Prince

Prince was born as Prince Rogers Nelson on the 7th June 1958. During his career, he has been known as many different names, but most people simply know him as Prince. In 1993 he changes his name to o+> which was meant to signify a symbol of love, but during this time, most people referred to him as "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince".

Prince has released literally over a thousand songs during his amazing career, and worked on many more side projects as well. He has won several Grammy Awards, as well as a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for his film Purple Rain. In 2004 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The foundation of Princes music is rooted in funk, but covers many other genres, including Rockk & Roll, Soul, Jazz, Hip Hop and many others. Prince is a multi instrumentalist and plays many different instruments on his recordings, but his main weapon of choice is the guitar.

Princes parents separated when he was ten years old. His mother remarried and Prince had a rocky relationship with his new stepfather. At the age of 18, Prince began performing in bands such as Grand Central as well as writing songs for other artists. Two years later, Prince recorded his first album "For You" . Prince played all the instruments on this album (27 of them) and wrote all the songs himself, except for "Soft & Wet" which was cowritten with Moon.

Prince released his second, self titled album in late 1979, followed soon after by critically acclaimed "Dirty Mind". Since then, Prince has released, on average, an album a year, each one following a different path to the one before...

• 1981: Controversy
  
• 1982: 1999
  
• 1984: Purple Rain
  
• 1985: Around the World in a Day
  
• 1986: Parade
  
• 1987: Sign “☮” the Times
  
• 1988: Lovesexy
  
• 1989: Batman
  
• 1990: Graffiti Bridge
  
• 1991: Diamonds and Pearls
  
• 1992: Love Symbol Album[78]
  
• 1994: Come
  
• 1994: The Black Album (recorded in 1987)
  
• 1995: The Gold Experience
  
• 1996: Chaos and Disorder
  
• 1996: Emancipation
  
• 1999: Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic
  
• 2001: The Rainbow Children
  
• 2002: One Nite Alone...
  
• 2003: Xpectation
  
• 2003: N.E.W.S
  
• 2004: Musicology
  
• 2004: The Chocolate Invasion
  
• 2004: The Slaughterhouse
  
• 2006: 3121
  
• 2007: Planet Earth
  
• 2009: LOtUSFLOW3R
  

Arguably Princes most creative and popular period was during the mid to late 80's when he performed with his band "The Revolution". It was during this time that he released the smash hit album "Purple Rain", which has since been ranked #72 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Although a bit of a recluse when it comes to the media, Prince has been romantically linked to many female celebrities during his career, Carmen Electra, Sheena Easton, Susanna Hoffs and Kim Basinger.  He was married for 3 years to his backup singer Mayte Garcia. They had a son named Boy Gregory in 1996, but he passed away shortly after birth. The couple separated in 1999. Prince was also married to Manuela Testolini from 2001 - 2006.

Princes work has always had a current of religiousness running through it, and in 2001, Prince was baptised as a Jehovahs Witness. It was during this period that he released "The Rainbow Children, which was heavily influenced by his recent conversion.