Prince

Prince was romantically involved with several women over the years including including Kim Basinger, Madonna, Vanity, Sheila E., Carmen Electra, and Susanna Hoffs.

He married for the first time in 1996, aged 37. His wife was the 22 year old singer Mayte Garcia. The couple had a baby boy who was born with Pfeiffer syndrome and died a week later. Their marriage collapsed under the strain of this tragedy and they divorced in 1999.

In 2001, Prince married Manuela Testolini. This marriage too did not last long.

Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 7, 1958 to an African-American couple Mattie Della and John Lewis Nelson. His father was a pianist and songwriter and his mother was a jazz singer. He suffered from epileptic seizures as a young child.

He became interested in music at a young age and was encouraged by his parents. He taught himself how to play the piano, guitar and drums, and wrote his first tune when he was seven.

His parents separated when he was ten, and the next few years were spent repeatedly switching homes, sometimes living with his father and sometimes with his mother.

He formed his first band, Grand Central (later known as Champagne), when he was 14.

Prince released his debut album ‘For You’, in 1978, which was followed by ‘Prince’, in 1979. The album featured the hit singles ‘Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’ and went platinum, effectively establishing Prince’s career.

Being an African-American he initially wrote songs for the black youth though with time his songs became popular with youngsters of all races. His lyrics were marked with sexual innuendo which made him a youth icon as could be seen from the success of the albums ‘Dirty Mind’ (1980),’Controversy’ (1981), and ‘1999’ (1982).

In 1984, he released the album ‘Purple Rain’ which sold more than 13 million copies in the US and spent 24 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The same year he appeared in a rock musical drama film of the same name, making his film debut. The film became a cult classic.

Over the next few years, he toured extensively and also recorded albums such as ‘Parade’ (1986), ‘Sign o' the Times’ (1987), ‘Lovesexy’ (1988), and ‘Batman’ (1989). All of these albums were international commercial hits.

In the 1990s he started performing with a new backing band, the New Power Generation. In 1993 he changed his stage name to , an unpronounceable symbol which was a combination of the symbols for male (♂) and female (♀). The symbol was soon dubbed “The Love Symbol.”

His album ‘Purple Rain’ is consistently ranked among the best albums in music history and is widely regarded as Prince's magnum opus. It has sold over 22 million copies worldwide, becoming the sixth best-selling soundtrack album of all time.

His album ‘Sign o' the Times’, which had elements of funk, soul, psychedelic pop, and rock music, and featured tracks like ‘If I Was Your Girlfriend’, ‘Housequake’ and ‘It’ was another one of his mega hits. In 1989, ‘Time Out’ magazine ranked it as the greatest album of all time.