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Singer Prince. Biography

Singer Prince. Biography

01.07.2019

As one of the highest-grossing artists of the 20th century, this musician released many of his own albums, produced and wrote material for other artists, acted in films and experimented with styles, and for his merits repeatedly became the owner of the Grammy, and also got into " Rock and Roll Hall of Fame". Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis on June 7, 1958. His father was a pianist, and his mother was a jazz singer, and already at the age of seven, musical genes made themselves felt: the boy composed his first motive "Funk Machine" on his father's instrument. During his school years, Prince had a guitar in his arsenal, and he, along with his cousin, joined the group "Grand Central" (later "Champagne"), which played music influenced by James Brown, "Sly & The Family Stone", "Parliament" - "Funkadelic", "Earth, Wind & Fire" and Todd Rundgren. After Nelson participated in another family contract "94 East", and a year later he recorded a solo demo tape. The sampler did not give a direct result (in terms of a record contract), but provided the musician with normal management, which knocked out good conditions for him from Warner Bros. The first record, the pop-funk "For You", turned out to be, as they say, a "sighting shot": the song "Soft And Wet" was on the 12th line of the "Hot Soul Singles" list, and the disc itself hung outside the third fifty. Prince's second album came out more diverse (ranging from R&B ballads and disco to hard rock), better selling and more charting (No. 22), but it was still flowers. The real creative upsurge began with the record "Dirty Mind", where the funk became hard, and the songs acquired a sexual coloration.

Continuing in the same spirit, Prince recorded a couple more albums, and already with the double "1999" he achieved an excellent result: the work entered the top ten, and reviewers began to trumpet the "Minneapolis sound". However, even this success could not be compared with the sensation that the soundtrack to the autobiographical film "Purple Rain" produced. If earlier Prince recorded albums almost alone, then on the cover of the sixth studio album, his accompanying team "Revolution" was officially presented for the first time. The heavy, almost metallic riffs on "Purple Rain" coexisted perfectly with pop melodies, and the aggressive funk adorned with a neo-psychedelic touch, and from all this the listener's head was spinning. The album topped the American charts for 24 weeks, sold multi-million copies and made its creator a real superstar. Feeling on horseback, Prince decided it was time to move on and moved into psychedelia the following year with the "Around The World In A Day" program. The taken aback audience did not really understand anything, but just in case they bought a couple of million copies of the record, which for three weeks occupied the highest step in Billboard.

The orchestrated "Parade" (the soundtrack to the film "Under The Cherry Moon") looked even stranger, but with mixed reviews, Prince managed to stay in the top ten (even in the top three) and on the platinum frontiers. After the "ceremonial" tour, the musician made a number of substitutions in the accompanying line-up, and then abandoned the "Revolution" brand altogether. Even before the "revolutionary" overclocking, Prince began work on a number of projects, but they remained unfinished, but the preparations for them ended up together on the double album "Sign O" The Times, very eclectic, but quite successful (No. 6). By the end of 1987 year the musician planned to release "The Black Album", where he returned to funk roots, but shortly before the release he withdrew the circulation, deciding that the opus turned out to be too gloomy and too immoral. , but the public's reaction to the story of the struggle between good and evil was not very enthusiastic, and the disc remained outside the Top 10 (No. 11). the new picture and the corresponding soundtrack were called "Graffiti Bridge") had a relatively modest success. The following decade, the musician exchanged the creation of a new team "New Power Generation", which debuted on the disc "Diamonds And Pearls". The record sold out at the level of the mid-80s, and already in 1992 the sales curve crept down again.

By the way, with the name of the 14th studio album, Prince baffled critics - the symbol depicted on the cover had no verbal equivalent. Moreover, after some time he himself changed his name to this badge, but cunning reviewers got out in both cases: the album was called "Love Symbol Album", and the musician - "the artist formerly known as Prince". Meanwhile, our hero began to disagree with the Warner brothers, and therefore the album "Come" was recorded only in order to fulfill contractual obligations. But if the failure of this faceless work was understandable, then the fiasco of "The Black Album", for the implementation of which the author finally gave the go-ahead, was due to another reason - many have already gotten themselves a bootleg copy. Blaming the label for resisting the release of "The Gold Experience", the musician began to appear in public with the inscription "slave" on his cheek, but then everything was more or less settled, and the company agreed to release him after the next album. As a result, the chic funk-rock "The Gold Experience" entered the top ten, but "Chaos And Disorder", made according to the principle of play-and-play, expected a natural failure.

Freed from the chains that held him, the prolific and ambitious musician-symbol launched the triple (!) Album "Emancipation" for sale through his own label "NPG". It was planned that the release would be accompanied by a series of tours, and the accompanying singles would last for several years, but the idea fell through, as even hard-nosed fans found it difficult to digest such a amount of material. When it became clear that the commercial blockbuster from "Emancipation" did not work, Nelson rummaged through the stash and scraped together a pile of different things for a whole box set, which also included a CD with acoustic songs "The Truth". Unfortunately, the sale of the box went haphazardly, and some customers who applied online had to wait about a year for delivery, although by that time "Crystall Ball" could be found in a simple store. Due to the lack of promotion, the fresh, not much inferior to "Diamonds And Pearls", album "New Power Soul" suffered - many fans did not even know about its existence (perhaps, the fact that the disc was nominally released under the brand name "New Power Generation" affected here "). Having drawn the appropriate conclusions, the next time the musician paid much more attention to promotion - he attached his opus to the majors of "Arista", invited a bunch of guests, including Gwen Stefani and Sheryl Crow, and gave as many interviews as he had never given. Unfortunately, these efforts did not materialize - "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" got a modest 18th place, restrained responses and slightly gilded sales.

With the advent of the 2000s, Prince became Prince again, but at the same time he puzzled the audience again, turning from the usual funk to jazz structures. His explorations in a new field remained misunderstood, and neither the concept "The Rainbow Children", nor the instrumental "Xpectation", nor the jam "N.E.W.S." did not touch the hearts of the listeners. Prince's real comeback came in 2004 with the release of the CD "Musicology". The album sold out very well, broke into the top five and won two among several Grammy nominations (Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance). A couple of years later, the musician confirmed his viability and the abundance of gunpowder in the powder flasks with the "3121" chart topper, and the "Planet Earth" program came out only a little less than the chart - it got the second place. Then Prince was again drawn to multi-volume ambitious projects, and in 2009 he gave birth to a three-disc box set "Lotusflow3R". The first part (actually "Lotusflow3R") was at the mercy of guitar music, the second ("MplSound") served as a return to the eighties funk, and the third sounded modern R&B with vocals by Bria Valente. Until now, Prince has repeatedly resorted to Internet services in distributing albums, but he refused to release the "20Ten" disc in "digital" and even more than that - closed his official website. After this release, the musician withstood an unusual four-year pause between studios, but by the fall of 2014 he promised to release two full-length films at once.

Last update 17.09.14

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).

Sunny summer morning. In one of the small houses to one woman in the suburb of St. Louis Park, there is a knock on the door. This world-famous singer Prince modestly testifies to people about the Kingdom of God. The woman kindly responded and invited Jehovah's Witnesses to her home. Sitting comfortably in the living room, the well-built man introduced himself as Brother Nelson and eagerly began to share Bible truth with the hostess. The woman listened attentively, but something was bothering her. After a while she interrupted:

"Excuse me, but has anyone ever told you that you look a lot like Prince?" she asked.

The music legend - a faithful Jehovah's Witness - smiled with a gleam in his eyes.

"I've already been told," he replied, and went on to talk about what the Bible says about God's Kingdom and the hope for a glorious future.

Then, at the end of this conversation, the woman asked him his name, and he said, "Rogers Nelson." Under this name, Prince was known in everyday life. Rogers Nelson never used his name "Prince" in the field ministry.

In 2003, he voluntarily joined the ranks of Jehovah's Witnesses and began to humbly participate in the preaching of the good news. It so happened that during the service, strangers recognized Brother Nelson as a singer. However, the singer did not seek glory for himself, but returned his listeners to reflection on the spiritual. Often, during a break between performances, fans in love with the singer asked him for an autograph. But Nelson didn't like signing autographs. On such occasions, he would often give his devotees a Bible pamphlet or a small booklet.

Rogers Nelson tried to say everywhere that all praise and glory belongs to the true God Jehovah, even in the presence of the entire elite of music and cinema, where even Barack Obama and his wife were present, as can be seen from the video below.
Many of his fans could not believe that their Prince had accepted the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses. Once Prince even compared his e transformation and conversion with the awakening of Neo from the movie "The Matrix".

It is also noteworthy that in everyday life Rogers Nelson never used his worldly fame. Despite his rather active stage activity, Brother Nelson was modest and laconic. Brothers from the local congregation, Larry Graham and Sly Stone, studied the Bible with Rogers Nelson, Mr. de Mr. Graham is an elder.

Larry Graham and Sly Stone at a meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses,

who studied the Bible with Rogers Nelson

Knowing the truth helped Rogers bring his life into line with Bible standards enough to become a member of the congregation in St. Louis Park, Minneapolis. This congregation then included less than 40 believers. All of them, including Brother Nelson, greatly appreciated the time spent studying the Bible and singing songs that praise God.

Prior to studying the Bible, the singer Prince could sing lyrics with some sexual overtones. From the moment Prince began to study the Bible until his baptism, Nelson's moral and moral state underwent a significant change. Here is one example from Jason Terrell Taylor (The Game), a famous American rapper and songwriter.

I need that curse word...

The Game revealed that one swear word kept Prince from collaborating on the song with him.

Prince pulled out of The Game because the song's lyrics contained "expletives". The Game (Jayceon Terrell Taylor), 36, missed the opportunity to perform on TMZ. The Game was interested in having Prince perform the new song, and he agreed until he read the lyrics, which included one swear word.

"I wanted him to perform the song and he was willing to work to make the song," the hip-hop star said, adding, "We met at Doug Morris's office at Universal a few years ago." But he heard a song where there was only one curse, and he was forced to say:

"Hey, I can't sing this because there's a swear word in the lyrics."

Ultimately, the collaboration did not work on the song How We Do. The rapper believes that this was because Prince became a Jehovah's Witness and that the Christian faith considers swearing and blasphemy a sin.

Although he was desperate that he could not fully work with the pop legend, The Game was not ready to change his artistic vision for the song and decided not to change the lyrics.

“People's lives are changing. You are getting older, you are getting wiser. Prince became a Jehovah's Witness and he ruled out all of that,” he said of the refusal to work together.

The Game continued, "So we didn't make the songs because I needed to get that swear word out." He did refuse to perform, however they later laughed about the disagreement.

Rogers Nelson was known as a humble and humble brother

Behind the scenes of stage life, Brother Rogers avoided talking about his work. He made great efforts to continue to live in accordance with his faith, despite no small temptations. With a busy stage life, Brother Rogers did not always have the opportunity to participate regularly in the affairs of the congregation.

However, in his spare time, Brother Nelson was quite active in door-to-door ministry and attending local congregation meetings. Whenever possible, Prince also made generous voluntary contributions to advance the Kingdom cause, both in his city and around the world.

George Cook, another of the nine elders in the small congregation of 90 that Prince was attending, described him as humble and very humble.

"Brother Nelson preached both alone and in groups,Cook said. “And he found satisfaction when he shared his biblical convictions with others.”

In the Kingdom Hall (the name of the worship buildings of Jehovah's Witnesses) there are no photographs of their well-known fellow believer on the walls, since for Jehovah's Witnesses this is the glorification of a person. "We are here to give glory to Jehovah Almighty God and his son Jesus Christ," said congregation leader Cook.

Cook also said that Jehovah's Witnesses are not making a problem due to media reports that Prince regularly took strong opioid drugs. medicines, prescription, are registered f him doctors, allthis is a private matter for everyone. "Someone is interested in homeopathy or other treatment, but nothing can give a 100% guarantee."

And to the members of the congregation, Nelson was known as a calm and humble brother. He was happy to help other members of the congregation and was always willing to accept even the smallest help. While participating in the Q&A points of the Bible study program, the host also always referred to Rogers as Brother Nelson. Despite his busy work schedule, Nelson found time to study the Bible and grow in faith. His fame never stopped him from telling people about God's kingdom.
See also: Celebrities who converted to the faith of Jehovah's Witnesses

All the members of the St. Louis Park congregation fondly remember the fine qualities of Brother Nelson Rogers. They note that Prince knew how to please others and give pleasant compliments to fellow believers. Despite his fame, Prince was an ordinary person who tried to study the Bible and help others in this.

Fellow believers enjoyed joking with Nelson and singing liturgical songs with him during their weekly meetings.

“We heard Nelson Rogers sing when we sang songs of praise to God in meetings, but his voice never stood out, he just sang with the congregation,” said a fellow believer (sister) from his congregation.

However, in recent years, Nelson has become more likely to miss his congregation meetings due to touring.

Nelson last attended a meeting of his congregation on March 23, 2016. On this day, Jehovah's Witnesses around the world celebrated the Memorial of the death of Jesus Christ.

Rogers Nelson Princedied with hope

Rogers Nelson died on Thursday, April 21, 2016 due to an unknown illness, the symptoms of which were very similar to the common flu. After a four-hour autopsy by the Minnesota Medical Board in Ramsey, tPrince's body was returned to the family. The famous singer Prince was cremated on Friday.
One of the elders in the local congregation, James Lundstrom, was appointed to speak at the funeral ceremony. In a speech, a tearful elder referred to him as a dear brother and acknowledged that the members of the congregation were deeply saddened by the news of his passing.
had a good reputation in our congregation. He was an active publisher, participating in the ministry monthly. He was a spiritual person and believed very deeply in the Bible promises preached by Jehovah's Witnesses. He believed that the true God is Jehovah, and he knew that when a person dies, he is dead and asleep, and the hope is the resurrection, that is why Jesus died. but he believed and hoped that he would be resurrected when the resurrection began on paradise earth.

Singer Prince, cause of death

After Prince's death, those close to him said that he could easily have died from the influenza virus, which could have been fatal to him as his immune system could have been destroyed by AIDS. According to media reports, the diagnosis is HIV was delivered to the singer in the mid-90s.

Also, information that the singer was killed by AIDS was provided by the tabloid National Enquirer, but so far the official results of the autopsy have not been published.

Some media also speculated that Prince may have committed suicide. While an autopsy report on Prince's death could be made available within a few weeks, medical center staff have already reported that there were no signs of suicide.

Lawyer L. Macmillan, who knew the prince for 25 years and at one time was his manager, also denies suicide, since the singer had no inclination to do so.Macmillan said Prince's death shocked everyone who knew him because Prince led a "clean and healthy lifestyle".

Nelson Rogers kept his hope of a resurrection in Paradise on earth. Like all Jehovah's Witnesses, he looked forward to the time when the Bible promise would be fulfilled:

"The last enemy to be dealt with is death"

(1 Corinthians 15:26).

Some more interesting details about Prince in the article:
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On account of Prince - ten platinum albums, seven awards " Grammy», « Oscar», « golden globe". 30 of Prince's singles reached the top 40 singles of the American charts.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #27 on their "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" list. His albums have sold over 80 million copies in total.

Prince Rogers Nelson / Prince Rogers Nelson. Biography

Prince Rogers Nelson(Prince Rogers Nelson) was born on June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis in the family of a pianist and composer John L. Nelson(John L. Nelson) and jazz singer Matty Shaw(Mattie Shaw). The father of the future star performed on stage under a pseudonym Prince Rogers(Prince Rogers). In 1960, the couple had a daughter Tika Ewen(Tika Evene). Both children took an early interest in music, and their parents supported their interest. Prince wrote his first song "Funk Machine" at the age of seven. When he was 10 years old, his parents separated. The boy lived with his father, then with his mother and stepfather.

At school Prince organized his first group with his cousin. The group performed in clubs and at parties, he played the piano and guitar. Despite his short stature (1.57 m), in school, in addition to music, he was fond of basketball.

In 1976, 17 years old Prince made the first demo record and signed a contract with the manager Oeunom Hasni(Owen Husney) who helped him get a record deal Warner Bros.. After that Prince moved to California, where in 1978 he released his first album " for you". He acted as a producer, arranger, author of all songs except one.

During the recording of the album, Prince played 27 instruments.

In 1979 his album " Prince rose to number 22 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum. Single " I wanna be your lover sold over a million copies and peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Album 1980 " Dirty Mind"turned into gold, Prince I recorded in my own studio. In 1981, the disc " Controversy", after which the musician played as an opening act The Rolling Stones during their American tour. In late 1982 he released the double album " 1999 ”, which sold 3 million copies. Song " Delirious reached the top ten on the US Singles Chart.

Prince reached the pinnacle of his career in 1984 with the release of Purple Rain. Its circulation in the US alone exceeded 13 million copies. The disc stayed at number one on the Billboard 200 chart for 24 consecutive weeks. The film of the same name, in which Prince played one of the roles, grossed over $80 million at the box office. Prince won an Oscar for Best Original Song for a Film.

In 1984, at some point, both the album and the single Prince took first place in the charts, and the film with his participation was number one in the box office. It was the first time that any of the musicians achieved such a result.

In 1985, the novelty " Around the World in a Day" immediately climbed to number one on the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top for three weeks. Album 1986 " Parade", the soundtrack of the second film Prince « under the cherry moon reached third place. It was a directorial debut. Prince, he himself played one of the roles and invited Kristin Scott Thomas(Kristen Scott Thomas) to play the female lead. As a result, he received golden raspberry as Worst Actor and Worst Director.

The soundtrack of the next film was released in 1987 as a double album " Sign o' the Times". Over 3 million discs have been sold, and the European tour in support of the album was a great success. The next album, lovesexy”, rose in 1988 only to the 11th position in the charts and sold poorly.

In 1989 Prince was invited to write a couple of songs for " Batman". The musician recorded 9 tracks, and this recording took first place on the Billboard 200. In 1990, he released his fourth film " Bridge Graffiti and an album of the same name.

The album turned out to be quite successful. Diamonds and Pearls", released in 1991. And a year later with a new group The New Power Generation Prince recorded his twelfth album Love Symbol Album».

In 1993, Prince announced that his stage name now looks like the Symbol of Love - a combination of male (♂) and female (♀) signs. Since no verbal version of the sign was offered, the musician was called "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" in the press.

In 1994 Prince made it clear that he wants to quickly fulfill his contractual obligations to Warner Bros.. According to the musician, the label limited his creative freedom and was guilty of the commercial failure of the disc " Love Symbol Album". The last disc released on this label Prince became " Chaos and Disorder» 1996. After the termination of the contract in 2000, the musician returned to the name Prince. He distributed several of the following records through his website.

A resounding comeback took place in 2004 when he performed with beyoncé a few songs at the awards ceremony " Grammy". In the same year, he released the album " Musicology», Prince went on a massive tour.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him as the top earning musician in the world, with an estimated annual income of $56.5 million. The disc "Musicology" also brought the musician two Grammy awards.

At the end of 2005 he signed a contract with Universal Records and released an album 3121 » in Latin American style. Video for the first single Te Amo Corazon» removed Salma Hayek(Salma Hayek). The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.

In 2006, Prince received a Golden Globe for the song "The Song of the Heart" from the animated feature film " Run away».

In February 2007, Prince performed in Miami at the main event of the American sports season - the Super Bowl. The broadcast was watched by 140 million viewers. In 2010, Billboard.com named him the best performance in Super Bowl history.

October 14, 2010 in New York at the theater " Apollo» Prince announces start of his new East American tour « Welcome 2America and demonstrated a gold-leaf Fender Custom Stratocaster made by Yuri Shishkov, which accompanied him at concerts. At the conclusion of the tour, the guitar was put up for auction, and the money from its sale went to a fund to help children in need in Harlem.

In 2010 Prince also released an album 20Ten". He refused to provide it to online stores and closed his official website.

Prince on online music: "I don't see why I should give my music to iTunes or anyone else. They don't pay up front and get angry when they can't get the music. All these computers and gadgets are stuffing your heads with numbers, and there is nothing good about that.

During his career, Prince has received 33 nominations and seven Grammys. His albums 1999 and Purple Rain are inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone ranked "Purple Rain" at number 72 on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list, and Time magazine included it in its "100 Albums of All Time" list.

Prince called the pioneer of the Minneapolis sound, which mixed funk, rock, pop, R&B and New Wave.

Prince pursued not only his own career, but also produced other artists. Among his subordinates were Carmen Electra(Carmen Electra), Sheila (Sheila E.), groups The Time and Vanity 6.

Prince Rogers Nelson / Prince Rogers Nelson. Personal life

At Prince there were novels with many stars, including actresses Kim Basinger(Kim Basinger) and Sherilyn Fenn(Sherilyn Fenn), singers Madonna(Madonna) and Carmen Elektroy.

In 1985 he was engaged to Suzanne Melvoin(Susannah Melvoin). However, on Valentine's Day 1986, he married his singer and dancer Mait Garcia(Mayte Garcia). In October 1986 they had a son Boy Gregory(Boy Gregory). The child was born with a rare genetic disease, a syndrome Pfeiffer and died a week later. Prince And mate divorced in 1999.

In 2001 he married Manuele Testolini(Manuela Testolini). She filed for divorce in May 2006. Since 2007 he has been dating his protégé Bria Valente(Bria Valente).

In 2001 Prince became a member of the sect Jehovah witnesses».

He is a vegetarian, supports the Minnesota Vikings football team, and lives near Minneapolis. He also had a house in France.

On April 21, 2016, the body of the 57-year-old musician was discovered at his home in Minneapolis. The exact cause of death is yet to be determined.