Prince, 9 April 2015, at Fox Theatre, Detroit (Michigan, United States) during his “HitnRun” tour.

More than a hundred million albums sold, seven Grammy Awards and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame… Prince, who passed away too soon 21 April 2016 at the age of 57, is without doubt one of the most gifted musicians of his generation.
Born in 1957 in Minneapolis (Minnesota, United States), Prince grew up surrounded by a piano-playing father and jazz-singing mother. His innate musical talent revealed itself earlier than most. At secondary school, he formed a group with a few friends. He then went solo and persuaded Warner to sign him, even though he was still only a teenager.
After a debut modestly successful album in 1978, his genius truly captivated the music world the following year with a self-titled work. It was the beginning of a prolific and long career marked by hits like Little Red Corvette, When Doves Cry, Let’s Go Crazy, Kiss, Purple Rain – soundtrack of the biopic of the same name that saw him win an Oscar in 1984 – and The Most Beautiful Girl in the World. “Dirty Mind”, “1999” and “Sign o’ the Times” feature among his iconic albums. In terms of style, he could effortlessly move from RnB to rock, soul to new wave, throwing in a touch of jazz or funk along the way.
Prince also wrote hit songs performed by other artists, including the famous Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinéad O’Connor and I Feel for You by Chaka Khan. He had the ability to detect talent and proved to be a visionary producer, launching the careers of artists like Carmen Electra and singer Bria Valente.
Prince played a wide range of instruments brilliantly and was the ultimate perfectionist. This enabled him to produce his albums from A to Z, dabbling with different instruments in the process, during extremely long recording sessions. And when it came to defending his idea of music and his avant-garde choices, nothing stood in his way. Which led him to conflict with his record company, Warner Bros, at the end of the 1990s.
He recently revived the soul rhythms of his beginnings, in the early 1980s. He died tragically 21 April 2016 at home, in his Paisley Park mansion. He leaves behind an image of a gifted musician, a past master in the art of duplicity: on one side, oddly modest and mysterious; on the other, eccentric and deliberately provocative…

A word from MOYI
Prince has etched in our minds the idea that you can’t truly grow unless you remain yourself. He knew very early on how to present a unique, personal style without worrying about how others might see him, and to remain honest as an artist without making compromises