PrincePrince (born Prince Rogers Nelson, June 7, 1958) is a singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He has been known under the unpronounceable symbol Love Symbol Album , which he used between 1993 and 2000. During that period he was frequently referred to in the media as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince", often abbreviated to "TAFKAP", or simply "The Artist" According to Robert Larsen in his book, History of Rock and Roll, Prince is "one of the most talented and commercially successful pop musicians of the last 20 years", producing ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label, writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of the instruments on his recordings. In that same year Rolling Stone ranked Prince #28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Prince's music has been influenced by rock Rock music , R&B Rhythm and blues , soul soul music , funk, rap, smooth jazz, blues, New Wave New Wave music , electronica, disco, psychedelia psychedelic music , folk folk music , jazz, and hip hop hip hop music . Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Duke Ellington, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder. Prince pioneered the "Minneapolis sound", a hybrid mixture of funk, rock, pop, R&B and New Wave that has influenced many other musicians. In a PBS Public Broadcasting Service interview Prince told Tavis Smiley that he was "born epileptic epilepsy " and "used to have seizures" when he was young. During the interview Prince also said that "my mother told me one day I walked in to her and said, 'Mom, I'm not going to be sick anymore,' and she said 'Why?' and I said 'Because an angel told me so.' " Prince's sister Tika Evene (usually called Tyka) was born in 1960. Prince's parents then separated when Prince was ten years old and Prince lived with his father. Prince moved out after his father found him in bed with a female friend. Prince moved into the home of a neighbor, the Andersons, and befriended their son, Andre Anderson who later became known as André Cymone. Prince and Anderson joined Prince's cousin, Charles Smith, in a band called Grand Central while they were attending Minneapolis's Central High School. Smith was later replaced by Morris Day on the drums. Prince played piano and guitar for the band which performed at clubs and parties in the Minneapolis area and was managed by the mother of one of the band members. Grand Central later changed its name to Champagne and started playing original music influenced by Sly & the Family Stone, James Brown, Earth, Wind & Fire, Miles Davis, Parliament-Funkadelic, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, and Todd Rundgren.In 1976, Prince created a demo tape with producer Chris Moon in Moon's Minneapolis studio. Unable to secure a recording contract, Moon brought the tape to Minneapolis businessman Owen Husney. Husney signed Prince, at the age of 17, to a management contract and helped Prince create a demo recording at Sound 80 Studios in Minneapolis using producer/engineer David Z. The demo recording, along with a press kit produced at Husney's ad agency, resulted in interest from several record companies including Warner Bros., A&M, and Columbia Records. With the help of Husney, Prince signed a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records. Warner Bros. agreed to give Prince creative control for three albums and ownership of the publishing rights. Husney and Prince then left Minneapolis and moved to Sausalito, California where Prince's first album, For You, was recorded at the Record Plant recording studio. Subsequently, the album was mixed in Los Angeles and released in 1978. Musical beginnings: 1974–80 In 1975, Pepe Willie, the husband of Prince's cousin, Shauntel, formed the band 94 East with Marcy Ingvoldstad and Kristie Lazenberry. Willie hired Andre Cymone and Prince to record tracks with 94 East. Those songs were written by Willie and Prince contributed guitar tracks. Prince also co-wrote, with Willie, the 94 East song, "Just Another Sucker". The band recorded tracks which later became the album Minneapolis Genius – The Historic 1977 Recordings. Prince also recorded, but never released, a song written by Willie - "If You See Me" a.k.a. "Do Yourself A Favor". In 1995, Willie released the album 94 East featuring Prince, Symbolic Beginning which included original recordings by Prince and Cymone. Prince released the album For You For You (Prince album) on April 17, 1978. The album was written and performed by Prince, except for the song "Soft and Wet" which had lyrics co-written by Moon. According to the For You album notes, Prince produced, arranged, composed and played all 27 instruments on the recording. The cost of recording the album was twice Prince's initial advance. Prince used the Prince's Music Co. to publish music publisher (popular music) his songs. The single from the album reached #12 on the Hot Soul Singles Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and #92 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song "Just as Long as We're Together" reached #91 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. In 1979 Prince created a band which included André Cymone on bass, Dez Dickerson on guitar,***le Chapman and Doctor Fink on keyboards, and Bobby Z on drums. Their first show was at the Capri Theater on January 5, 1979. Warner Bros. executives attended the show but decided that Prince and the band needed more time to develop his music. Because the symbol was and is unpronounceable, he was often referred to as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince". It is the beginning of faltering record sales and critical and commercial success. Increased output: 1994–2000 In 1994, Prince's attitude towards his artistic output underwent a notable shift. He began to view releasing albums in quick succession as a means of ejecting himself from his contractual obligations to Warner Bros. The label, he believed, was intent on limiting his artistic freedom by insisting that he release albums more sporadically. He also blamed Warner Bros. for the poor commercial performance of the Love Symbol album, claiming that it was insufficiently marketed by Warner. It was out of these developments that the aborted Black Album The Black Album (Prince album) was officially released, approximately seven years after its initial recording and near-release. The "new" release, which was already in wide circulation as a bootleg bootleg recording , sold relatively poorly. Following that disappointing venture, Warner Bros. succumbed to Prince's wishes to release an album of new material, to be entitled Come Come (album) . When Come was eventually released, it confirmed all of Warner's fears. It became Prince's poorest-selling album to date, struggling to even shift 500,000 copies. Even more frustrating was the fact that Prince insisted on crediting the album to "Prince 1958–1993". Prince pushed to have his next album The Gold Experience released simultaneously with Love Symbol-era material. Warner Bros. allowed the single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (Prince song) " to be released via a small, independent distributor, Bellmark Records, in February 1994. The release was successful, reaching #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #1 in many other countries, but it would not prove to be a model for subsequent releases. Warner Bros. still resisted releasing The Gold Experience, fearing poor sales and citing "market saturation" as a defense. When eventually released in September 1995, The Gold Experience failed to sell well, although it reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 initially, and many reviewed it as Prince's best effort since Sign o' the Times. It is also considered to be the next Purple Rain, because the album has rock and roll feel. The album is now out-of-print. Chaos and Disorder, released in 1996, was Prince's final album of new material for Warner Bros., as well as one of his least commercially successful releases. Prince attempted a major comeback later that year when, free of any further contractual obligations to Warner Bros., he released Emancipation Emancipation (album) , a 36-song, 3-CD set (each disc was exactly 60 minutes long). The album was released via his own NPG Records with distribution through EMI. To publish his songs on Emancipation, Prince did not use Controversy Music – ASCAP, which he had used for all his records since 1981, but rather used Emancipated Music Inc. – ASCAP. Certified Platinum RIAA certification by the RIAA Recording Industry Association of America , Emancipation is the first record featuring covers cover version by Prince of songs of other artists: Joan Osborne's top ten hit song of 1995 "One of Us One of Us (song) "; "Betcha by Golly Wow!" (written by Thomas Randolf Bell and Linda Creed); "I Can't Make You Love Me" (written by James Allen Shamblin II and Michael Barry Reid); and "La-La (Means I Love You)" (written by Thomas Randolf Bell and William Hart). Prince released Crystal Ball Crystal Ball (album set) , a 5-CD collection of unreleased material, in 1998. The distribution of this album was disorderly, with some fans pre-ordering the album on his website up to a year before it was eventually shipped to them, and months after the record had gone on sale in retail stores. The retail edition has only four discs, as it is missing the "Kamasutra" disc. There are also two different packaging editions for retail, one being in a 4-disc sized jewel case with a simple white cover and the Love Symbol in a colored circle; the other is all four discs in a round translucent snap jewel case. The discs are the same, as is the CD jacket. The Newpower Soul album released three months later failed to make much of an impression on the charts. His collaboration on Chaka Khan's Come 2 My House, and Larry Graham's GCS2000, both released on the NPG Records label around the same time as Newpower Soul met with the same fate, despite heavy promotion and live appearances on Vibe with Sinbad Vibe (magazine) , and the NBC Today Today (NBC program) show's Summer Concert Series. In 1999, Prince once again signed with a major label Arista Records to release a new record, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. In an attempt to make his new album a success, Prince easily gave more interviews than at any other point in his career, appearing on MTV's Total Request Live (with his album cover on the front of the Virgin Megastore, in the background on TRL throughout the whole show), Larry King Live (with Larry Graham) and other media outlets. Nevertheless, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic failed to perform well commercially. A few months earlier, Warner Bros. had also released The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, a collection of unreleased material recorded by Prince throughout his career, and his final recording commitment on his contract with Warner Bros. The greatest success he had during the year was with the EP 1999: The New Master, released in time for Prince to collect a small portion of the sales dollars Warner Bros. had been seeing for the album and singles of the original 1999. The pay-per-view concert, Rave Un2 the Year 2000, was broadcast on December 31, 1999 and consisted of footage from the December 17 and December 18 concerts of his 1999 tour. The concert featured appearances by many guest musicians including Lenny Kravitz, George Clinton George Clinton (musician) , Jimmy Russell, and The Time. It was released to home video the following year. A remix album, Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic (as opposed to "Un2") was released exclusively through Prince's NPG Music Club in April 2000. Turnaround: 2000–05 On May 16, 2000, Prince ceased using the Love Symbol moniker and returned to using "Prince" again, after his publishing contract with Warner/Chappell Warner/Chappell Music expired. In a press conference, he stated that, after being freed from undesirable relationships associated with the name "Prince", he would formally revert to using his real name. Prince still frequently uses the symbol as a logo and on album artwork and continues to play a Love Symbol-shaped guitar. For several years following the release of Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, Prince primarily released new music through his Internet subscription service, NPGOnlineLtd.com (later NPGMusicClub.com). Two albums that show substantive jazz influence were available commercially at record stores: 2001's The Rainbow Children, and the 2003 instrumental record N.E.W.S which was nominated for a Best Pop Instrumental Album Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album Grammy Award. Another album of largely jazz-influenced music, Xpectation, was released via download in 2003 to members of the NPGMusicClub. In 2002, Prince released his first live album, One Nite Alone... Live!, which features performances from the One Nite Alone...Tour. The 3-CD box set, which also includes a disc of "aftershow" music entitled It Ain't Over!, failed to chart. During this time, Prince sought to engage more effectively with his fan base via the NPG Music Club, pre-concert sound checks, and at yearly "celebrations" at Paisley Park Paisley Park Records , his music studios. Fans were invited into the studio for tours, interviews, discussions and music-listening sessions. Some of these fan discussions were filmed for an unreleased documentary Unreleased Prince projects#Untitled Kevin Smith-directed documentary , directed by Kevin Smith. Smith discusses what happened during those days at length in his An Evening with Kevin Smith DVD. Performances were also arranged to showcase Prince's talents, as well as to collaborate with popular and well-established artists and guests including Alicia Keys, The Time, Erykah Badu, Nikka Costa, George Clinton, Norah Jones. On February 8, 2004, Prince appeared at the Grammy Awards with Beyoncé Knowles. In a performance that opened the show, Prince and Knowles performed a medley of "Purple Rain", "Let's Go Crazy", "Baby I'm a Star", and Knowles' "Crazy in Love Crazy in Love (Beyoncé Knowles song) " to positive reviews. The following month, Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The award was presented to him by Alicia Keys along with Big Boi and André 3000 of OutKast. As well as performing a trio of his own hits during the ceremony, Prince also participated in a tribute to fellow inductee George Harrison in a rendition of Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", playing a long guitar solo that ended the song. On February 19, The Tavis Smiley Show broadcast included a performance of "Reflection" from Prince's Musicology album. Prince was accompanied by Wendy Melvoin, formerly of The Revolution. In April 2004, Prince released Musicology Musicology (album) through a one-album agreement with Columbia Records. The album rose as high as the top five on a number of international charts (including the U.S, UK, Germany and Australia). The U.S. chart success was assisted by the CD being included as part of the concert ticket purchase, and each CD thereby qualifying (as chart rules then stood) towards U.S. chart placement. That same year, Rolling Stone magazine named Prince as the highest-earning musician in the world, with an annual income of $56.5 million, largely due to his Musicology Tour, which Pollstar named as the top concert draw among musicians in U.S. The artist played an impressive run of 96 concerts; the average ticket price for a show was U.S.$61. Further highlighting the success of the album, Prince's Musicology went on to receive two Grammy wins, for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Call My Name Call My Name (Prince song) " and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for the title track Musicology (song) . Musicology was also nominated for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Album, while "Cinnamon Girl Cinnamon Girl (Prince song) " was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance . The album became the artist's most commercially successful since Diamonds and Pearls, partly due to a radical scheme devised which included in Billboard's sales figures those that were distributed to each customer during ticket sales for the Musicology tour, with concert figures accounting for 25% of the total album sales. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Prince #28 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, Prince offered a personal response by recording two new songs, "S.S.T." and the instrumental "Brand New Orleans", at Paisley Park Paisley Park Records in the early hours of September 2. Prince again performed all instrumental and vocal parts. These recordings were quickly dispersed to the public via Prince's NPG Music Club, and "S.S.T." was later picked up by iTunes iTunes Store , where it reached #1 on the store's R&B chart. On October 25, Sony Records Sony Music Entertainment released a version of the single on CD. Move to Universal: 2005–06 In late 2005 Prince signed with Universal Records to release his album, 3121 3121 (album) , on March 21, 2006 (3/21). The first single was the Latin-tinged "Te Amo Corazón", the video for which was directed by actress Salma Hayek and filmed in Marrakech, Morocco, featuring Argentine actress and singer Mía Maestro. The video for the second single, "Black Sweat", was nominated at the MTV VMAs MTV Video Music Awards for Best Cinematography. The immediate success of 3121 gave Prince his first #1 debut on the Billboard 200 with the album. To promote the new album, Prince was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on February 4, 2006, seventeen years after his last SNL appearance on the 15th anniversary special and nearly 25 years since his first appearance on a regular episode in 1981, making Prince the only SNL musical guest to have that long of a gap between appearances. He performed two songs from the album, "Fury Fury (song) " and "Beautiful, Loved & Blessed", with Támar. Prince also held a contest to win a trip to see a 'Purple Ticket Concert' at his private residence in Hollywood Hollywood, Los Angeles, California , California. Seven winning tickets were placed inside 3121 CD packages in the U.S., and other tickets were given away in various contests on the Internet and around the world. On May 6, 2006, twenty-four prize winners (with a guest each) attended a star-studded private party and performance at Prince's home. On June 12, 2006, Prince received a Webby Webby Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his "visionary" use of the Internet; Prince was the first major artist to release an entire album, 1997's Crystal Ball Crystal Ball (album set) , exclusively on the Internet. Only weeks after winning a Webby Award, Prince abruptly shut down his then-official NPG Music Club website at 12:00 AM on July 4, 2006 after over five years of operation. The NPG Music Club sent out an email, claiming that "in its current 4m there is a feeling that the NPGMC gone as far as it can go. In a world without limitations and infinite possibilities, has the time come 2 once again make a leap of faith and begin anew? These r ?s we in the NPG need 2 answer. In doing so, we have decided 2 put the club on hiatus until further notice." On the day of the music club's shutdown, a lawsuit was filed against Prince by the British company HM Publishing (owners of the Nature Publishing Group, also NPG). Despite these events occurring on the same day, Prince's attorney has called it pure coincidence and stated that the site did not close due to the trademark dispute. Prince appeared at multiple award ceremonies in 2006. On February 15, 2006, Prince performed at the BRIT Awards The BRIT Awards along with Wendy & Lisa and Sheila E. He played "Te Amo Corazón" and "Fury" from 3121 and "Purple Rain" and "Let's Go Crazy" from Purple Rain. On June 27, 2006, Prince appeared at the BET Black Entertainment Television Awards BET Awards , where he was awarded Best Male R&B Artist. In addition to receiving his award, Prince performed a medley of Chaka Khan songs for Khan's BET Lifetime Award. Prince had previously written and performed several songs with the singer. In November 2006, Prince was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, appearing to collect his award but not performing. Also in November 2006, Prince opened a nightclub named 3121 in Las Vegas Las Vegas metropolitan area at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. He performed weekly on Friday and Saturday nights until April 2007, when his contract with the Rio ended. On August 22, 2006, Prince released Ultimate Prince. The double disc set contains one CD of previous hits, and another of extended versions and mixes of material that had largely only previously been available on vinyl record B-sides. Prince wrote and performed a song for the hit 2006 animated film Happy Feet. The song, entitled "The Song of the Heart", appears on the film's soundtrack Happy Feet: Music from the Motion Picture , which also features a cover of Prince's earlier hit "Kiss", sung by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. In January 2007, "The Song of the Heart" won a Golden Globe Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. Prince arrived late, apparently due to traffic problems, and thus was unable to make an acceptance speech, but actor Hugh Grant prompted him later in the ceremony to take a bow. Planet Earth: 2007–2008 On February 2, 2007, Prince played at the Super Bowl XLI press conference. He and the band played a set comprising Chuck Berry's hit, "Johnny B. Goode", "Anotherloverholenyohead" from Parade Parade (Prince album) and "Get On the Boat" from 3121 3121 (album) . Prince performed at the Super Bowl XLI halftime show in Miami, Florida on February 4, 2007. The performance consisted of three Purple Rain tracks ("Let's Go Crazy", "Baby I'm a Star" and the title track Purple Rain (song) ), along with cover versions of "We Will Rock You" by Queen Queen (band) , "All Along the Watchtower" by Bob Dylan, the Foo Fighters song "Best of You" and "Proud Mary" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Coincidentally, Miami had rain on the day of the Super Bowl, which was lit purple during the performance of "Purple Rain". He played on a large stage shaped as his famous symbol. The event was carried to 140 million television viewers, the largest audience of his life. On February 4, 2010, Billboard.com ranked the performance as the greatest Super Bowl performance ever. Prince played 21 concerts in London during the summer of 2007. The Earth Tour Earth Tour (Prince) included 21 nights at the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena The O2 Arena (London) . Tickets for the O2 Arena were priced at £31.21 (including a free copy of Prince's latest album), in order to make the concerts "affordable for everybody". The residency at the O2 Arena was increased to 15 nights after all 140,000 tickets for the original seven sold out in just 20 minutes. It was then further extended to 21 nights. On May 10, 2007, Prince performed a 'secret' gig at London's KOKO KOKO (venue) in front of a small crowd of fans and celebrities. Tickets went on sale that morning on a first-come-first-served basis (again at £31.21). A prelude to the forthcoming summer gigs in London, Prince played a relaxed set of classic hits ("Kiss Kiss (song) ", changing the lyric from "You don't have to watch Dynasty Dynasty (TV series) " to Desperate Housewives, "Girls & Boys Girls & Boys (Prince song) ", and "Nothing Compares 2 U") alongside more recent tracks, plus a well-received cover version of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy Crazy (Gnarls Barkley song) ". Prince made an appearance at the 2007 ALMA Awards, performing with Sheila E. in June 2007. On June 28, 2007, the UK national newspaper The Mail on Sunday revealed that it had made a deal to give Prince's new album, Planet Earth Planet Earth (album) , away for free with an "imminent" edition of the paper, making it the first place in the world to get the album. This move sparked controversy among music distributors and also led the UK arm of Prince's distributor, Sony BMG, to withdraw from distributing the album in UK stores. The UK's largest high street music retailer, HMV, decided to stock the paper on release day due to the giveaway. Planet Earth is rock-oriented along with disco, and other various music styles. On July 7, 2007 Prince returned to his hometown of Minneapolis to perform three shows in what was unofficially declared Prince Day in Minnesota. He performed concerts at the Macy's Auditorium (to promote his new perfume "3121") on Nicollet Mall, the Target Center arena, and First Avenue First Avenue (nightclub) . It was the first time he had played at First Avenue, the club made famous in the film Purple Rain, since 1987. in 2008 On April 25, 2008, Prince performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992 TV series) , where he debuted a new song, "Turn Me Loose". Days after, he headlined the Coachella Festival 2008 2008 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival . Prince was paid more than $5 million for his performance at Coachella, according to Reuters. Prince cancelled a concert, planned at Dublin's Croke Park on June 16, 2008, at just 10 days' notice. In October 2009 promoters MCD Productions went to court to sue Prince for €1.6 million, after paying him $1.5 million, half his agreed fee of $3 million for the concert. MCD claim they had to refund 55,126 tickets purchased and its total losses exceeded $1.66 million. Prince's lawyers argued the MCD claim was "greatly inflated". Prince settled the case out of court in February 2010 for $2.95 million. During the trial, it was revealed that Prince had been offered $22 million for seven concerts as part of a proposed 2008 European tour. In October 2008, Prince released a live album entitled Indigo Nights, as well as 21 Nights, an accompanying book of poems, lyrics and photos. The book chronicled his record-breaking tenure at London's O2 Arena in 2007, while the album is a collection of songs performed live at aftershows in the IndigO2. LOtUSFLOW3R and beyond: 2008-2010 On December 18, 2008, Prince premiered four songs from his new album on LA's Indie 103 KDLD radio show, comprising a cover of "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells, together with "Colonized Mind", "Wall of Berlin" and "4ever". The same day, another new Prince composition entitled "(There'll Never B) Another Like Me" premiered on the now obsolete and defunct website, mplsound.com — replacing a shorter, instrumental version of the song which streamed several days previously. On January 3, 2009, a new website was launched, streaming some of the recently-aired material ("Crimson and Clover", "(There'll Never B) Another Like Me" and "Here Eye Come") and promising opportunities to listen to and buy music by Prince and guests, watch videos and buy concert tickets for future events. On January 31, Prince released two more songs on LotusFlow3r.com: "Disco Jellyfish", and "Another Boy". "Chocolate Box", "A Colonized Mind", and "All This Love" have since been released on the website. in Paris in 2009 Prince released a triple album set containing LOtUSFLOW3R Lotusflower (album) , MPLSoUND, and an album credited to his new protege, Bria Valente, called Elixer, on March 24, 2009, followed by a physical release on March 29. The release was preceded by performances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992 TV series) and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. It was released in other countries digitally, with official physical release dates yet to be announced. The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200, and critics' opinions were mixed to positive. On July 18, 2009, Prince performed two shows at the Montreux Jazz Festival, being backed by The New Power Generation including Rhonda Smith, Renato Neto, and John Blackwell John Blackwell (musician) . There he played "A Large Room With No Light" which had been in Prince's "vault" for some time. On October 11, 2009, Prince gave two surprise concerts at the glass-and-iron Grand Palais exhibition hall after visiting the landmark Paris building on the banks of the Seine. On October 12, he gave another surprise gig at La Cigale. On October 24, Prince played a concert at his own Paisley Park complex in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 20Ten and rejection of the Internet and technology: 2010-present In January 2010, Prince wrote a new song, "Purple and Gold", inspired by his visit to a Minnesota Vikings football game against the Dallas Cowboys. The song is a simple, drumline-driven track with inspirational lyrics about victory. The following month, Prince let Minneapolis-area public radio station 89.3 The Current KCMP premiere his new song "Cause and Effect" as a gesture in support of independent radio. In a poll by BBC 6Music listeners in April 2010, Prince was ranked the eighth-best guitarist of the previous 30 years. Prince was also listed in Time magazine's Time (magazine) 2010 annual ranking of the "100 Most Influential People in the World". He will be at BET BET Award 's 2010 Lifetime Achievement Honoree BET Lifetime Achievement Award for the tenth anniversary for the BET Awards. Prince released a new single on Minneapolis radio station 89.3 The Current called "Hot Summer" on his 52nd birthday, which is June 7. Prince appeared on cover of the July 2010 issue of Ebony Ebony (magazine) . He performed recently in B.B. King's Blues Club in Times Square in New York City, with Larry Graham featuring Greg Errico of Sly and the Family Stone, Graham Central Station, and Barry 'Bee' on sax. He performed in concert in Arras, France on July 9, 2010. Prince received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 BET Awards. Prince released his album 20Ten in July 2010. According to BBC 6 Music, Prince has said that the Internet is "over" and has refused access to the album to digital download services. It was distributed in the UK as a free cover CD with the Daily Mirror. He has also closed down his official website . The album was released in Belgium on July 10 as a free giveaway with a newspaper (Het Nieuwsblad). It was released in Germany with a German edition of Rolling Stone Rolling Stone (magazine) and in France with Courrier International on July 22. A United States deal was not even announced, confirmed, or configured yet. Prince said, "I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They will not give me an advance for it and they get mad when they don't get it. All computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and they are not good for you" in an interview with Daily Mirror.Over the years Prince has been romantically linked with many celebrities, including Kim Basinger, Madonna Madonna (entertainer) , Vanity Vanity (performer) , Sheila E., Carmen Electra, and Anna Fantastic. He married his backup singer and dancer, Mayte Garcia, on Valentine's Day, 1996. Together they had a son named Boy Gregory, (born October 16, 1996) who was born with Pfeiffer syndrome and died a week after birth. Prince and Mayte divorced in 1999. In 2001, Prince married Manuela Testolini in a private ceremony. Testolini then filed for divorce in May 2006. He has been in a relationship with protege Bria Valente since 2007. Prince became one of Jehovah's Witnesses in 2001 following a two-year-long debate with friend and fellow Jehovah's Witness, musician Larry Graham. Prince said he didn't consider it a conversion, but a "realization"; "It's like Morpheus Morpheus (The Matrix) and Neo Neo (The Matrix) in The Matrix", he explained. He attends meetings at a local Kingdom Hall and occasionally knocks on people's doors to discuss his new faith. Prince has reportedly needed double-hip-replacement surgery since 2005 but won't undergo the operation unless it is a bloodless surgery because Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept blood transfusions Jehovah's Witnesses and blood transfusions . The condition is rumored to be aggravated by repeated onstage dancing in high-heeled boots. However, in an interview, Prince was said to have been very agile, and the "rumors he needs a double hip surgery after too much dancing on high heels are unfounded." Prince is a vegan. In 2006 he was voted the "world's ***iest vegetarian" in PETA's annual online poll. The liner notes for his album Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic featured a message about the cruelty involved in wool production. Prince is a self-professed Twin Cities sports enthusiast. He is a "die hard" Minnesota Vikings and Timberwolves Minnesota Timberwolves fan, and owns a skybox at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. He is frequently seen courtside at Timberwolves games, and remains a close friend of former Timberwolf forward Kevin Garnett. He currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is considering buying a home in France.In 1993, during negotiations regarding the release of Prince's album The Gold Experience, a legal battle ensued between Warner Bros. and Prince over the artistic and financial control of Prince's output. During the lawsuit, Prince appeared in public with the word "slave" written on his cheek. Prince explained his name change as follows: The first step I have taken towards the ultimate goal of emancipation from the chains that bind me to Warner Bros. was to change my name from Prince to the Love Symbol. Prince is the name that my mother gave me at birth. Warner Bros. took the name, trademarked it, and used it as the main marketing tool to promote all of the music that I wrote. The company owns the name Prince and all related music marketed under Prince. I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros... I was born Prince and did not want to adopt another conventional name. The only acceptable replacement for my name, and my identity, was the Love Symbol, a symbol with no pronunciation, that is a representation of me and what my music is about. This symbol is present in my work over the years; it is a concept that has evolved from my frustration; it is who I am. It is my name. 'Joey Coco' (for many unreleased Prince songs in the late 1980s, as well as songs written for Sheena Easton & Kenny Rogers), 'Paisley Park' (occasionally used in the early 1990s for his production credits on songs, including those written for Martika and Kid Creole), and 'Christopher' (used for his song writing credit of "Manic Monday" for The Bangles). In 1994, Prince mailed someone a disk containing the font outline for the "Love Symbol #2" with instructions stating that the symbol "is now the Artist's legal name and should be used whenever referring to him in print." However, in 1997, he copyrighted the symbol, which had been prominently featured on the cover of his Love Symbol Album. Thus, fair use of the symbol depends in part on whether one is referring to the album, or the artist as he was legally known during the 1993–2000 time period.In 1995, Prince threatened to sue a 900 number Premium-rate telephone number , operated by Nathan Wright for his Purple Underground magazine phone line, for playing to the public for the first time segments of The Black Album The Black Album (Prince album) . Prince's attorneys, Lavely & Singer, demanded royalties in a cease and desist letter served to Wright. Instead Wright offered to work with Prince and split the profits. Wright and Prince's attorneys then worked on a deal to share profits but the deal never transpired (copies of these documents are available for verification). Instead, Prince started his own 900 number while Wright was able to continue his without any further action. On September 14, 2007, Prince announced that he was going to sue YouTube and eBay because they "are clearly able (to) filter *** and pedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success." Web Sheriff, the international Internet policing company he hired, told Reuters: "The problem is that one can reduce it to zero and then the next day there will be 100 or 500 or whatever. This carries on ad nauseam at Prince's expense." On November 8, 2007, Prince Fans United received a song named "PFUnk", providing a kind of "unofficial answer" to their movement. The song, originally debuted on the PFU main site, was retitled "F.U.N.K.", and is available on iTunes. On November 14, 2007, it was reported that the satirical website b3ta.com had pulled their "image challenge of the week" devoted to Prince after legal threats from the star under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. B3ta co-founder Rob Manuel wrote on the site: "Under threat of legal action from Prince's legal team of 'potential closure of your web site' - We have removed the Prince image challenge and B3ta apologizes unreservedly to AEG / NPG and Prince for any offence caused. We also ask our members to avoid photoshopping Prince and posting them on our boards. At the 2008 Coachella Music Festival, Prince performed a cover of Radiohead's "Creep Creep (Radiohead song) ", but immediately after he forced YouTube and other sites to remove footage that fans had taken of the performance, despite Radiohead's demand for it to remain on the website. Days later, YouTube reinstated the videos, while Radiohead claimed "it's our song, let people hear it." In 2009, Prince put the video of that Coachella performance on his then-official website LotusFlow3r.com.This discography excludes compilations of previously-released material. Prince sold in his career of more than three decades about 100 million records worldwide. * For You For You (Prince album) (1978) * Prince Prince (album) (1979) * Dirty Mind (1980) * Controversy Controversy (Prince album) (1981) * 1999 1999 (album) (1982) * Purple Rain Purple Rain (album) (1984) * Around the World in a Day (1985) * Parade Parade (Prince album) (1986) * Sign o' the Times Sign o' the Times (album) (1987) * Love***y (1988) * Batman Batman (album) (1989) * Graffiti Bridge Graffiti Bridge (album) (1990) * Diamonds and Pearls (1991) * O(+> Love Symbol Album (1992) * Come Come (album) (1994) * The Black Album The Black Album (Prince album) (1994) * The Gold Experience (1995) * Chaos and Disorder (1996) * Emancipation Emancipation (album) (1996) * Crystal Ball Crystal Ball (album set) (1998) * The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale (1999) * Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999) * Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic (2000) * The Rainbow Children (2001) * One Nite Alone... (2002) * Xpectation (2003) * C-Note C-Note (album) (2003) * N.E.W.S (2003) * Musicology Musicology (album) (2004) * The Chocolate Invasion (2004) * The Slaughterhouse (2004) * 3121 3121 (album) (2006) * Planet Earth Planet Earth (album) (2007) * Lotusflow3r Lotusflower (album) (2009) * 20Ten (2010)
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