Date of Death 21 April 2016, Paisley Park, Chanhassen, Minnesota, USA
Birth Name Prince Rogers Nelson Nicknames :
The Purple One
His Royal Badness
Skipper
The High Priest of Pop
The Prince of Funk
The Artist Formerly Known as Prince
Height 5' 2" (1.57 m)
Mini Bio (1)
Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Mattie Shaw, a jazz singer and social worker, and John L. Nelson, a lyricist and pianist. His father's stage name was "Prince Rogers". His parents were both from African-American families from Louisiana. They separated during his youth, which lead him to move back and forth. Prince had a troubled relationship with his step-father which lead him to run away from home. Prince was adopted by a family called the Andersons. Prince soon after became friends with the Anderson's son, Andre Anderson (Cymone) together along with Charles Smith they joined a band called Grand Central. The band later renamed themselves Champagne and were a fairly successful live band, however soon diminished.
Prince at the age of eighteen started working on high-quality demo tracks with Chris Moon. With these demo tracks Prince eventually ended up signing a recording contract with Warner Brothers Records and was the youngest producer associated with the label. Prince made his debut on the record label with his 1978 album, For You. It wasn't a strong successful album, however it was fair for a beginning artist and ranked 163 on the U.S. Pop Charts. Prince's next releases would tend to do much better on the charts with his singles, "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and I Wanna Be Your Lover in 1979. This would start to introduce Prince as a person who presented sexually explicit material into the music industry. However Prince didn't begin to attract mainstream artists until he release his single, 1999. This single began to be noticed by M.T.V. viewers and this would make him a part of the main-stream music media. Prince released two more singles called Little Red Corvette and Delirious. The album featured Prince's new band, The Revolution. In 1984 Prince would release what would be seen as an admired and profound masterpiece the feature film/sound-track album, Purple Rain in 1984. Prince's father contributed to this album, by cowriting the chord sequence for a couple of his songs. Prince continued to give cowriting credit to his father on several other albums, as his famous chord sequence would be used in several of Prince's singles and albums.
A lot of Prince's songs did not agree with listeners and one of his songs, Darling Nikki prompted a group of people to start a censorship organization called, Parents Music Resource Center (P.M.R.C.) as the track implemented grinding ludicrous acts such as masturbating, which stunned listeners. Prince however continued to release various other singles with the same platform his memorable releases being, Around The World In A Day, Parade, Love Sexy, and Batman.
Prince released a sequel to Purple Rain in 1990 called Graffiti Bridge, a soundtrack album accompanied this movie entitled, Graffiti Bridge. The film did terrible in box-office and was nominated for several Razzie awards. Many people saw the sound-track album, as the high point of the film.
In 1991, Prince assembled a new band called, The New Power Generation with this band he would release singles such as Diamond And Pearls, Cream, and Gett Off. Prince eventually changed his stage name from Prince to a symbol, which lead people to call him, "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince". Prince soon took back his old stage name.
In the 1990s, Prince continued to release singles such as Came, The Gold Experience, Chaos And Disorder, and Emancipation. With the rise of the new millennium, Prince released material such as a religious album called The Rainbow Children,One Nite Alone,The Chocolate Invasion,The Slaughter House, and had a collaboration with Stevie Wonder on Stevie's single called, What The Fuss in 2005.
Prince died on April 21, 2016 in Chanhassen, Minnesota, at his Paisley Park recording studio complex. He was 57.
Prince will be remembered as a musician and artist who inspired millions through his music, and set an inspirational platform which others still abide by.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Peter Sean
Spouse (2)
Manuela Testolini (31 December 2001 - 2006) (divorced)
Mayte Garcia (14 February 1996 - 14 February 1999) (annulled) (1 child)
Trade Mark (6)
In song titles, usually replaced "to," "two," or "too" with "2"; "for" with "4"; and "you" with "U." (Example: "I Would Die 4 U.")
Colourful outfits and raunchy lyrics
High heels
Odd shaped guitars
High pitched Voice
Short stature
Trivia (49)
In May 2000 Prince dropped the symbol O(+> he adopted as a name. He had used the symbol because he considered his record contract with Warner Bros. Records oppressive, which ended in 2000.
The symbol to which Prince changed his name (which is best rendered as either O{+> or O(+> in normal ASCII characters) originated in and was borrowed by Prince from ancient Europe.
[16 October 1996]. Son, with Mayte Garcia, born with the rare skull disease Pfeiffer's syndrome and unable to breathe without a ventilator. The child was taken off life support on 23 October and died.
Changed his stage name to O(+>. [June 1993]
Started the careers of Vanity and Carmen Electra amongst others.
Son of jazz pianist John L. Nelson.
One of very few artists who has denied 'Weird Al' Yankovic permission to parody any of his songs. After years of asking, ''Weird Al' Yankovic' obtained video parody permission, and the video for UHF (1989) includes a sequence that spoofs the bathtub intro for Prince's video of "When Doves Cry".
Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in March 2004.
A very short man, he often had to wear large shoes on stage so he wasn't dwarfed by some female singers.
He was voted the 28th greatest Rock & Roll Artist of all time by "Rolling Stone" magazine.
He joined Sylvester Stallone, Roberto Benigni, Kevin Costner, William Shatner and Tom Green as being the only actors to direct themselves in performances that would win them a Razzie Award for Worst Actor.
Did the music for the movie Girl 6 (1996) as Prince. It was the only time he referred to himself as Prince from 1993 to 2000.
In the late 1990s, he requested to be referred to as simply The Artist, since his initial intention when he changed his name to O(+> was to not be referred to as Prince. Unfortunately that was not going too well, considering everyone was calling him the Artist Formerly Known as Prince because the symbol has no pronunciation.
The symbol he used as his name was also the name of his last Warner Bros. album as Prince, which was released just a few months before his name change. He recorded as Prince since then on his independently distributed, self-released albums and those licensed to Arista/BMG Records and Columbia/SME Records.
Known for his colorful outfits and explicitly flaunting and expressing his strong sexuality during his performances, despite being a devout Christian.
One of the very few musicians who wrote, produced, and composed all of their music themselves. On most of his albums, he played all the instruments himself, except for brass instruments, which he didn't play, though he did have a backing band for concerts. His songwriting skills provided hits for others such as Chaka Khan, Sinéad O'Connor and Jordan Knight.
Played the song "1999" for the last time at a New Year's Eve party in 1999, then announced he was retiring the song.
During the filming of Purple Rain (1984), he was told one day by director Albert Magnoli that the film needed a montage song that dealt heavily on emotions. Prince responded with two songs the very next morning, written, produced and recorded. One of the songs was the smash hit "When Doves Cry".
Performed a composition written by his father, John L. Nelson, in the music of Purple Rain (1984); this music was also part a song from the Purple Rain (1984) soundtrack, "Computer Blue".
His 1984 album "Purple Rain" sold 13 million copies in the United States.
In November 2005 he was told by his doctors that he would need a hip replacement following years of energetic dancing on stage.
Was to duet with Michael Jackson on his album "Bad", but could not decide on the words to the song.
Prince's 2006 tour made him the most lucrative live performer of the year. His 69 city, 96 show tour took $87.4 million (£45.5 million), beating Céline Dion's Las Vegas residency, which came in second, taking $80.4 million (£41.8 million).
He was the winner of the British Phonographic Industry Awards for International Act and Soundtrack for "Purple Rain" in 1985. He was also the winner of the Brit Award for International Solo Artist in two consecutive years, 1992 and 1993.
In his An Evening with Kevin Smith (2002) film, director Kevin Smith says that he learned during shooting of a documentary for Prince that he has made about 50 fully produced music videos for songs that were never released in any kind of form.
Arrived an hour late to the 2007 Golden Globe Awards due to traffic and missed accepting the Golden Globe for Best Song for movie "Happy Feet". Justin Timberlake accepted the award for him after an awkward silence waiting for Prince to come on stage. He did so in an amusing fashion by crouching down to a shorter height and raising his voice to accept the award for Prince. Hugh Grant later announced Prince had finally arrived after being stuck in gridlock traffic, and gave Prince an opportunity to stand and receive applause for his win.
During high school he was in a band called "Champagne" with his cousin Morris Day and friend Andre Cymone.
Known as "Gazoo" in school because of his huge Afro and small body. Gazoo was the flying space guy in the Fintstones cartoon show with the giant head covered by a space helmet.
Inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame for his outstanding contribution to British music and integral part of British music culture. [14 November 2006].
Ranked #18 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll.
Ranked #5 on VH1's 100 Sexiest Artists.
Wrote a song for his friend, actress Jackie Swanson, entitled "Palomino Pleasure Ride".
Has sold 80 million albums worldwide.
Held a press conference to announce his intention to perform 21 shows in London. (8 May 2007).
Performed at the Super Bowl XLI halftime show in Miami, Florida, to a worldwide television audience of 140 million viewers. (4 February 2007).
Thrilled his hometown fans by performing three shows over twelve hours, only stopping when police shut him down. The Minneapolis native first performed at a department store to promote his new cologne, cramming nine songs into a 45-minute set. He then played that night at the Target Center arena. He capped the night with a return to First Avenue, the club he made famous in the movie Purple Rain (1984). Minnesota's governor and the Minneapolis mayor issued proclamations honoring Prince, and fans flew in from all over the country to see the performer. After the Target Center, Prince waited until nearly 2:45 a.m. before starting the First Avenue show, the first time he had played at the club since 1987. The city lets music play until 4 a.m. He was 15 songs and 70 minutes into a 24-song set when he announced from the stage: "The authorities say we gotta go. We always listen to the authorities. I promise I'll be back." (7 July 2007).
Was a vegetarian.
Shared a great interest in silent-screen star Clara Bow with friend and former girlfriend Sherilyn Fenn.
(May 10, 2010) Merited a place in Time magazine's - The 100 Most Influential People in the World ("Artists" category) - with an homage penned by Usher Raymond.
Ex-wife Manuela Testolini married Halle Berry's ex-husband Eric Benét at The Resort at Pelican Hill (Newport Beach, California). Among the guests were Samuel L. Jackson, Niecy Nash, Shaun Robinson, and Matt Bonner. Testolini and Benet have been an item for four years, and are expecting their first child. (31 July 2011).
Prince was diagnosed with epilepsy as a child, and had seizures through his early childhood. However, it wasn't until 2009, in an interview with PBS's Tavis Smiley, that Prince openly talked about this, one of very few celebrities to go public about their experience as someone living with epilepsy. He also credited epilepsy with motivating him to become a performer.
In the film Fargo (1996), a drive-by witness to a murder is credited as O(+>, a direct reference to Prince's stage name at the time. This is actually a reference to the fact that both Prince and directors Joel Coen and Ethan Coen are from Minnesota.
Died approximately 67 days after the death of his longtime protege and former girlfriend Vanity.
Mentioned in the Eminem song "Without Me".
Childhood friend of Lauren Green.
Prince was working on his memoirs with his brother when he passed away.
He was widely known to be a very private man.
Prince reportedly has enough unreleased music in his Vault at Paisley Park to fill albums for the next century, but since he has no will it is unknown if any of it will ever be made public.
Paisley Park is set to become a public monument like Graceland.
Stay tuned:
Prince's parents was very talented ... keep a watch out .
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