Prince, the innovative US music superstar whose songwriting and eccentric stage presence electrified fans around the world with hits including Purple Rain and When Doves Cry, died on Thursday in Minnesota. He was 57.
The singer’s influential, genre-defying music combined jazz, funk, R&B and disco, winning seven Grammy awards and an Oscar.
Prince was found unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park Studios compound, which included his home, in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen, according to a Carver County Sheriff’s Office statement. Emergency workers tried to revive him and he was pronounced dead a short time later.
The sheriff’s office said it was investigating the circumstances. The local medical examiner declined to comment on the cause of death.
US president Barack Obama paid tribute to Prince as a “one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time”.
“Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly,” Obama said in a statement. “Prince did it all. Funk. R&B. Rock and roll. He was a virtuoso instrumentalist, a brilliant bandleader, and an electrifying performer.”
Distraught devotees gathered with media crews outside the Paisley Park compound to mourn the artist.
“His music made the hair on your arms stand up,” said one fan, Kristina Dudziak (44). “It felt like he was making love to his guitar . . . It’s a sad day,” she added, starting to sob.
Concert tour
Prince, whose hit songs also included
Raspberry Beret
,
Little Red Corvette
and
Kiss
, was on a US tour up to last week.
Last Friday, he was briefly hospitalised with the flu after his plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, TMZ reported. A representative said Prince had performed in Atlanta even though he was not feeling well and felt worse after boarding for a flight back to Minnesota, according to the website.
Often making a statement with bold fashion choices, the diminutive, 5ft 2ins (1.57m) star sometimes appeared on stage sporting ruffled shirts and tight pants or elaborate costumes.
Intensely private
An intensely private person, Prince sold more than 100 million records.
In addition to his seven Grammy awards, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. His most recent album, HITnRUN: Phase Two was released in December 2015.
Prince became a Jehovah’s Witness about 15 years ago, and was a strict vegan. In 2009, he spoke in a PBS television interview about being born an epileptic and suffering seizures as a child.
He said he was also teased in school, and that “early in my career I tried to compensate by being as flashy as I could and as noisy as I could”.
Prince's Oscar was for best original song score for Purple Rain, the 1984 movie whose music was based on his album of the same name. He also starred in the movie.
Born in Minneapolis as Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7th 1958, he is said to have written his first song at the age of seven. As well as singing and writing, he played multiple instruments, including guitar, keyboards and drums.
Prince was married twice: to his backup singer, Mayte Garcia, in 1996 and then to Manuela Testolini in 2001.
Both marriages ended in divorce, and a son he had with Garcia died a week after birth in October 1996. – Reuters