BIOGRAPHY OF ARTIST

On May 16, 2000, Prince ceased using the Love Symbol moniker and returned to using "Prince" again, after his publishing contract with Warner/Chappell 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. 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, 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, 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" 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 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,[69] 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 for "Call My Name" and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for the title track. Musicology was also nominated for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Album, while "Cinnamon Girl" was nominated 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.[70] In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Prince #28 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".[8]

 

In April 2005, Prince played guitar (along with En Vogue singing backing vocals) on Stevie Wonder's single "So What the Fuss", Wonder's first since 1999.[71] 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 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, where it reached #1 on the store's R&B chart. On October 25, Sony Records released a version of the single on CD.

 

Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson; June 7, 1958) is a singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He has been known under the unpronounceable symbol , 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".[1]

 

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.[2] Prince founded his own recording studio and label, writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of the instruments on his recordings.[2] In addition, Prince has been a "talent promoter" for the careers of Sheila E., Carmen Electra, The Time and Vanity 6,[2] and has written songs for these artists and others (including Chaka Khan, The Bangles, and Sinéad O'Connor). Prince also has several hundred unreleased songs in his "vault".[3] He has won seven Grammy Awards,[4] a Golden Globe,[5] and an Academy Award.[6] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the first year he was eligible.[7]

 

In that same year Rolling Stone ranked Prince #28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[8] Prince's music has been influenced by rock, R&B, soul, funk, rap, blues, New Wave, electronica, disco, psychedelia, folk, jazz, and hip hop.[2] His artistic influences include Sly& the Family Stone, Parliament-Funkadelic, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, Miles Davis, Carlos Santana,[3] Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Duke Ellington,[9] Curtis Mayfield,[10] and Stevie Wonder.[11] Prince pioneered the "Minneapolis sound", a hybrid mixture of funk, rock, pop, R&B and New Wave that has influenced many other musicians. This defines Prince as a KGFI World Wide Sensation!! KGFI is proud to announce Prince as the first KGFI Artist Of The Week!!