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Amanda Machado
Ana Figaro
Camila Viveiro
Helena Ferreira
Julia Corte

The prince of pop royalty

Prince

For Teacher Karina Fernandes - June 14th, 2021

INTRODUCTION

More than just a musician, Prince was and still is an icon all around the world for his revolutionary role as a black powerful man who just didn't care.

If winning seven Grammys, a Golden Globe, an Academy Award and releasing 40 albums, including the hit "Purple Rain" song and album, wasn't enough, Prince Rogers Nelson was also in charge of standing up for sexual liberation, comforting the early queer people.

The visionary american artist Frank Ocean recently revealed how much Prince's excentric but unique style made him feel more comfortable with how he identifies sexually simply by the pop artist's display of freedom from archaic ideas like gender conformity, leading to an even bigger influence back then.

CHILDHOOD

Prince, nicknamed "Skipper" as a kid, was the son of two musicians, what led him to choose a similar career. He was born on June 7th, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and named after his father's stage name, "Prince Rogers".

Despite not looking like a very athletic kid, Prince played football, baseball and basketball in high school, but fortunately, music was his number one interest.  

The little boy was only seven years old when he wrote his first song, called "Funk Machine". He was able to use his father's piano for the first time since his parents were getting divorced and his father left home. Ten years later, he started his promising career further to being discovered by a big musical producer and signed to Warner Brothers.

As a teenager, Prince would spend hours and hours in a basement studio listening to classics such as BB King and James Brown, mastering his musical talent.

As a child, he was a big fan of Superman. That made him wonder why all superheroes were white, what showed his concerns with racial matters since his very early years.

ADULTHOOD

As Prince Rogers grew older, he continued living in Minneapolis, became more famous and many producers started offering him businesses.

In 1984, after publishing the album “Purple Rain”, Prince became one of the biggest pop music artists. However, he had constant disagreements with Warner Bros because he thought it was using his name unproperly for more and more profits, as if he was a slave. That's why he once wrote this word on his face as a form of protest.

His creativity had no limits. At one point, Prince decided he should be called by an unpronounceable symbol, a combination of male and female indications, so people began referring to him as "the artist formerly known as Prince".

In 1996, Prince Rogers got married to the dancer Mayte Garcia, with whom he had his only son, who died at six days old. In 2000, they separated and, a year later, he married Manuela Testolini. Still that year, the musician signed a contract with Arista Records, renamed himself Prince and published the album “Musicology”.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The american songwriter performed at the Super Bowl and Grammy Awards - beside Beyoncé - and was considered the artist who earned more money in the world - $56,5 million annually. 

In his whole life, Prince sold more than 160 million albums and singles and won more than 30 awards, including 7 Grammys, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.

Rogers was a strong proud black man who teamed up with black lives matter and wrote several songs directed at the subject of race and what it was like to be a black person in America, as in “Dreamer” from the "Lotus Flower".

Unfortunately, this phenomenal artist died at 57 years old on the morning of April 21st, 2016, in Paisley Park, and will always be remembered as one of the most influential artists in the history of popular music.

Prince, despite not being addicted to drugs and not even letting his band use them during concerts, died of an overdose of the opium-based medicine he was taking for his hip pain, called opioids. 

His practical approach influenced many people, helping them with their creativity and defending many artists who faced tensions with their record companies, setting an example for many musicians as he wasn’t afraid to take a stand against those who threatened his freedom of expression. By taking complete control over the direction of his work, Prince was able to shape the sounds that still influence countless artists today.

He had such an importance that even Barack Obama, who was the president of the United States at the time, said that “Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent.”, in honor of Prince Rogers.

CONCLUSION

Prince left behind a tremendous legacy. He was not only a genius in music, but also encourages people all over the world, by challenging sexual and racial standards.

Very few people know the singer for his role as an activist, but he expressed his support for the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement by quoting: "Albums still matter, like books and black lives."

“Whatever skin you are in, We all need to be friends, Black and white and yellow, We can be friends, All happy again, It’s so much better than nothing” - Prince, 2010