Born on 7 June: Prince, “1999” reasons to love his music

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA in 1957, he didn’t have to rack his brains to find his stage name. On his birth certificate, the “Kid of Minneapolis” really is called Prince Rogers Nelson.

During his childhood, his small stature attracted teasing from his classmates. Later on, his grandiloquent nicknames certainly helped erase those childhood taunts: His Royal Badness, His Purple Majesty, The Prince of Pop and finally Love Symbol—Prince had a high opinion of himself. And his fans always revered him as a genius who never put a foot wrong. When he took legal action against his famous label Warner (which had nonetheless helped him set up his stable of protégées—often female—with Paisley Park), people were even forced for a time to refer to him as The Artist (Formerly Known As Prince)! He also performed alongside other artists, sometimes preferring a pseudonym to his own name. Alexander Nevermind (sic!) alongside Sheena Easton for "Sugar Walls" in 1984, or simply Christoph for writing "Manic Monday", the 1986 hit for the Bangles.

Legend has it the little Prince, perhaps inspired by his jazz singer mother, composed his first song at the age of seven. But there’s no record of it in history. Another unverifiable tale, but one that draws a musical lineage: Prince is said to have joined James Brown on stage at the age of ten for a few dance steps with the "Sex Machine".

In 1984, the pivotal year of his career, he topped the charts with "Purple Rain" (and its legendary guitar solo), both the album and singles charts ("When Doves Cry" and "I Would Die 4 U"). Yet it can’t really be said that "Purple Rain" (the film), although it dominated the box office, was a masterpiece of cinema. Before him, only the Beatles had managed to top every major US chart in this way.

Before experiencing a lull from the 1990s onwards, Prince continued to rack up artistic and commercial success with albums such as "Around The World In A Day" (1985), "Parade" (1986), "Sign o’ the Times" (1987) and "Lovesexy" (1988).

It’s obviously impossible to sum up Prince’s career in just a few lines, with both masterpieces and some harsh failures each making their mark. Nevertheless, his tragic and slightly mysterious death on 21 April 2016 at his home, just a stone’s throw from his hometown, left the world speechless. Not yet 58, Prince left us without warning, with so many songs still to give, as was proved by the posthumous releases…

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Prince on stage at Forest-National in Brussels (Belgium), 27 August 1986