“This is just another one of God’s gifts. Musicology”.
There are some artists that transcend music because their talent, art and influence seem to defy normal conventions. Simply put, they’re icons. Like the sadly missed David Bowie; Prince Rogers Nelson, known to the world simply as Prince, was one of those musicians.
In a remarkable career that spanned three decades, he released 39 albums (two of them earning a place in the Grammy Hall of Fame) and won all of the following: an Oscar, Golden Globe, 7 Grammy Awards and a BET Lifetime Achievement Award.
The last time that Irish fans got to see ‘The Purple One’ up close was on July 30 at Malahide Castle, Dublin.
The setlist is below and blogger Ciaran Collins was on hand to capture some truly wonderful coverage of his timeless songs that were adored by his Irish fans.
Here he is opening his gig in Malahide with a wonderful version of ‘Gold’ before playing ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, ‘1999’ and ‘Little Red Corvette’. There’s even more outstanding footage below.
It seemed that Prince was in his element while performing to the Irish crowd because he followed this intro up with an amazing rendition of ‘Raspberry Beret’, ‘Cream, and the iconic ‘Purple Rain’.
Things got more festive after that emotive rendition of his classic anthem as fans were treated to some funky hits. Take a look as Prince plays a superb mashup of of ‘Play That Funky Music’ and a mesmerising rendition of ‘Sometimes It Snows In April‘. These pale in comparison to an incredibly soulful version of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U‘, a hit which he wrote for Sinead O’Connor.
The final clip below sees him play ‘Sign O’ the Times‘, ‘Alphabet Street‘, ‘When Doves Cry‘ and ‘Hot Thing’ and ‘You Got the Look’ A truly remarkable talent that will be missed
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