This was the first song I heard from Prince. The way he sang stuck in my head in a way that I can’t explain. I grew up with sexually androgynous people including my friends and my mother’s friends who all took inspiration from Prince’s style. It gave me a passion for music and fashion and lead me to now, when I’m working as a fashion producer, doing queer parties. I can say Prince is one of the inspirations who got me here.

 

 

 

1999 is his most funky, dance album for me and contains many party songs. Prince is someone who never did the same thing twice, he was always changing, challenging. I was a fan ever since I first saw that Symbol guitar in the Schecter catalogue—I went to find out who owned it, and it was Prince!

 

“1999” had the most meaning for me as it epitomized that peculiar blend of hedonism and pessimism that characterized the '80s. But my earliest Prince memory was hearing “Little Red Corvette,” and my first Prince album was Purple Rain. Like many, it changed my impression of what rock could be. Prince, along with Bowie, defined an era. He was part of a continuum starting from Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix. We should feel privileged to have shared his planet.

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“When Doves Cry”

Album: Purple Rain
Year: 1984

Oh my favorite song is “When Doves Cry,” for sure! Why? cause its just amazing—I don’t know how else to explain a good song. I was in high school when I first heard of Prince—my best friend was obsessed with him. I remember going into her room and it was covered with his posters and being like, that’s an odd-looking dude. As soon as I heard his music it was just contagious.

It's a toss-up between this track and “Nothing Compares 2 U,” but I have to go with "When Doves Cry" as I personally feel it encapsulates Prince at his peak in terms of beats, melodies and musicality and brutally honest lyrics.

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“Purple Rain”

Album: Purple Rain
Year: 1984

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“All the Critics Love U in Paris”

Album: N/A
Year: 2002

I was the sidekick of the culture section head of the daily newspaper Liberation, in Paris. Eric Dahan had two obsessions at the time: Prince and Bowie. He interviewed both of them several times (sadly, not with me). And he took me to their concerts, in particular Prince's 2002 Bataclan after-show, considered one of his best. After the Nov 2015 Bataclan terrorist attack, Rolling Stone evoked the legendary performance: "Prince returned to the stage for a Herculean two-and-a-half-hour encore. ... The show has become a much-bootlegged favorite of Prince devotees." My fave, a version of "All the Critics Love You in New York," was an endless trance of raw funk.