Prince to Receive Billboard Icon Award
It was recently announced that Prince is to be honored with an Icon Award at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards to be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on 19 May. The somewhat controversial star will be the third recipient of the Icon Award, with the inaugural award going to Neil Diamond in 2011 and last year’s award going to Stevie Wonder. Fans will be delighted to hear that Prince is planning a televised performance on the show, to be produced by acclaimed television and music event producer Don Mischer.
Born into a musical family in Minneapolis on June 7, 1958, Prince Rogers Nelson was encouraged by his parents to pursue a career in music, and he wrote his first tune, Funk Machine at the age of seven. He had various successes with his music before releasing his self-titled album in October 1979. The album went platinum and reached the #4 spot on the Billboard Top R&B Albums, as well as # 22 on the Billboard 200. Two hit singles came out of the album – I Wanna Be Your Lover and Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?.
While Prince’s subsequent albums Dirty Mind, Controversy and 1999 met with success, it was his 1984 album Purple Rain and the film of the same name that shot him to superstardom. The album spent 24 consecutive weeks in the number one spot on the Billboard 200 charts and sold more than thirteen million copies in the United States, while the film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. Prince became the first singer in the US to have an album, single and film at the top of the charts simultaneously. The album Purple Rain is listed at 72 on the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine and is included on Time magazine’s list of All-Time 100 Albums. His 35th and most recent album is 20Ten, released in the year 2010 and his most recent tour was Welcome 2 between 2010 and 2012. Prince has received many Grammy nominations and has seven Grammy Awards, three of which were for Purple Rain. He also has four MTV Video Music Awards.
