Winner of the 1993 Brit Award for International Solo Artist.

Winner of the British Phonographic Industry Awards for International Act and Soundtrack for "Purple Rain" in 1985.

Thrilled his hometown fans by performing three shows over twelve hours, only stopping when police shut him down. The Minneapolis native first performed at a department store to promote his new cologne, cramming nine songs into a 45-minute set. He then played that night at the Target Center arena. He capped the night with a return to First Avenue, the club he made famous in the movie Purple Rain (1984). Minnesota's governor and the Minneapolis mayor issued proclamations honoring Prince, and fans flew in from all over the country to see the performer. After the Target Center, Prince waited until nearly 2:45 a.m. before starting the First Avenue show, the first time he had played at the club since 1987. The city lets music play until 4 a.m. He was 15 songs and 70 minutes into a 24-song set when he announced from the stage: "The authorities say we gotta go. We always listen to the authorities. I promise I'll be back." (7 July 2007).

Inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame for his outstanding contribution to British music and integral part of British music culture. [14 November 2006].

Ranked #18 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll.

Winner of the 1992 Brit Award for International Solo Artist.

Arrived an hour late to the 2007 Golden Globe Awards due to traffic and missed accepting the Golden Globe for Best Song for movie "Happy Feet". Justin Timberlake accepted the award for him after an awkward silence waiting for Prince to come on stage. He did so in an amusing fashion by crouching down to a shorter height and raising his voice to accept the award for Prince. Hugh Grant later announced Prince had finally arrived after being stuck in gridlock traffic, and gave Prince an opportunity to stand and receive applause for his win.

Thrilled his hometown fans by performing three shows over twelve hours, only stopping when police shut him down. The Minneapolis native first performed at a department store to promote his new cologne, cramming nine songs into a 45-minute set.

Is a Vegetarian.

Performed at the Super Bowl XLI halftime show in Miami, Florida, to a worldwide television audience of 140 million viewers. (4 February 2007).

Held a press conference to announce his intention to perform 21 shows in London. (8 May 2007).

Has sold 80 million albums worldwide.

Wrote a song for his friend the actress Jackie Swanson entitled Palomino Pleasure Ride.

Ranked #5 on VH1`s 100 Sexiest Artists.

Known as "Gazoo" in school because of his huge Afro and small body. Gazoo was the flying space guy in the Fintstones cartoon show with the giant head covered by a space helmet.

During high school was in a band with his cousin Morris Day.

In his An Evening with Kevin Smith (2002) (V) film, director Kevin Smith says that he learned during shooting of a documentary for Prince that he has made about 50 fully produced music videos for songs that were never released in any kind of form.

Prince`s 2006 tour made him the most lucrative live performer of the year. His 69 city, 96 show tour took $87.4 million (£45.5 million), beating Céline Dion`s Las Vegas residency, which came in second, taking $80.4 million (£41.8 million).

Was to duet with Michael Jackson on his album "Bad", but could not decide on the words to the song.

In November 2005 he was told by his doctors that he would need a hip replacement following years of energetic dancing on stage.

His 1984 album "Purple Rain" sold 13 million copies in the United States.

Performed a composition written by his father, John L. Nelson, in the music of Purple Rain (1984); this music was also part a song from the Purple Rain (1984) soundtrack, "Computer Blue".

During the filming of Purple Rain (1984), he was told one day by director Albert Magnoli that the film needed a montage song that dealt heavily on emotions. Prince responded with two songs the very next morning, written, produced and recorded. One of the songs was the smash hit "When Doves Cry".

Played the song "1999" for the last time at a New Year`s Eve party in 1999, then announced he was retiring the song.

One of the very few musicians who writes, produces and composes all his music himself. On most of his albums, he plays all the instruments himself, except for brass instruments, which he does not play, though he does have a backing band for concerts. His songwriting skills have provided hits for others such as Chaka Khan, Sinéad O`Connor and Jordan Knight.

Known for his colorful outfits and explicitly flaunting and expressing his strong sexuality during his performances, despite being a devout Christian.

The symbol he used as his name was also the name of his last Warner Bros. album as Prince, which was released just a few months before his name change. He recorded as Prince since then on his independently distributed, self-released albums and those licensed to Arista/BMG Records and Columbia/SME Records.

In the late 1990s, he requested to be referred to as simply The Artist, since his initial intention when he changed his name to O(+> was to not be referred to as Prince. Unfortunately that was not going too well, considering everyone was calling him the Artist Formerly Known as Prince because the symbol has no pronunciation.

Did the music for the movie Girl 6 (1996) as Prince. It was the only time he referred to himself as Prince from 1993 to 2000.

He joins Sylvester Stallone, Roberto Benigni, Kevin Costner, William Shatner and Tom Green as being the only actors to direct themselves in performances that would win them a Razzie Award for Worst Actor.

Is of African American and Italian descent.

He was voted the 28th greatest Rock & Roll Artist of all time by "Rolling Stone" magazine.

A very short man, he often has to wear large shoes on stage so he is not dwarfed by some female singers.

Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in March 2004.

One of very few artists who has denied `Weird Al` Yankovic permission to parody any of his songs. After years of asking, ``Weird Al` Yankovic` obtained video parody permission, and the video for UHF (1989) includes a sequence that spoofs the bathtub intro for Prince`s video of "When Doves Cry".

Son of jazz pianist John L. Nelson.

Started the careers of Vanity and Carmen Electra amongst others.

Has dated several famous women before settling down: Kim Basinger, Sherilyn Fenn, Apollonia Kotero and Sheena Easton, to name a few.

Changed his stage name to O(+>. [7 June 1993]

[16 October 1996]. Son, with Mayte Garcia, born with the rare skull disease Pfeiffer`s syndrome and unable to breathe without a ventilator. The child was taken off life support on 23 October and died.

The symbol to which Prince changed his name (which is best rendered as ether O{+> or O(+> in normal ASCII characters) originated in and was borrowed by Prince from ancient Europe.

In May 2000 Prince dropped the symbol O(+> he adopted as a name. He had used the symbol because he considered his record contract with Warner Bros. Records oppressive, which ended in 2000.