Liam Neeson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Birth name William John Neeson
Born June 7, 1952 (1952-06-07)
Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Spouse(s) Natasha Richardson (1994-)
Notable roles Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List
Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Michael Collins in Michael Collins
Henri Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul in Batman Begins
Academy Awards
Nominated: Best Actor
1994 Schindler's List
Tony Awards
Nominated: Best Actor in a Play
1993 Anna Christie
2002 The Crucible
Golden Globe Awards
Nominated: Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1994 Schindler's List
1997 Michael Collins
2005 Kinsey
BAFTA Awards
Nominated: Best Actor in a Leading Role
1994 Schindler's List
William John 'Liam' Neeson OBE (born June 7, 1952) is an Oscar-nominated Irish actor.[1] He is known for his role as Oskar Schindler in the 1993 film Schindler's List, and has since appeared in several popular film series, including the Star Wars prequel trilogy, The Chronicles of Narnia and Batman Begins. He has also continued to play real-life characters, including Michael Collins and Alfred Kinsey.
Biography
Early life
Neeson was born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland to Barnard Neeson, a janitor at the local Catholic girls' school, and Katherine "Kitty" Brown, a cook.[2] He was called Liam, the Irish equivalent to William, after the local priest.[3] He was the third child in the family and the only boy among four siblings; his sisters are Elizabeth, Bernadette and Rosaline.[4] At age nine, Neeson began boxing lessons at the All Saints Youth Club.[5] It was at age eleven that Neeson first stepped on stage. His English teacher gave him the lead role in a school play, which he accepted because the girl he fancied would be starring.[6] From then on, he kept acting in school productions for the following years.[7]
Still boxing at sixteen, he had been Youth Heavyweight Champion of Ireland for three consecutive years, but blackouts made him quit. By then, the same teacher who had cast him in his first lead role, founded a local amateur drama company, the Slemish Players, and Neeson, then seventeen, joined and took his first role, in Philadelphia, Here I Come. It was to be successful and Neeson was later awarded Best Actor at the Larne Drama Festival. At nineteen, Neeson left home for Queen's University of Belfast to study mathematics, computer science and geology but dropped out after two terms.[7]
Career
After leaving university, Neeson returned to Ballymena and worked in a variety of small jobs, from fork-lift operator at Guinness to truck driver. He also worked at a teacher-training college in Newcastle for two years before again returning to his hometown. Neeson would get his first film experience in 1973, playing Jesus Christ in the religious film, Pilgrim's Progress. After a bet from co-workers at the architects' office where he worked, Neeson applied for an audition at the Lyric Players' Theatre in Belfast.[8] After two years there, Neeson moved to Dublin and joined the Abbey Theatre in 1977. In 1980, film-maker John Boorman saw him on stage, acting as Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men, and offered him the part of Sir Gawain in the then-upcoming Arthurian movie, Excalibur. After Excalibur, Neeson moved to London, where he continued working on stage, small budget movies and TV series. He lived with the actress Helen Mirren at this time, who he met working on Excalibur.[9] Between 1982 and 1987, Neeson starred in five films; mostly notably alongside Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins in 1984's The Bounty.
In 1987, Neeson made a conscious decision to move to Hollywood in order to star in high-profile roles.[9] That year, he starred alongside Cher and Dennis Quaid in crime thriller, Suspect. The role would bring Neeson the critics' applause but it was in 1990's Darkman that would bring his name to the public attention. Although the film gained success, Neeson's following years would not give him the same recognition. In 1993, he joined Ellis Island co-star, and future wife, Natasha Richardson in the Broadway play, Anna Christie. Director Steven Spielberg, impressed by his performance, offered him the coveted role of Oskar Schindler, in the upcoming film about The Holocaust, Schindler's List.[10] His critically acclaimed performance later earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor; however, the award went to Tom Hanks for his performance in Philadelphia. Neeson also garnered BAFTA and Golden Globes nominations for Schindler's List.
Schindler's List established Neeson as a widely sought after leading actor. He later starred in period pieces Rob Roy (1995) and Michael Collins (1996), the latter earning him another Golden Globes nomination and a win for Best Starring Role at the Venice Film Festival. Neeson went onto star as Jean Valjean in the 1998 adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and in The Haunting as Dr. David Marrow. In 1999, Neeson took on the role as Obi-Wan Kenobi's mentor, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, in George Lucas' much anticipated Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. His voice would later be used in Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Neeson was to appear in the third prequel, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith as a Force Ghost, but a motorcycle accident prevented this and instead the character was mentioned only. Due to his height (6 ft 4 in), Neeson cost the film-makers an additional $150,000 in set design on The Phantom Menace.
Neeson narrated the 2001 documentaries Journey Into Amazing Caves and The Endurance: Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure. After being nominated for a Tony Award for his role opposite Laura Linney in The Crucible, Neeson teamed up with Harrison Ford in Kathryn Bigelow's submarine thriller K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) as Captain Mikhail Polenin and appeared in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis). He also played a recently widowed writer in Richard Curtis' ensemble comedy Love Actually (2003).[11] His role as Alfred Kinsey in Kinsey again put Neeson up for nomination for a Golden Globe Award but he lost out to Leonardo DiCaprio for The Aviator.
In 2004, Neeson hosted episode of the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live. He starred as a redneck trucker, Marlon Weaver, in an "Appalachian Emergency Room" sketch and a hippie in a one-off sketch about two stoners (the other played by Amy Poehler) who attempt to borrow a police dog in order to find their lost stash of marijuana. Despite vowing not to play any characters who were Irish stereotypes, Neeson did play a stereotypically Irish man named Lorken McArdle in the home makeover show parody "You Call This A House, Do Ya?"[12] In 2005, Neeson could be seen playing Godfrey of Ibelin, in Ridley Scott's epic adventure Kingdom of Heaven, Henri Ducard in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins and as Father Bernard in Neil Jordan's adaptation of Patrick McCabe's novel, Breakfast on Pluto. Also in 2005, he voiced the role of a kindly priest on The Simpsons, who converted Bart and Homer to Catholicism.[13] That same year, he gave his voice to the lion Aslan in the blockbuster fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.[14]
In 2007, Neeson starred in the American Civil War epic Seraphim Falls alongside Pierce Brosnan and Angelica Huston. He is also set to star as Abraham Lincoln in a film directed by Steven Spielberg.[15] In preparation for the role, Neeson visited Washington, D.C. and read Lincoln's personal letters. He also visited Ford's Theatre, where the President was shot.[16] He will again give his voice to Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008).[17] Neeson's voice will also be featured in the video game, Fallout 3.[18] The executive producer of the game, Todd Howard, said "This role was written with Liam in mind, and provides the dramatic tone for the entire game,"[19] This is Neeson's second time voicing a video game character; his first was as Henri Ducard in the 2005 adaption of Batman Begins.
Personal life
Since July 3, 1994, Neeson has been married to actress Natasha Richardson, daughter of the late director Tony Richardson and screen legend Vanessa Redgrave. She is also a sister to Joely Richardson and a member of the theatrical Redgrave family. They have two sons, Micheál Richard Antonio (born June 22, 1995) and Daniel Jack (born August 28, 1996). The family home is in exurban Millbrook, New York. Neeson turned down the 'Freedom of the town of Ballymena' offered to him by Ballymena Borough Council, because of objections made by members of the Democratic Unionist Party about his comments that he had felt like a 'second-class citizen' growing up in the town.
Neeson was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in her 1999 New Year's Honours List.
Prince
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Born June 7, 1958 (1958-06-07) (age 49)
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Origin Chanhassen, Minnesota
Genre(s) R&B, funk, soul, pop, rock
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, actor
Instrument(s) Guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion
Years active 1978-present
Label(s) Universal, Arista, Paisley Park, NPG, Warner Bros., Columbia
Associated
acts The Revolution, The New Power Generation, The Time, Sheila E., Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Mazarati, The Family, Wendy and Lisa, 94 East
Website 3121.com
Prince Rogers Nelson (born June 7, 1958), known from 1993 to 2000 as (or informally, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, TAFKAP, or simply The Artist), is an iconic, award-winning American musician. He is best known for performing under the name Prince.
His music has spanned myriad styles; from his early material, rooted in R&B, funk, and soul, he has constantly expanded his musical palette throughout his career, absorbing many other genres including New Wave, pop, rock, blues, jazz, and hip hop. The distinctive characteristics of the early-to-mid 1980s work which brought him to super-stardom (including sparse and industrial-sounding drum machine arrangements, and the use of synthesizer riffs to serve the role traditionally occupied by horn riffs in earlier R&B, funk and soul music) became known as the "Minneapolis sound," which proved heavily influential.
Prince has been a remarkably prolific artist, having released several hundred songs, both under his own name and through other artists. Regarded as a perfectionist, Prince has a reputation as being difficult to work with, and for being highly protective of his music. He produces, composes, arranges and performs nearly all of the songs on his albums. Many critics have dubbed him a musical genius because of his versatility, compositional and vocal skills, and his proficiency on various instruments.[1]
Biography
Uptown: early years
Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Mount Sinai Hospital on Saturday June 7, 1958 at 6:17pm to John L. Nelson and Mattie Shaw.[2] John was a pianist and songwriter. Mattie was a singer. He is named Prince Rogers Nelson after the Prince Rogers Trio, his father's jazz band. As a boy, he was called Skipper. There are a number of myths regarding Prince's ethnicity, some spread by Prince himself. The most pervasive is that he is the child of a black father and white mother, a myth later bolstered by the film Purple Rain, starring Prince himself. In fact, according to an April 28, 1983 Rolling Stone article,[3] Prince's father is of black and Italian ancestry, and his mother is of black, [[Native Americans, Native American, and Italian lineage as noted in a 1985 Rolling Stone interview.
After the birth of his sister, Tika Evene in 1960, Prince's parents gradually drifted apart. After they formally separated, he had a troubled relationship with his stepfather, causing him to run away from home. He lived briefly with his father, who bought him his first guitar. Later, Prince moved in with a neighborhood family, the Andersons, and became friends with their son, Andre Anderson (later called André Cymone).
Prince and Anderson joined Prince's cousin Charles Smith in a band called Grand Central, formed in junior high school. Initially his involvement was just part of a mainly instrumental band that played clubs and parties in the Minneapolis area. As time went by and Prince's musical knowledge broadened he found himself dictating the arrangements to the rest of the band. Before long he had become the band's frontman. By the time Prince had entered high school, Grand Central evolved into Champagne and started playing original music already drawing on a range of influences including Sly Stone, James Brown, Jimmy Page, and Jimi Hendrix. At some point Prince was a student at the Minnesota Dance Theatre.[4]
In 1976, he started working on a demo tape with producer Chris Moon in a Minneapolis studio. He also had the patronage of Owen Husney, to whom Moon introduced him, allowing him to produce a quality demo. 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. They were the only label to give Prince creative control of his songs and offered him a contract.
First Steps 1975-1980
Pepe Willie, husband of Prince's cousin, Shantel, was an influential presence in Prince's early career. Willie acted as mentor and manager, along with Husney, for Prince in the Grand Central days, and employed Prince in the studio for his own recordings. In 1977, Willie formed 94 East, a band with Marcy Ingvoldstad and Kristie Lazenberry. 94 East was comprised of a group of singers and musicians which included Andre Cymone and Prince. The band recorded an album entitled, "Minneapolis Genius - The Historic 1977 Recordings." Although it was not a solo album and it wasn't commercially released until many years later, this was literally Prince's first professional album. For reasons which have never been disclosed by Prince, he refuses to acknowledges the existence of this album. Even the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame lists his first album as, "For You" -- which was released on April 7, 1978. "For You" was the first album that Prince released on a major record label, Warner Bros. This album had no band on it -- Prince supposedly played all 27 instruments on the album himself. Members of his band, the NPG, however, say that Prince only knows how to play 25 instruments. In 1995, the original recordings with Prince and Cymone were released by Willie as 94 East featuring Prince, Symbolic Beginning.
The majority of the album was written and performed by Prince, except for the song Soft and Wet (Music by Prince; Lyrics by Prince and C. Moon). Tommy Vicari was the Executive Producer in For You. Starting with For You, one can read in all of Prince's albums the now ubiquitous legend: Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince. Prince spent twice his initial advance recording the first album, which sold modestly, making the bottom reaches of the Billboard 200, while the single "Soft and Wet" performed well on the R&B charts. In the album For You, Prince used Prince's Music Co. for publishing his songs.
By 1979, Prince had recruited his first backing band with Cymone on bass, Gayle Chapman and Matt Fink on keyboards, Bobby Z on drums and Dez Dickerson on guitar. Prince intentionally enlisted a multi-racial, mixed-gender group, much like the backing band of one of Prince's most salient influences, Sly Stone. He recorded his second, self-titled album still mostly on his own, which made the Billboard 200 and contained two R&B hits in "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover." These two R&B hits were performed on January 26, 1980 on the TV show American Bandstand with his first backing band. Legend has it that Prince became annoyed when, during the interview segment, Dick Clark expressed surprise that Prince & his bandmates hailed from Minneapolis "of all places". For the rest of the interview, Prince refused to speak, instead answering questions by gesturing with his face & hands. For his second album, Prince used Ecnirp Music[5] - BMI for publishing his songs, which he would also use for the album Dirty Mind.
Prince often attracted attention for the clothes he wore onstage. He wore high-heeled shoes and boots, and when questioned by the press, he remarked he liked the way he looked in them. He also was known to strongly flaunt and express his sexuality while on stage and in his music, which had people questioning his sexual orientation early on. This brought him some trouble as an opening act for The Rolling Stones' two Los Angeles Coliseum shows in 1981, where he was infamously pelted with garbage whilst wearing bikini briefs, leg warmers, high-heeled boots and a trench coat and subsequently booed off the stage.
1980-1984
In 1980, Prince released Dirty Mind, a solo effort released using the original demos. On stage, Lisa Coleman replaced Chapman in the band, who felt the sexually explicit lyrics and stage antics of Prince's concerts conflicted with her religious beliefs. Dirty Mind was particularly notable for its sexually explicit material.
Prince opened for Rick James in a 1980 tour with the label "punk funk" being applied to both artists, although it reportedly didn't sit comfortably with Prince. He recorded the album Controversy, released in 1981, with the single of the same name making international charts for the first time. In February of 1981, Prince performed "Partyup" on the now-infamous season six episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Charlene Tilton that brought Jean Doumanian's lackluster tenure as executive producer down when cast member Charles Rocket uttered the word, "****" at the end of the program. Starting with the album Controversy, Prince used Controversy Music[6] - ASCAP for publishing his songs, which he would use for his following sixteen records until Emancipation came out in 1996.
Prince also wrote, produced, and in some instances performed on, the debut album for The Time, containing former members of Flyte Tyme, including front-man Morris Day. In the coming decade, Prince would also collaborate with Vanity (of Vanity 6), Apollonia (of Apollonia 6) and Sheila E. He also composed material, using former band-mates as another outlet for his prolific output. He also wrote hits for artists such as Sheena Easton and The Bangles and his songs would be covered in hit versions by artists as diverse as Chaka Khan, Tom Jones with Art of Noise, and Sinéad O'Connor. O'Connor's cover of a song Prince initially wrote for The Family, "Nothing Compares 2 U," was a huge commercial success in 1990.
Prince was backed in the '80s by The Revolution, and in the '90s by the New Power Generation. He also worked on different occasions with famous jazz and funk musicians, such as Miles Davis, Larry Graham, George Clinton, and Maceo Parker. Throughout his career, Prince has also recorded with Ani DiFranco, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Kate Bush, Rosie Gaines, Carmen Electra, No Doubt, Chuck D, Angie Stone, Chaka Khan, and Sheryl Crow.
In 1982 Prince released the 1999 double-album which proved to be a breakthrough album both in the U.S. and internationally, selling over three million copies. The title track was a protest about nuclear proliferation and become his first top ten hit internationally. With "Little Red Corvette" he joined Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie as part of the first wave of black artists on MTV and "Delirious" also went top ten on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was placed at number six in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. Stevie Nicks related a story in a television interview that she had come up with her 1983 song "Stand Back" after being inspired by the synthesizer part in "Little Red Corvette." When it was time to record the song, it happened that Prince was in Los Angeles near her recording studio. She called his people and soon afterwards Prince came by the studio, sat down at the synthesizer, and played the song-opening riff.
1984-1987
Purple Rain (in conjunction with the film of the same name) sold more than thirteen million copies in the U.S. and spent twenty-four consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard 200. The film grossed more than $80 million in the United States alone, and would prove to be Prince's biggest cinematic success.
Two songs from Purple Rain, "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" would both top the U.S. singles charts and were hits around the world, while the title track would go to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Simultaneously, Prince held the spot of number one film, number one single, and number one album in the U.S. Prince won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for "Purple Rain", and the album ranks in the top 100 of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list,[7] released in late 2003; the album is also listed in The All-TIME 100 Albums[8] of TIME Magazine. When Tipper Gore overheard her twelve-year-old daughter, Karenna, playing "Darling Nikki," she founded the Parents Music Resource Center, which has spurred the use of "explicit lyric" stickers and imprints on album covers.
In 1985, after the U.S. Purple Rain Tour,which was a smash hit in the U.S. and Canada, Prince announced he was giving up live performances and making videos on the release of Around the World in a Day, which went to the top of the U.S. album charts for three weeks. Prince's ban on videos ended as the album stalled in the charts with a video for "Raspberry Beret" which reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1986, Prince released the album Parade. The album went to number three on the Billboard 200 album chart and number two on the R&B album charts. The first single, "Kiss," would top the Billboard Hot 100. At the same time, "Manic Monday" by The Bangles reached number two on the Hot 100, which Prince had written under the pseudonym "Christopher."
Parade served as a soundtrack to Prince's second film, a romantic comedy, Under The Cherry Moon in which Prince starred and directed.
Following the film and album, Prince returned to touring with a stripped-down show. After a few isolated dates (dubbed "the Hit and Run Tour") in the United States, he embarked on his first full scale European Tour in the summer of 1986. He ended the tour with his first live performances in Japan in September of that year.
1987-1991
Sign "O" the Times, released in 1987 as a double album, reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 and achieved the greatest critical acclaim of his career, topping the annual and highly reputable Pazz & Jop critics poll, reaching the top 100 of Rolling Stone's list[7] and The All-TIME 100 Albums[8] of TIME Magazine, which declared it was the best album of the 1980s.
Following the album, Prince launched the Sign "☮" the Times Tour in Europe. At the end of the last tour Prince disbanded his long-time performance band, known since the release of the movie and album Purple Rain as The Revolution (although 'The Revolution' is mentioned on the album "1999"), and parted ways with Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Bobby "Z" Rivkin, and Mark Brown (Brown Mark). His follow-up live performance band retained Matt Fink on keyboards, and added Boni Boyer on keyboards, Sheila E on drums, Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass, and Miko Weaver on guitar.
1987 saw the potential for two of pop's biggest stars coming together to perform a duet. Michael Jackson talked with Prince about performing a duet together for the title track of his new album Bad. However, Jackson and Prince ended up having creative differences, and Jackson ended up cutting the title track for the album on his own. [9]
Also in 1987, Prince planned to release The Black Album, a funk-oriented album whose erotically-charged lyrics and club-focused beats were perceived by many as his attempt to woo back the black audience he was supposed to have lost with his mid-80s forays into 'white' rock, pop and psychedelia. In reality, it was a collection of random tracks recorded during the previous few years, some of which had initially been created for Sheila E's birthday party in 1986. [10] The album's release was suddenly cancelled at Prince's behest mere days before its intended release. While any manufactured copies were meant to be destroyed, several escaped and became the source for numerous bootleg editions. The album circulated through the bootleg underground music world until it was finally given an official release in 1994. Prince later attributed his eleventh-hour request that the album be pulled from release to a spiritual epiphany, but rumors still abound that this epiphany was in fact the product of a bad experience with the drug Ecstasy.
The 1988 album Lovesexy was Prince's spiritual answer to the dark message of The Black Album. Lovesexy was a disappointment in its chart performance, only reaching number eleven on the Billboard 200, but reaching number one in the UK. (One track from The Black Album, "When 2 R in Love," also appeared on Lovesexy.) The Lovesexy World Tour's portion in the U.S. also proved to be commercial disappointment. Prince lost money as dates failed to sell out. Prince recouped his losses with the European and Japanese legs of the tour.
In 1989, Prince would record the soundtrack for Batman, which would return him to the top of the U.S. album charts at number one, with the single and worldwide hit "Batdance" reaching number one of the Billboard Hot 100, while another track, "Partyman" would be the most remembered song from the film. Prince next released the film sequel to Purple Rain, titled Graffiti Bridge, which performed poorly at the box office. The soundtrack to "Graffiti Bridge" featured Prince and other artists such as Tevin Campbell, Mavis Staples of the Staple Singers, and Morris Day and The Time. It would reach a chart peak of number six in the U.S. and number one in the UK. He also collaborated with Madonna on her Like a Prayer album for the song entitled "Love Song".
1991-1994
The Diamonds and Pearls album in 1991 gave Prince his fifth U.S. number one single with the song "Cream". Diamonds and Pearls also marked the debut of Prince's new band, the New Power Generation featuring rapper Tony M, Rosie Gaines on vocals, Michael Bland on drums, Levi Seacer on guitar, Sonny T on bass, and Tommy Barbarella on keyboards.
After thanking Kate Bush in the credits of his Diamonds and Pearls album, Prince worked on Bush's 1993 album, The Red Shoes. Collaborating chiefly on the song "Why Should I Love You," Prince added bass, guitar, keyboards, his vocals and other arrangements to the mix. This would be the final "Prince" credit, until 2000. Kate Bush reciprocated in 1996 and is featured on background vocals on the Emancipation track, "My Computer."
Prince's twelfth album was titled "," dubbed by some as The Love Symbol Album. It reached the top ten of the U.S. album charts. In 1993, he would change his name to (often represented in ASCII text as "O(+>" ). The symbol is said to be a melding of the symbols for male and female. Due to being unpronounceable, he was often referred to as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince," or simply "The Artist." In 1993, at the request of Warner Bros., Prince released a 3-CD greatest hits compilation entitled The Hits/The B-Sides. The first two discs were also sold separately as The Hits 1 and The Hits 2. In addition to featuring the majority of Prince's hit singles (with the exception of "Batdance," which was omitted), The Hits includes an array of previously hard-to-find recordings, notably B-sides spanning the majority of Prince's career, as well as a handful of previously unreleased tracks, such as the Revolution-recorded "Power Fantastic." A new song, "Peach," was chosen as a promotional single to accompany the album. Unfortunately, neither the album nor single performed as well on the charts as Prince and Warner Bros. would have hoped. To this day, however, The Hits remains the closest thing to a definitive overview of Prince's musical output from 1978 to 1993.
Name change
In 1994, during negotiations regarding the release of Prince's album The Gold Experience, a battle between Warner Bros. and Prince ensued, struggling over the artistic and financial control of Prince's output. During that time, Prince only appeared in public with the word "SLAVE" written on his cheek. Prince explained his name change as follows:
The first step I have taken towards the ultimate goal of emancipation from the chains that bind me to Warner Bros. was to change my name from Prince to . Prince is the name that my Mother gave me at birth. Warner Bros. took the name, trademarked it, and used it as the main marketing tool to promote all of the music that I wrote. The company owns the name Prince and all related music marketed under Prince. I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros.
I was born Prince and did not want to adopt another conventional name. The only acceptable replacement for my name, and my identity, was , a symbol with no pronunciation, that is a representation of me and what my music is about. This symbol is present in my work over the years; it is a concept that has evolved from my frustration; it is who I am. It is my name.
Prince's strategy behind the name change seems to have been to reinvent himself, going back to a smaller audience to redevelop his style. One commentator noted:
Prince started his career as a big R&B star with limited mainstream success. At that point, he left the middle of the road and headed for the ditch. In 1980, it was risky to record new wave songs with lusty lyrics that assured no radio airplay (the classic Dirty Mind), but it paid off. Critics took notice and he became an underground favorite. This paved the way for his huge success with 1999 and Purple Rain. Certainly that was the pinnacle of his career, as far as worldwide earnings and universal adulation are concerned. But by heading for the ditch again, by changing his name and experimenting with his style, by lowering his stock value and escaping his record contract, Prince has become an underground artist again. In late 1996, the first collection of Prince music since his break with Warner Bros. appeared in record stores, a sprawling three-hour extravaganza integrating great dance grooves and slow-burning ballads. Critical response has been overwhelmingly positive, and sales have been brisk despite the high price of a 3-CD set. It's no coincidence that he titled this album Emancipation.[11]
1994-2000
In 1994, Prince's attitude towards his artistic output underwent a notable shift. He began to view releasing albums in quick succession as a means of ejecting himself from his contractual obligations to Warner Bros. The label, he believed, was intent on limiting his artistic freedom by insisting he release albums on a more sporadic basis. He also blamed it for the poor commercial performance of his latest work (namely the album), claiming it had failed to market the album effectively. Out of this state of affairs a proposal came about to subject the aborted Black Album to an official release, approximately seven years after its initial creation. This new release, which was already in wide circulation as bootlegs, also sold relatively poorly.
Following that disappointing venture, Warner Bros. succumbed to Prince's wishes to release an album of new material, to be entitled Come. The label had refused to grant the album a release in the past, believing the music on it to be dreadfully mediocre and lacking a potential hit single. When Come was eventually released, it confirmed all of Warner's worst fears. It became Prince's poorest-selling album to date, struggling to even shift 500,000 copies. Even more frustrating was the fact that Prince insisted on crediting the album to "Prince 1958-1993".
Prince pushed to have his next album The Gold Experience released simultaneously as "" material. As a test case, Warner Bros. allowed the single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" to be released via a small, independent distributor, Bellmark Records, in February 1994. The release was successful, reaching #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #1 in many other countries, but this was not to be a forerunner of what was to come. Warner Bros. still resisted releasing The Gold Experience, fearing poor sales and citing "market saturation" as a defense. When eventually released in September 1995, The Gold Experience failed to sell well, although it reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 initially, and many reviewed it as Prince's best effort since Sign "☮" the Times. The album is now out-of-print.
The Chaos And Disorder album of 1996 was his final album of new material for Warner Bros., and was one of his least successful. Prince attempted a major comeback later that year, when, free of any further contractual obligations to Warner Bros., he released Emancipation. The album was released via his own NPG Records with distribution through EMI. To publish his songs in Emancipation, Prince for the first time did not use Controversy Music - ASCAP, which he had used in all his records since 1981, rather he used Emancipated Music Inc.[12] - ASCAP. While certified platinum by the RIAA, some critics felt that the sprawling 36-song, 3-CD set (each disk was exactly 60 minutes long) lacked focus. Emancipation would be Prince's first album in which he would include covers of songs of other artists; for example, CD number three includes Joan Osborne's Top 10 hit song of 1995 "One of Us".[13] The other covers on the album are "Betcha By Golly Wow!" (written by Thomas Randolf Bell and Linda Creed)[14] "I Can't Make You Love Me" (written by James Allen Shamblin II and Michael Barry Reid)[15] and "La-La Means I Love You" (written by Thomas Randolf Bell and William Hart).[16]
Prince released Crystal Ball, a 4-CD collection of unreleased material, in 1998. The distribution of this album was shambolic, with some fans pre-ordering the album on his website up to a year before it was eventually shipped to them, and months after the record had gone on sale in retail stores. The Newpower Soul album released three months later failed to make much of an impression on the charts.
In 1999, Prince once again teamed up with a major record label, this time Arista Records, for a new album, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. In an attempt to make his new album a success, Prince gave more interviews than he'd ever done in his career yet Rave failed to make much of a commercial impression. A few months earlier, Warner Bros. had also released The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, a collection of unreleased material recorded by Prince throughout his career, and his final recording commitment on his contract with Warner Bros. The greatest success he had during the year was with the EP 1999: The New Master, released in time for Prince to collect a small portion of the sales dollars Warner Bros. had been seeing for the album and singles of the original 1999. Both critics and fans panned The New Master, declaring it unimaginative.
A pay-per-view concert, Rave Un2 the Year 2000, was held on December 31, 1999 of concerts taped on December 17 and 18 and had appearances by many guest stars such as Lenny Kravitz, George Clinton and The Time. It was released to home video the following year. Also, a remix album, Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic, was released exclusively through Prince's NPG Music Club in April 2000.
2000-2005
On May 16, 2000, Prince ceased using the "" moniker and returned to using "Prince" again, after his publishing contract with Warner-Chappell expired. In a press conference stating that he was now free from undesirable relationships associated with the name "Prince", he formally reverted to his original name. Prince still occasionally uses the symbol as a logo and on album artwork and continues to play a -shaped guitar.
For several years, after the release of "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic", Prince primarily released new music through his Internet subscription service, NPGOnlineLtd.com (later NPGMusicClub.com). However, two albums which showcased the substantial influence of jazz music on Prince did surface at record stores for the general public: The Rainbow Children in 2001 and the all-instrumental N.E.W.S in 2003. The latter received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Album. Another album of jazz, "Xpectation", was also released, via download to members of the NPGMusicClub, in 2003. In 2002, Prince released his first-ever 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 make an impact on the charts. 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. Fans were invited into Prince's studios 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.[17] Performances were also arranged to showcase Prince himself, as well as related artists and guests (including Alicia Keys, The Time, Erykah Badu, Nikka Costa, George Clinton, Norah Jones and others).
On February 8, 2004, Prince appeared at the Grammy Awards with Beyoncé Knowles. In a performance that opened the show, Prince and Beyoncé performed a medley of classic "Purple Rain", "Let's Go Crazy", "Baby I'm a Star" and Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love", to rave 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 the deceased artist's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." In April 2004, Prince released Musicology through a unique one-album agreement with Columbia Records. This deal was constructed in such a way that ensured Prince himself still garnered the majority of the royalties (as he had been accustomed to through his own independent music service). The album, which rose to the top 5 in the album charts of several countries (including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia), featured some of the artist's most economical and commercially appealing music in years. That same year, Pollstar named Prince the top concert draw among musicians in America. Grossing an estimated $87.4 million, Prince's Musicology Tour was the most profitable tour in the industry during 2004. The artist played an impressive run of 96 concerts, the average ticket price for each being $61. On the Musicology tour in Dallas, Texas, Prince was surprised by a female audience member jumping out of her front row seat, getting onto the stage while he was singing, and kissed him. The woman had to be escorted out by security.[18] 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. It was also nominated for Best R&B Song, Best R&B Album, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Cinnamon Girl."[19] The album became the artist's most commercially lucrative since Diamonds and Pearls, partly due to a radical scheme devised on his part which enabled copies of the album presented to those who purchased tickets on the Musicology tour to be included in the album's overall sales as compiled by Billboard.
In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Prince #28 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[20]. In December 2004, Rolling Stone's readers named the best male performer and most welcome comeback even though he says he never went anywhere. During that same month, Prince was named number five on the Top Pop Artists of the Past 25 Years chart.[21]
In April 2005, Prince played guitar (along with En Vogue singing backing vocals) on Stevie Wonder's first new single in six years, "So What The Fuss." 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 Studios in the early hours of September 2. The artist, in a typical moment of inspiration, played all instrumental and vocal parts without collaboration. 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 number one on the R&B chart. On October 25, Sony Records released a version of the single on CD.
2005-present
In late 2005 Prince struck a deal with Universal Records to release his next album, entitled 3121. The debut single from the album was the Latin-tinged "Te Amo Corazón," the video for which was directed by actress Salma Hayek. The piece was filmed in Marrakesh, and showed Prince accompanied on-screen by Mía Maestro. The video for "Black Sweat," the second single, was nominated for an MTV VMA for Best Cinematography. Prince achieved his first career number-one debut on the Billboard 200 with 3121.
On February 4, 2006, Prince was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live fifteen and a half years after his last SNL appearance. He performed two new songs, "Fury" and "Beautiful, Loved & Blessed," with Támar. On February 15, 2006, Prince performed at the BRIT Awards alongside Wendy and Lisa and Sheila E. He played "Te Amo Corazón" and "Fury" from 3121 and "Purple Rain" and "Let's Go Crazy" from Purple Rain, in a performance which was generally regarded as the best of the night.[citation needed]
On June 12, 2006, Prince was honored with a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his "visionary" use of the Internet that included becoming the first major artist to release an entire album?-1997's Crystal Ball?-exclusively on the Web.
On June 27, 2006, Prince appeared at the BET awards. He was awarded Best Male R&B artist.
At 12:00 AM on July 4, 2006, much to the dismay of his fans (and only weeks after winning a Webby Award), Prince abruptly shut down his official NPGMC website, which had been in existence for over five years. The NPGMC sent out an email, claiming that "in its current 4m there is a feeling that the NPGMC gone as far as it can go. In a world without limitations and infinite possibilities, has the time come 2 once again make a leap of faith and begin anew? These r ?s we in the NPG need 2 answer. In doing so, we have decided 2 put the club on hiatus until further notice."
The club was shut down on the same day that an opposition to the NPG trademark was filed against it by the British company HM Publishing (owners of the Nature Publishing Group, also NPG). Despite these events occurring on the same day, Prince's attorney reports that it was purely coincidental and that the site did not close due to the trademark dispute.[22]
On August 22, 2006, the album Ultimate was released. The double disc set consists of one CD of hits, while the second disc contains extended versions and mixes that, for the most part, were previously unavailable on CD.
On November 14, 2006, Prince was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, appearing to collect his award but not performing. Also in November 2006 Prince opened a nightclub named 3121 in Las Vegas at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. He performs weekly, on Friday and Saturday nights.
Prince wrote and performed a song for the hit 2006 animated film Happy Feet. The song, entitled "Song of the Heart," appears on the film's soundtrack, which also features a rendition of Prince's classic song "Kiss," sung by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. In January 2007, "Song of the Heart" won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, but Prince arrived late because of traffic and thus was unable to make an acceptance speech.
On February 4, 2007, Prince performed at the Super Bowl XLI halftime show in Miami, Florida. The performance consisted of 3 Purple Rain tracks ("Let's Go Crazy", "Baby, I'm a Star" and the title track), along with cover versions of "All Along the Watchtower","Best of You" and "Proud Mary". Coincidentally, Miami had rain on the day of the Super Bowl and the purple lights from Purple Rain was accompanied with rain). The event was carried "to the biggest audience of his life -- 140 million television viewers [worldwide]".[23]
On May 8, 2007, it was announced that Prince is to play 21 concerts in London over the summer. The "Earth Tour" will include seven nights at the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena, as well as smaller venues. Tickets for the O2 arena were priced at £31.21 (including a free copy of Prince's latest album), in order to make the concerts "affordable for everybody".[24]. The residency at the O2 arena was increased to 15 nights after all 140,000 tickets for the original 7 sold out in just 20 minutes.[25]
On May 31, 2007, the title and tentative release date of the new album, were revealed: Planet Earth will be released in July 2007 and distributed by Columbia Records. The first single from the album, "Guitar", was made available through a special partnership with Verizon. [26
Personal life
In the 80s and early 90s Prince was romantically linked to several celebrities, including Vanity, Sheila E, Carmen Electra [27], Kirstie Alley, Kim Basinger, Troy Beyer, and Nona Gaye. He married his backup singer and dancer, Mayte Garcia on Valentine's Day, 1996. They had one son, who was born with Pfeiffer syndrome and died shortly after birth. They were divorced in 2000. Prince became one of Jehovah's Witnesses in 2001. He married Manuela Testolini in 2001 but she filed for divorce in May 2006. [28]
Protégés and associates
Aside from countless minor collaborations, Prince has contributed significant input to the work of numerous bands, musicians and performers over his career. The range of such collaborations have varied between certain artists, such as Maceo Parker, making repeated appearances on Prince's albums, to absolute control over protégé projects, such as The Time and Vanity 6, giving Prince the opportunity to release music under alternative monikers.
Groove Armada's Tom Findlay has said that working with Prince would be a dream collaboration[29] and Prince's influence is evident in their latest album, Soundboy Rock.
Monikers
Prince often uses pseudonyms and monikers to separate himself from the music (either his own or that of others) he has had input in; he has said that he was tired of seeing his name everywhere, and that only egotistical people take credit for everything they do.[30] He has also given himself alternate names for his film characters, the most recognizable of which is The Kid.
Jamie Starr / The Starr ★ Company - early producer of The Time, Vanity 6, etc.
The Revolution - Though the band had other members, several songs credited to Prince and The Revolution were performed by Prince alone.
The Kid - Prince's semi-autobiographical persona in Purple Rain; the character was revisited in the film Graffiti Bridge
Joey Coco - producer/writer of songs for Kenny Rogers, Sheena Easton, etc.
Christopher Tracy - lead character of Under the Cherry Moon
Christopher - writer of "Manic Monday" for The Bangles
Alexander Nevermind - writer of "Sugar Walls" for Sheena Easton
Camille - sped up voice on "Housequake," "Shockadelica," etc. and mentioned in the Lovesexy tour book as Prince's "good" side
Spookyelectric - the polar opposite of Camille, the "evil force" which created the Black Album
Gemini - on the Batman album; half Batman, half Joker, or more simply half evil/half good, a recurring theme as his astrological sun sign is that of Gemini
Paisley Park - writer of songs for Ingrid Chavez, El DeBarge, Paula Abdul, Patti LaBelle, Tevin Campbell, and Louie Louie.
Madhouse - writer of all songs on the first Madhouse album. Though credited to the band, Prince draws royalties for this work. On Madhouse's second album, some tunes were specified as being written by Prince, Sheila E., Eric Leeds, and Levi Seacer Jr., while other compositions were attributed to Madhouse, i.e., Prince.
Austra Chanel - name of the "mentor" under which Madhouse was assembled; said to be the creator of the Madhouse concept
Partyman - Prince plays the titular character in said music video
Tora Tora - on the NPG's Exodus album
Azifwekaré - "homeless pothead" on the song "Style" and director credit to the "Face Down" video
- adopted as official name from 1993 to 2000
The Artist Formerly Known As Prince (TAFKAP) - offered by journalists as an alternative to the unpronounceable
The Artist - emerged from "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince," and usually accredited to his then lawyer L. Londel McMillan and became the most common alias in the media in the late 1990s
Trivia
Miles Davis was a huge fan, proclaiming Prince to be "the most exciting artist of his time", and saying that "he could be another Duke Ellington". The two were planning to collaborate on an album prior to Davis's death.[citation needed]
In 2005, Prince ranked #5 on the ARC Archive's list of the Top 50 Pop Artists of the last 25 years [1]. Prince was the best-ranked male performer on the list, one ahead of Michael Jackson.
References in popular culture
Prince and the Revolution is the subject of a famous Chappelle's Show sketch where Charlie Murphy tells the story of how he challenged Prince (played by Dave Chappelle) to a basketball game. Murphy had earlier mocked Prince's clothes, telling him he didn't buy his frilly shirts in the men's department. Prince then beat Murphy soundly in the basketbell game without ever changing out of the shirt.
The Mortal Kombat ninja character Rain, dressed in purple, is inspired by the song "Purple Rain".
The Simpsons:
"Lisa the Simpson": When Lisa is trying to solve the puzzle on the back of her lunch pack, she rules out that the puzzle is one of Prince's names.
"Radioactive Man": The Comic Book Guy sends a message to other Internet nerds about who will star in the new Radioactive Man movie, three of which are the nerds Homer met in "Homer Goes to College", while the one in the center square is Prince dressed in a purple suit.
"Lemon of Troy": After Milhouse van Houten meets a Shelbyville kid who looks and acts like him, Milhouse sobs, "So this is what it's like when doves cry," a reference to the 1984 song from the film/album Purple Rain.
"Two Dozen and One Greyhounds": When the viewer is introduced to the greyhound puppies' names, there is one named Prince, and a one later named "the puppy formally known as Prince".
The cartoon Animaniacs has two gags involving Prince:
"Hercule Yakko": Yakko tells his sister, Dot to look for prints left behind by the thief who stole Maria the Hippo's diamond necklace. After a while, Dot comes back, yelling, "I've found Prince" and has him in her arms. Yakko corrects her by stating that he wanted "fingerprints". Dot then throws Prince out of the ship's portal.
"Hot Bothered and Bedevilled": After Yakko, Wakko, and Dot throw The Devil into the room with the whiny protest singer from the 1960s (who looks similar to Bob Dylan), The Devil bursts out and yells, "You dare mock The Prince of Darkness?" Dot then shouts, "Prince? Where? He's dreamy!" before snidely remarking, "Not!"
Prince has been impersonated on the following sketch comedy shows:
Saturday Night Live, by Billy Crystal in two cold-opening sketches in the mid-1980s ?- one where the SNL cast prepare for Prince's arrival on the show, and another where Prince is singing a charity song called "I Am Also the World" and every musician who attempts a duet with him gets beaten up by Prince's back-up singers (Mary Gross and Julia Louis-Dreyfus) or his bodyguards (played by hosts Mr. T and Hulk Hogan); by Chris Kattan in a one-off sketch from the 24th season episode hosted by Bill Paxton where Prince performs "Kiss" on a talk show hosted by Ted Nugent (Paxton) and gets shot with a crossbow; and, more famously, by Fred Armisen in the recurring sketch "The Prince Show" that started on the 29th season episode hosted by Drew Barrymore.
MADtv, by Phil LaMarr in three sketches: one where Prince has dinner with "The Klumps" from the Eddie Murphy version of the Nutty Professor movies, one where Prince stars as Moses in a Biblical epic called "The Artist Formerly Known as the Prince of Egypt"; and in a one-off sketch where Prince, Jack Nicholson (played by Pat Kilbane), and Steven Seagal (played by Will Sasso) have a sleepover and try to kick Eddie Murphy (played by Aries Spears) out of it.
In Living Color by Jamie Foxx in two sketches: one a music video parody about Prince's height (though for copyright reasons, this is edited from the DVD release of the series) and one in a fake commercial called "Butt-Out Jeans".
