Prince (born June 7, 1958), real name Prince Rogers Nelson, a performer in the funk tradition and guitarist in the rock and roll tradition, is a composer, record producer, film director and actor. He was born in Minneapolis to a white mother and an African-American father, and identifies himself as an African-American. His music has tended to be a fusion of white and black musical influences, including Sly Stone, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Joni Mitchell. Ambitious, talented and hardworking, if sometimes overstretched, Prince brought modern ideas and attitudes into pop music and put on a great show besides. He first attracted attention with his spacy soulful sound topped with screaming guitar, not to mention the colorful clothes he put on his 5 ft 3 in (1.6 m) frame.

After having played in bands like Grand Central (later called Champaine) and 94 East, he made his first solo album called For You in 1978. Since then he released about one album each year.

He was backed in the 80s by The Revolution, and in the 90s by The New Power Generation. His players were always crackerjack musicians. It turns out that many crackerjack musicians are beautiful women. He also worked on different occasions with famous Jazz musicians, such as Miles Davis, Larry Graham and Maceo Parker.

Many music journalists consider Dirty Mind, Purple Rain and Sign of the Times to be his three best albums, which are found in many Top 100 lists of the eighties. Amongst the fans albums like 1999 (1982), Lovesexy (1988) and The Rainbow Children (2002) are among the favorites.

His first hit Little Red Corvette made him part of the first wave of black artists on MTV. Other hits include 1999, When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy, Purple Rain, exhibiting both versatility and feeling. Prince is allied with the tradition of Marvin Gaye in mixing spirituality and sensuality, I Would Die 4U, for instance, which can be compared to Gaye's Sexual Healing, with its not so subtle reference to Jesus Christ. In contrast to Gaye, however, his songs often had more overt and direct sexual content, such as Jack U Off and Sexy Motherfucker.

In addition to recording his own music, he has written for many artists, including Chaka Khan and The Bangles. He has been a tireless promoter of new artists, among them, Morris Day and the Time, Apollonia, Sheila E.

He directed and starred in three movies, Purple Rain (1984), Under The Cherry Moon (1987) and Graffiti Bridge (1990). Of these movies only Purple Rain was a big success. In 1987 a movie was shot of the Sign of the Times Tour in Rotterdam and Antwerp. The movie was shown in several theaters in Europe, but was more of a success as a music video.

Prince is regarded as one of top live acts in the music business, often performing not only in large arenas, but also late at night in small clubs for a selected audience.

He was one of the first artists to sell his music directly to his fans through the Internet, bypassing record labels.