Prince Rogers Nelson

American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and actor.

He was known mononymously as Prince. From 1994 to 2000 he used an unpronounceable symbol as name referred by others as The Artist (Formerly Known As Prince).

The son of John L. Nelson and Matti Della Shaw was born on June 7th 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Two years later his sister Tyka Nelson was born.

In 1976, he started work on a demo tape with producer Chris Moon in a Minneapolis studio. Prince also had the patronage of Owen R. Husney (of The High Spirits), to whom Moon introduced him, a connection that helped him produce a high-quality demo recording. Husney started contacting major labels and ran a campaign promoting Prince as a star of the future, resulting in a bidding war eventually won by Warner Bros. Records as they were the only label to offer Prince creative control of his songs.

He was married to Mayte (from 1996 to 2000) and to Manuela Testolini (from 2001 2006). On 21 April 2016 Prince passed away at Paisley Park Studios.