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Prince (musician)

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For other uses, see Prince (disambiguation).
Prince

Prince Rogers Nelson (born June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American musician. He performs simply as Prince, but has also been known by various other names, among them an unpronounceable symbol, leading fans and critics to dub him "The Artist (Formerly Known As Prince)", occasionally abbreviated as "TAFKAP".

From his early material, rooted in R&B, soul and funk, Prince has expanded his musical palette throughout his career, absorbing many other genres including pop, rock, jazz, psychedelia and hip hop. The distinctive characteristics of the early-to-mid 1980s work, such as sparse and industrial-sounding drum machine arrangements and the use of synthesizer riffs to serve the role traditionally occupied by horn riffs in earlier R&B, funk and soul music—was called the "Minneapolis sound" and has proved very influential.

Prince is a prolific artist, having released several hundred songs both under his own name and with other artists. Known to be a perfectionist, Prince is highly protective of his music. He produces, composes, arranges and performs nearly all of the songs on his albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.


Personal life

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Prince was romantically linked with many celebrities, including Vanity (also known as Denise Matthews), Madonna, Anna Fantastic,[1] Carmen Electra,[2] Jill Jones, Apollonia Kotero, Kim Basinger, Sheena Easton, Robin Arcuri, Troy Beyer, Susanna Hoffs and Nona Gaye.

Prince was never romantically linked to Sheila E, but they were good friends and she served as artistic inspiration. They continue to support and perform with each other today. Jill Jones was a good friend as well and she met Prince before Dirty Mind and continued being friends after the making of Graffiti Bridge. If they were dating, it was never confirmed.

Apollonia was actually married when she met Prince and played the part in Purple Rain. They allowed the rumors of dating and kept the marriage information quiet to support the Purple Rain movie craze.

He also dated Susanna Melvoin for a period (Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin's sister). Susanna sang backup during the Parade tour and sang on the Around the World in a Day Parade and Sign o' the Times albums.

He married his backup singer and dancer, Mayte Garcia, on Valentine's Day, 1996. They had one son, Gregory, who was born with Pfeiffer syndrome and died shortly after birth. They were divorced in 1999.[3]

In 1997, Prince approached funk bassist Larry Graham, one of his childhood idols, with questions about his Jehovah's Witness faith. In a later interview, Graham stated that Prince was in need of Biblical answers and advice and that Graham was glad to answer. Prince apparently became very interested in the religion: around this time he began censoring some of his more provocative song lyrics in concerts, as well as editing various religious references in his songs that he had recently learned were Biblically inaccurate.[citation needed] He was baptized by Jehovah's Witnesses in 2001, marking his formal conversion to the faith. At this time, he also released the album The Rainbow Children, which relied heavily upon Jehovah's Witness religious themes.

He married Manuela Testolini in 2001 in private ceremony but she filed for divorce in May 2006.[4] Prince is a vegan.[5] In 2006 he was voted the "world's sexiest vegetarian" in PETA's annual online poll.[6]

Discography

Main article: Prince discography

Filmography

Prince's music has been featured in many films. This list includes films and videos releases in which Prince has either acted or performed, or to which he has actively contributed songs. Films that license preexisting Prince songs are not listed:

Monikers

Prince often uses pseudonyms and monikers to separate himself from the music (either his own or that of others) he has had input in; he has said that he was tired of seeing his name everywhere, and that only egotistical people take credit for everything they do.[7] He is also recognized by the names of various characters he has played on film, the most well-known of which is The Kid, protagonist of Purple Rain.

  • Camille — Significant alter ego character and vocalist on tracks between 1986 and 1988. A Camille-like character also makes an appearance in the song "PFUnk", released in 2007.
  • Mr. Goodnight — on the track of the same name on Planet Earth in 2007
  • Jamie Starr / The Starr Company — early producer of The Time, Vanity 6, etc.
  • The Revolution — Though the band had other members, several songs credited to Prince and The Revolution were performed by Prince alone
  • The Kid — Prince's semi-autobiographical persona in Purple Rain; the character was revisited in the film Graffiti Bridge
  • Joey Coco — producer/writer of songs for Kenny Rogers, Sheena Easton, etc.
  • Christopher Tracy — lead character of Under the Cherry Moon
  • Alexander Nevermind — writer of "Sugar Walls" for Sheena Easton, also, writer on "Telepathy", by Deborah Allen.
  • Paisley Park — writer of songs for Ingrid Chavez, El DeBarge, Paula Abdul, Patti LaBelle, Tevin Campbell, and Louie Louie.
  • Madhouse — writer and performer (except saxophone and flute by Eric Leeds) of all tracks on the first Madhouse album. Though credited to the "band," which did not exist at that time, Prince draws royalties for this work. On Madhouse's second album, some tunes were specified as being written by Prince, Sheila E., Eric Leeds, and Levi Seacer, Jr., while other compositions were attributed to Madhouse, i.e., Prince
  • Austra Chanel — name of the "mentor" under which Madhouse was assembled; said to be the creator of the Madhouse concept
  • Gemini — Co-lead vocal "character" throughout the Batman project in 1989
  • Partyman — Prince plays the titular character in said music video
  • Tora Tora — on the NPG's Exodus album
  • Azifwekaré — "homeless pothead" on the song "Style" and director credit to the "Face Down" video
  • The unpronounceable symbol (Love Symbol) — adopted as official name from 1993 to 2000
  • The Artist Formerly Known As Prince — offered by journalists as an alternative to the Love Symbol
  • The Artist — emerged from "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince," and usually accredited to his then lawyer L. Londel McMillan and became the most common alias in the media in the late 1990s
  • Christopher — wrote "Manic Monday", made popular by The Bangles
  • Prince was featured as one of Maxim magazine's "25 Greatest Short Dudes" with a height of 1.57 m (5'2").[8]
  • Prince, with The Revolution, was the subject of a famous Chappelle's Show sketch called Charlie Murphy's True Hollyword Stories. Murphy recounts how he met Prince (played by Dave Chappelle) at a night club. Murphy said Prince was "wearing a blouse... like something that a figure-skater would wear." Prince then made a surprising challenge of a basketball game. His team of players, dressed in "blouses" and high-heeled boots from the club, then proceeded to beat Murphy and his friends soundly. In a 2004 interview for MTV, Prince denied wearing the skirt during the contest, but confirmed "the whooping's true."[9]
  • Prince was depicted as an Internet nerd on The Simpsons and his work has been referenced on the show on several occasions: on one episode the family named a puppy "The Puppy Formerly Known as Prince."
  • Prince has been impersonated on the following sketch comedy shows:
    • Saturday Night Live, by Gary Kroeger in two cold-opening sketches in the mid-1980s — one where the SNL cast prepare for Prince's arrival on the show, and another where Prince, played by Billy Crystal, is singing a charity song called "I Am Also the World" and every musician who attempts a duet with him gets beaten up by Prince's back-up singers (Mary Gross and Julia Louis-Dreyfus portraying Wendy and Lisa.) or his bodyguards (played by hosts Mr. T and Hulk Hogan); by Chris Kattan in a one-off sketch from the 24th season episode hosted by Bill Paxton where Prince performs "Kiss" on a talk show hosted by Ted Nugent (Paxton) and gets shot with a crossbow; and, most recently, by Fred Armisen in the recurring sketch "The Prince Show" that started on the 29th season episode hosted by Drew Barrymore.
    • MADtv, by Phil LaMarr in three sketches: one where Prince has dinner with "The Klumps" from the Eddie Murphy version of the Nutty Professor movies, one where Prince stars as Moses in a Biblical epic called "The Artist Formerly Known as the Prince of Egypt"; and in a one-off sketch where Prince, Jack Nicholson (played by Pat Kilbane), and Steven Seagal (played by Will Sasso) have a sleepover and try to kick Eddie Murphy (played by Aries Spears) out of it.
    • Rock Profile, by Matt Lucas in two sketches and a 45-minute special, titled Rock The Blind. Prince is portrayed as a Scottish tramp, "busking" in Glasgow, and living "up the woods."
    • "Spitting Image", the British satirical show had a puppet of Prince (complete with purple costume and long tongue) who sings a parody of Purple Rain entitled "Black Moustache".
  • In an episode of Muppets Tonight, when Prince is trying to get past Bobo to get backstage for the show, he claims he's "the artist formerly known as Prince," Bobo retorts by saying, "and I'm the bear currently known as not amused." He also confuses his symbol for an ink blot test.
  • Prince is mentioned in Salt-n-Pepa's "Shoop," The Bloodhound Gang's "The Bad Touch," Missy Elliott's "Work It," Nas's "Bridging The Gap," The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Nasty Girl," Groove Armada featuring Mutya Buena's "Song 4 Mutya," Eminem's "Without Me," Ludacris, Twista & Jagged Edge's "Freaky Thangs,", Hot Chip's "Down with Prince", Debbie Harry's "Kiss It Better", Kanye West's "Stronger", and (Smog)'s "Prince Alone in the Studio".
  • In the episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius where Jimmy, Sheen, and Carl enter the annual school talent contest, Sheen demands that he be referred to as "The Artist Formerly Known as Sheen."
  • In one episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Ashley brings home a boy who tells father Phil that his name was a symbol he had drawn on a piece of paper. When asked about it, the boy says "It's a symbol. Like Prince."
  • Los Angeles Indie Rock band, Sabrosa Purr, named their debut E.P. "Music From the Violet Room" after a misinterpreted Prince lyric in "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" from Sign o' the Times. Prince is noted in many of their interviews as the biggest influence on Sabrosa Purr's singer/songwriter Will Love.
  • In a sketch of Big Train, Prince (as a carnivore) stalks a herd of horseracing jockeys in the African wilderness, eventually killing one and feeding on its carcass.
  • Pop artist Darren Hayes attributed his decision to record his double album This Delicate Thing We've Made to the influence that Prince's album Sign o' the Times had on him as a child.
  • In the movie Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth, Bullimia Falls principal, Principal Interest (played by Coolio) dresses up like Prince tells the students and the staff to call him "The Administrator Formerly Known As Principal".
  • In one of the Robert Townsend and His Partners in Crime series, Keenan Ivory Wayans spoofs Prince as "Prince Jones" (with Robert Townsend as "Michael Davis" aka Michael Jackson) in "Rock Cops." The two performers come together to fight crime. In one scene, Prince taunts Michael with the puppet used in Purple Rain, to which Michael shouts "Get rid of that puppet. I'm sick of you and that puppet!" Prince snaps back "As soon as you get rid of this zoo!" in reference to Michael Jackson's extensive animal collection.
  • In the 1985 film The Goonies, the character Mouth wears a PrincePurple Rain album cover t-shirt.
  • In a sketch from The Kids in the Hall, Scott Thompson plays an entertainment critic named Weston. During his rambling about different artists, he includes Prince saying, "Apparently, the purple clad, gender-bending, rock star, Prince, is not really a prince at all. Just a guy from Minnesota."
  • Sign O' the Times, Purple Rain and the Batman soundtrack are mentioned in Shaun of the Dead as the characters pick albums to throw at zombies.
  • In an episode of The X-Files, Fox Mulder jokes to Dana Scully when asked about the unexplained weather phenomena of purple rain, "...Yeah. Great album. Deeply flawed movie, though."
  • In an episode of the Nickelodeon T.V. series Back At The Barnyard 5 of the members of the barnyard crew create a band when pig says "please refer to me as my newly changed the name... this" and holds up a piece of paper with a symbol referring to prince's name change
  • The Flight of the Conchords song "The Most Beautiful Girl (in the room)" is a parody based Prince's "Most Beautiful Girl in the World", sung in a style similar to Prince, and with many of his trademark falsetto flourishes.

Awards

category Outstanding Male Artist

  • 2007 : Won Golden Globe

category Best Original Song - Motion Picture (from movie "Happy Feet" (2006)) for "The Song of the Heart"

  • 2006 : Won BET Award

category Best Male R&B Artist

  • 2005 : Won Grammy Award

category Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for "Musicology"

  • 2005 : Won Grammy Award
  • 2005 : Won Myranda's Heart

category Best R&B Vocal Performance - Male for "Call My Name"

  • 2005 : Won NAACP Vanguard Award
  • 2005 : Won NAACP Image Award

category Outstanding Album for "Musicology"

  • 2004 : Won World Soundtrack Special Award

for Purple Rain (1984) shared with Wendy Melvoin; Lisa Coleman; Bobby Z.

  • 2004 : Won Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

category Performer

  • 2000 : Won Soul Train Music Award

category Artist of the Decade - Male

  • 1995 : Won Award of Merit
  • 1993 : Won Brit Award

category Best International Solo Artist

  • 1992 : Won Soul Train Heritage Award - Career Achievement
  • 1992 : Won Brit Award

category Best International Solo Artist

  • 1991 : Won ASCAP Award

category Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures (from movie "Graffiti Bridge" (1990)) for "Thieves in the Temple"

  • 1990 : Won ASCAP Award

category Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures (from movie "Batman" (1989)) for "Partyman"

  • 1990 : Won AMA Award of Achievement
  • 1988 : Won MTV Video Music Award

category Best Male Video for "U Got The Look"

  • 1988 : Won MTV Video Music Award

category Best Stage Performance Video for "U Got The Look"

  • 1987 : Won Grammy Award

category Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Kiss" shared with The Revolution

  • 1987 : Won Razzie Award

category Worst Director for Under the Cherry Moon (1986)

  • 1987 : Won Razzie Award

category Worst Original Song (from movie "Under the Cherry Moon" (1986)) for "Love or Money"

  • 1987 : Won Razzie Award

category Worst Actor for Under the Cherry Moon (1986)

  • 1986 : Won MTV Video Music Award

category Best Choreography for "Raspberry Beret"

  • 1985 : Won Brit Award

category Best International Artist shared with The Revolutions

  • 1985 : Won Oscar

category Best Music, Original Song Score for Purple Rain (1984)

  • 1985 : Won Grammy Award

category Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special for Purple Rain (1984) shared with Lisa Coleman; Wendy Melvoin; John L. Nelson

  • 1985 : Won American Music Award

category Favorite Soul/R&B Single for "When Doves Cry"

  • 1985 : Won American Music Award

category Favorite Soul/R&B Album for "Purple Rain"

  • 1985 : Won American Music Award

category Favorite Pop/Rock Album for "Purple Rain"

  • 1985 : Won Grammy Award

category Best R&B Song for "I Feel For You"

  • 1985 : Won Grammy Award

category Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Purple Rain" shared with The Revolution

References

  1. ^ Alex Hahn (2003). "Possessed: The Rise And Fall Of Prince". Billboard Books. Retrieved on May 15, 2007
  2. ^ "Prince" NNDB. Retrieved February 17, 2007
  3. ^ dailymail.co.uk
  4. ^ Prince's Wife, Manuela (Partner of five years), Filed for Divorce at people.com
  5. ^ Prince Is Voted 'Sexiest Vegetarian', Performer Tops PETA's Annual Poll, Kristen Bell Is Runner-up - CBS News
  6. ^ Prince Is Voted 'Sexiest Vegetarian', Performer Tops PETA's Annual Poll, Kristen Bell Is Runner-up - CBS News
  7. ^ Bass Player | Prince Lyrics | princelyrics.co.uk
  8. ^ [1] Maxim Magazine, December 2005
  9. ^ Sway Calloway, Prince: Hoops-Shooting music expert, MTV.com, April 28, 2004. Retrieved on September 14, 2007.
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