Prince

He may be small in stature but when it comes to music this Minneapolis native is a giant. Born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958; this son of jazz pianist John L Nelson is known simply be a single name - Prince.

Known as much for his purple attire and sexual moves as he his musical ability. Prince is a multi talented multi instrumentalist who frequently mixes musical genres; not just in his albums but also within each song. This eclectic mix of musical styles has at times caused a bit of contention between Prince and his fans which has also resulted in lower album sales. Despite this fact Prince has seen seven of his albums reach multi platinum status. An album is considered platinum when it sells one million copies. An additional platinum award is issued for each addition one million copies sold. The album "1999" was Prince's third album and became his breakout album which went on to sell four million copies.

Despite the up and down album sales Prince continues to break ground in music. Most recently he gave out free copies of his newest album in the United Kingdom by bundling the album in a copy of The Mail. As a result of the action the record company refused to release the album in the United Kingdom but was released in the United States during the summer of 2007.

During high school Prince was in a band with his cousin Morris Day. Since that time he has composed, produced, and recorded numerous songs hundreds of which have never been released and remain in Prince's musical vault. His biggest selling album was the soundtrack to the movie "Purple Rain" which sold 13 million copies and spent 24 weeks in the number one position. Prince has sold 80 million records world wide. Besides playing nearly all of the instruments on a recording, Prince doesn't play brass, Not only does Prince write his own music, he also writes music for other artists like Chaka Kahn for which he won one of his Grammys.

Prince has won a Golden Globe Award, two Brit Awards, and seven Grammy Awards one of which he won with his father for a composition in "Purple Rain". He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the United Kingdom Music Hall of Fame. In recent years the NFL has turned to super star rockers for its half time shows; Prince provided the half time entertainment for Super Bowl XLI which was held in Miami, Florida. The band that accompanied Prince on the field was the Florida A&M University Rattler Marching 100.

At only five foot two inches Prince may be a small man but he has filled a tall order by breaking the mold of the record business.