europe and North America. And one of the main awards of the musician was the inclusion in 2005 of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Prince was finally recognized as one of those who created modern rhythm and blues.

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Remember we mourn. The work of the Prince has been and will be with us.

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Biography, life story Prince

Prince (full name - Prince Rogers Nelson) is an American rhythm and blues singer.

Introduction

Few contemporary pop artists can boast such a rich and varied musical heritage as Prince. Emerging into the musical scene in the late 70s, he quickly established himself as one of the most interesting and talented artists in contemporary popular music, seamlessly fusing different musical styles such as pop, funk, soul and rock. Not only did he release several albums that revolutionized pop music, he also constantly played concerts, produced albums for other artists, wrote songs for them and recorded hundreds of songs himself, so many of his compositions are still unreleased in his extensive archives. With each new work, Prince has demonstrated stylistic growth and musical diversity, constantly experimenting with new sounds and genres. Sometimes his music was criticized for such eclecticism, but most of his experiments were successful; Few contemporary Prince artists have managed to assemble such a great variety of styles into a coherent whole.

Childhood and youth

Career

In 1976, Prince released his first demo, and major labels were interested in him. A little later, a contract was signed with Warner Bros. His first two albums, For You (1978) and Prince (1979), hinted little at the great things to come - they were solid but not outstanding works in the pop funk genre. Although one of the singles from the album For You, the song Soft and Wet, did well on the charts. Prince recorded both of these albums almost single-handedly - it was then that the famous phrase appeared, which later adorned all Prince's albums: "Written, produced, performed and recorded by Prince".

CONTINUED BELOW

Prince's first recognized masterpiece was his third album Dirty Mind, recorded in 1980 - its unique combination of hard funk, amazing melody, sweet soul ballads, juicy guitar rock sound and unprecedented sexual frankness of the lyrics made a splash. The album Controversy, which appeared a year later, was just a slightly less successful continuation of the ideas found on Dirty Mind, but the next album, 1999, recorded a year later with the participation of the band The Revolution assembled by Prince, confirmed his status as an innovator. The album sold more than three million copies, but even this success could not prepare listeners or critics for the flurry of recognition that hit Prince in 1984 after the release of Purple Rain. Released as the soundtrack to Prince's film of the same name, Purple Rain turned Prince into a superstar - the album spent 24 weeks at number one on the US charts and sold tens of millions of copies. Despite the fact that it was Prince's most commercially oriented album to that point, he refused to continue in the same spirit and a year later released the album Around the World in a Day, which suddenly veered towards bizarre psychedelia. Despite such oddities in the change of style, the album still sold quite decent copies. The next album, Parade, was even weirder, but it came with a brilliant pop single, Kiss, that was so big it almost became a pop standard. In 1987, Prince's ambitions continued to grow, and his next album became a double album - the massive masterpiece Sign o' the Times, which was recognized by many critics as a candidate for the best album of the 80s. By the end of the year, he was ready to release the next album, the hard funky The Black Album with texts saturated with eroticism to the limit, but in the end he decided to abandon this idea, considering the album too dark and immoral. Instead, he released a hastily recorded Lovesexy, which could not repeat the success of the previous album. Shelved The Black Album meanwhile began to spread underground, and by 1994, when Prince finally decides to release it, every fan will have a pirated copy for a long time. The Lovesexy tour was also a loss for Prince as he pulled out of commercial sponsorships and tickets weren't selling as much as he had hoped. A year later, along with the soundtrack to the film "Batman", Prince returned to the charts, even though on this album he, in fact, only repeated his previous ideas. The following year, he decided to try acting again and starred in Graffiti Bridge, which was the sequel to Purple Rain. A corresponding album was also released, but neither the film nor the album even came close to the success Purple Rain enjoyed.

In 1991, Prince formed a new group - The New Power Generation. Their first joint album Diamonds and Pearls was another triumphant return of the musician. Singles such as Cream and Gett Off have reached the top of the charts and surfed radio stations. The next album, released in 1992, was called an obscure curlicue, which was a kind of combination of male and female signs; a year later, Prince suddenly changed his name quite officially to this bizarre symbol. The music press, faced with the need to somehow name it in their publications, came up with the name in response "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince". In 1994, between the Artist and his record company Warner Bros. serious controversy arose; Prince independently released his new single The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, ostensibly to showcase what he would be capable of on his own. The song became his most successful hit in years. That same year, Warner released the album Come, released under Prince's name; it was quite clear from the album that Prince was just fulfilling his contractual obligations, not trying to put anything into the album. Despite this, the album was a notable commercial success, eventually reaching gold status. In November 1994, Prince agreed to release The Black Album in order to fulfill his contractual obligations, and a little later he again clashed with the management of the record company, refusing to give them his completed new album, The Gold Experience. This time, Prince went all out, calling himself a slave in all interviews and even appearing on television with the word "slave" written in felt-tip pen on his cheek; Warner, tired of fighting the caustic artist, agreed to renegotiate the terms of their contract. Under a new agreement, the company released The Gold Experience, after which their collaboration ended with Prince's next new work. The artist quickly built the Chaos and Disorder album, which freed him from his contract. Prince's next step was to create his own NPG label and release a new album, Emancipation. Conceived as a massive blockbuster with singles to be released over the next few years, this triple album lasted over three hours and proved too much for even its most devoted fans. Realizing that the record wasn't the smash hit he'd hoped for, Prince did what fans had been waiting for years to come up with a collection of rarities and off-album songs called Crystall Ball. In the same 1998, he released another new album, New Power Soul, but he did not bring success to Prince either. Having suffered a relative defeat in his attempts to release his own albums, Prince returned to the camp of major labels, signed a contract with Arista and released the album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic in 2000. Despite the abundance of invited pop stars, the album failed to restore Prince's former popularity.

A year later, Prince officially became a member of Jehovah's Witnesses and, under the influence of this event, recorded the album The Rainbow Children, which featured an "organic" jazz-funk sound with a lot of live brass and drums (as opposed to earlier experiments with synthesizers and drum machines). The next album, One Nite Alone, which was distributed only to members of Prince's fan club, was recorded almost entirely with piano accompaniment. This was followed by a live box One Nite Alone… Live!, consisting of three discs. The following albums were even more experimental: jazz instrumental Xpectation, and jazz live C-Note were also distributed through the club system, and his next work N.E.W.S., recorded in Prince's studio in one day and released in 2003, consisted of four long instrumental tracks and some fans are delighted, while others are completely bewildered.

In 2004, Prince returned to his usual fusion of pop-funk, soul and rock music with the release of the comeback album Musicology, which became an unexpected success. The album not only got him back on the charts and launched his biggest tour in years, but also earned Prince a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. It was also followed by the very successful and commercially successful "3121" (2006) and Planet Earth (2007). In 2009, Prince released the album Lotusflower, which was subsequently certified gold in the US. In 2010, the singer presented the album 20Ten - a successful mix of rock, pop and funk music. In 2014, Prince recorded two albums at once - Plectrumelectrum and Art Official Age. In 2015, the musician also presented two albums, more precisely, one, but a large one, divided into two parts HITnRUN Phase One and HITnRUN Phase Two.

Personal life

Prince, a charming and attractive man with charisma and a sense of humor, had many women. Yes, he met