(Picture courtesy of www.billboard.com)
This is going to be one of, if not the toughest post I will do. I am shaking, my chest hurts, and I can literally feel my heart breaking. It still doesn’t seem real. But… Today we lost one of the greatest entertainers in the world… The Purple One… His Purple-ness… Prince who was only 57 years old.
Prince died this morning at his Paisley Park home and studio in Minneapolis, his publicist confirmed to the Associated Press. Nothing further has been released about what happened as an investigation has begun. Prince was hospitalized last week after his plane for was forced to make an emergency landing. Released soon after being diagnosed with the flu.
To those of you who are too young to know him and his music or those who think that I, along with other Prince fans, are being overly dramatic, he has touched us with his music unlike anyone else. For me, personally, listening to him was and still is an outer body experience. Also, I have an even more personal connection with his music in that it was something I shared with my Mother, who passed away almost 7 years ago. She was a HUGE fan of his and made me a fan growing up. To this day, I could be walking, hear the opening music to one of his songs and stop in my tracks. It is also something I share with my boyfriend, who is a big fan as well.
I honestly feel that my generation may be the last ones who were able to grow up with Prince and his music, along with all of the other legends that we’ve lost (Michael Jackson, James Brown, Luther Vandross), that we were introduced to by our parents/ grandparents. Of course their music will live on but without them actually here, it will be different. It’s time for the younger generation to really step up and start taking over which can be a good and a bad thing. Those are ridiculously big shoes to fill. They were more than musicians… They were ENTERTAINERS. A few artists, male and female, come to mind when it comes to that which is good but it still won’t be the same.
Prince and his music was revolutionary and he became a music Icon. His incredible career grew out of the music scene in his home of Minneapolis, where he lived his entire life. His 1978 debut album For You and self-titled second LP, released in October 1979, kicked off a trail of other amazing albums that include: 1999, Purple Rain, Around The World In A Day, Sign O The Times and Batman, to name a few…
His first no. 1 album on the Billboard 200, Purple Rain — which was released along side the movie, also named Purple Rain, that solidified him as one of the greatest artists of his generation. This brought him 2 Grammy’s and an Oscar. He would receive 7 Grammy Awards from 32 nominations between 1984 and 2010.
Also, 2 of Prince’s co stars also came from the music scene in Minneapolis, Morris Day (& The Time) and Apollonia of the girl group Vanity. Apollonia actually passed away 2 months ago at the same age as Prince, 57…
To perfectly sum everything up… “Prince’s legacy as a musician, a singer, a style icon and an endlessly creative mind is nearly unparalleled, and his influence stretches from pop to R&B to funk to hip-hop and everywhere in between…”.
< http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7341522/prince-dead >
Looking forward to reading more. Great post.Really thank you!