Prince performs during the halftime show at the Super Bowl XLI football game at Dolphin Stadium in Miami on Feb. 4, 2007. Pop superstar Prince, widely acclaimed as one of the most inventive and influential musicians of his era with hits including "Little Red Corvette," "Let's Go Crazy" and "When Doves Cry," was found dead at his home on Thursday in suburban Minneapolis, according to his publicist. He was 57. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Rock singer Prince performs at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., during his opening show, Feb. 18, 1985. (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing)

People place flowers under Prince's star on the side of First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis on Thursday, April 21, 2016. Prince helped put the legendary club on the map when he filmed his 1984 movie "Purple Rain" there. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

A police squad car enters Paisley Park, the home and studio of singer Prince, in Chanhassen on April 21, the day he was found dead in an elevator. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Maryanna Miller clutches a photo of Prince Thursday as she and her husband Gary grieve outside Paisley Park Studios, the singer's home and studio in Chanhassen. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)



Singer Prince arrives with his wife Manuela Testolini for the 77th Academy Awards Sunday, Feb. 27, 2005, in Los Angeles. Prince will be a presenter during the Oscars telecast. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

The Artist looks for a reaction from the crowd as he opens his Monday night show at the Mill City Music festival in downtown Minneapolis in Sept. 1999. (Pioneer Press: Richard Marshall)

Prince at the Schmitt Music mural in downtown Minneapolis in 1977. (Robert Whitman)

"He was one of my favorite guitar players ever," said Christopher LaCroix, right, from North Minneapolis, who brought his Fender guitar and said he was going to leave it at First Avenue. Another fan, left, lights sage. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

A fan takes a photo of Prince's star at First Avenue. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)



Singer Prince and actress Penelope Cruz sit in the audience, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007, in Beverly Hills, Calif. as the City of Beverly Hills and the Rodeo Drive Committee honored Gianni Versace and his sister Donatella Versace for their contributions to the worlds of fashion and entertainment with the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award. Versace, founded in 1978 by Gianni Versace, is one of the leading international fashion design houses and a symbol of Italian luxury worldwide. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Production still from Prince's "Purple Rain."

Appollonia Kotero and Prince in a still from the movie "Purple Rain."

Fans camp out to buy tickets for a Prince show outside the Wax Museum record shop on University Ave. in St. Paul on Nov. 11, 1984. (Pioneer Press: Buzz Magnuson)

Prince performs a medley of "Take Me With U" and "Rasberry Beret" at the 4th annual VH1 Honors in Universal City, Calif on April 10, 1997. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)



U.S pop singer Prince, left and unidentified women, watch Spain's Rafael Nadal playing Serbia's Dusan Lajovic during their fourth round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium, in Paris, France, Monday, June 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Oscar-winning rock singer Prince gives his final performance in Miami's Orange Bowl, Easter Sunday, April 8, 1985, before a crowd of an estimated 55,000 fans. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

An unidentified body guard shows the way to American pop singer Prince upon his arrival at the Ritz Hotel in Paris to attend the presentation of Italian designer Gianni Versace's 1994-95 Fall-Winter haute couture fashion collection, July 17, 1994. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

Prince attends John Galliano's Spring-Summer 2010 fashion collection, presented in Paris on Oct. 7, 2009. Singer-songwriter Prince is headlining the 20th annual Essence Festival, a celebration of black music and culture being held July 3-6, 2014 in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

Rock singer Prince sings to a full house on the first of two nights at New York's Madison Square Garden, Aug. 3, 1986. (AP Photo/Mario Suriani)



Rock singer Prince speaks at the American Music Awards,, Jan. 27, 1986 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Rock singer Prince performs during the 27th annual Grammy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Ca., Feb. 27, 1985. Prince received three Grammys. (AP Photo/Liu Heung-Shing)

Prince performs on the stage of the Paris Bercy Stadium in front of thousands of fans, Sunday evening, June 14, 1987. (AP Photo/Olivier Boitet)

Prince (AP Photo/Steven Parke)

Prince performs his single "Get Off", surrounded by half-naked dancers, while clad in a see through yellow suit at the 8th Annual MTV Video Music Awards in Universal City, Calif., Sept. 5, 1991. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)



Singer Mary J. Blige, left, and Prince perform onstage during the 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival on September 22, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Clear Channel)

Prince gave about 600 well-heeled or connected fans probably the only U.S. glimpse of himself in the Nude on Monday evening at Rupert's Nightclub in Minneapolis on April 30, 1990. A preview of his upcoming European tour -- dubbed Nude -- the $100-per-ticket show was a benefit for the family of Charles "Chick" Huntsberry, Prince's former bodyguard turned evangelist, who died of heart failure a month ago, leaving a stack of unpaid medical bills. (Pioneer Press)

The Artist Formerly Known As Prince performs at the Target Center Dec. 10, 1997, his first local concert since 1989. (Pioneer Press: bill alkofer)

Prince presents the awards for best original song during the 77th Annual Academy Awards on February 27, 2005 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Prince performs at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans on July 2, 2004. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)



From left, Guitarist Donna Grantis, Prince and bassist Ida Nielsen perform onstage during the 2013 Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 19, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Prince performs on stage at the 36th Annual NAACP Image Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 19, 2005, in Los Angeles. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Prince leaves the stage after a news conference where he announced that he now will be known as Prince and not the unpronounceable symbol that he has been using in recent years, on May 16, 2000, in New York. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett)

Former Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham, left, shares the stage with Prince during a suprise appearance at a nightclub on Friday, April 10, 1998, in New York. The Artist formerly known as Prince was honored with an award for his extraordinary musical achievements at the 1998 Essence Awards celebration in New York. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett)

"The Artist" performs at Studio 54 at the MGM Grand, Saturday, Jan. 2, 1999, in Las Vegas, to celebrate the "1999-The New Master" CD release. The album scheduled to be released in January will feature seven re-mixes of the hit song 1999. (AP Photo/The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jeff Scheid)



Prince performs before a sold-out audience, in Houston on Jan. 11, 1985. (AP Photo/F. Carter Smith)

Prince performs in concert at Riverfront Coliseum during his Purple Rain Tour in Cincinnati, Ohio on Jan. 22, 1985. Prince's publicist has confirmed that Prince died at his his home in Minnesota, Thursday, April 21, 2016. He was 57. (AP Photo/Rob Burns)

Prince follows the action as the Timberwolves play San Antonio at Target center in Dec. 2001. (Pioneer Press: Chris Polydoroff)

Prince performs at Macy's in Minneapolis on Saturday, July 7, 2007. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

The Artist performs at the Mill City Music Festival Monday night in downtown Minneapolis on Sept. 6, 1999. (Pioneer Press: Richard Marshall)



Prince performs at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, in 2013. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman/TNS)

(Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)

Prince performs at the St. Paul Civic Center on May 6, 1990. (Pioneer Press: Chris Polydoroff)

Prince congratulates Beck for his Grammy win for Best Album of the Year at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 8, 2015 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

People look at Prince's star on the side of First Avenue. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)



Annie Sparrows, left, hugs her sister by Prince's star at First Avenue. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Law enforcement personnel walk outside at Paisley Park Studios, the home and studio of singer Prince, Thursday, April 21, 2016 in Chanhassen, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Tyka Nelson holds a rose outside Paisley Park, the home of her brother Prince in Chanhassen, Minn., on Thursday, April 21, 2016. Nelson went out to thank fans who gathered at the home to mourn the loss of the pop star who died Thursday. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)

Prince fans embrace by a makeshift memorial outside Paisley Park, the home of singer Prince, on Thursday, April 21, 2016 in Chanhassen, Minn. The singer died Thursday at the age of 57. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Media satellite trucks and fans line the street outside Paisley Park, the home of singer Prince, Thursday, April 21, 2016 in Chanhassen, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)



Fans gather at a memorial created at outside First Avenue, where the pop super star Prince often performed, Thursday, April 21, 2016 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Terrance May, a musician who goes by the name May Millions, takes a moment at a growing memorial outside First Avenue, a Minneapolis club where Prince filmed a large portion of his classic movie "Purple Rain" and recorded several songs on the accompanying album in Minneapolis, Thursday, April 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Kevin Burbach)

A photo of Prince is posted outside First Avenue as a memorial grew Thursday, April 21, 2016 in Minneapolis, where the pop super star Prince often performed. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Prince performs during the halftime show at Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium in Miami on Feb. 4, 2007. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Thousands of people lined the streets in downtown Minneapolis for a Prince dance party outside of First Avenue on Thursday night, April 21, 2016 for a quickly arranged tribute concert to Prince who died Thursday at this Paisley Park home in Chanhassen. (Pioneer Press: Jessica Fleming)



The world learned what it sounds like when doves cry after legendary Minneapolis musician Prince died Thursday morning at his Paisley Park studio in Chanhassen. The cause of death is under investigation. He was 57.

The news shocked friends, family and followers of the man born Prince Rogers Nelson, who signed his first record deal as a teenager and went on to become one of the world’s biggest, most influential stars. Through a career that lasted nearly four decades, he blurred racial, sexual and musical lines and sold millions of albums in the process.

Reaction ranged from stunned fans who made a pilgrimage in the rain to Paisley Park on Thursday morning all the way to the White House, where President Barack Obama took to Facebook to write: “Today, the world lost a creative icon. Michelle and I join millions of fans from around the world in mourning the sudden death of Prince. Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent.”

Because Prince spent most of his life in the Twin Cities, his death hit many people on a personal level.

Late Thursday night, thousands of people crowded First Avenue and Seventh Street in Minneapolis, the corner that Prince made world-famous in his 1984 movie “Purple Rain,” for an impromptu street party hosted by 89.3 The Current. The outdoor Prince tribute concert was supposed to be confined to half of Seventh Street, but the throngs of devotees flooded the whole street and spilled onto First Avenue.

Speaking outside the First Avenue music venue, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman eulogized the musician: “There is my life before Prince, and there is my life after Prince.”

The street party was a warm-up for an all-night dance party inside First Avenue, made possible by special permission from the city for the nightclub to stay open overnight.

In St. Paul, the Xcel Energy Center lit up its outdoor marquees with tributes to The Purple One before the Mumford & Sons show. Pre-concert music was sprinkled with Prince hits, and the audience broke into a dramatic sing-a-long to “Purple Rain.”

Fans at the Electric Fetus, a well-known Minneapolis record store that was visited by Prince on Saturday, snatched up every item related to the musician by 2 p.m. Staff scoured the basement for more but came up empty handed. However, a store employee said they would get some main titles via overnight delivery to restock the shelves Friday.

“He had an impact around the world, but it’s different here,” said Eric Foss, who runs the Minneapolis record label Secret Stash Records. “Go into any nightclub in town on a Friday night and throw a rock. It’s going to hit someone who played with him, or took lessons from someone who played with him, or worked for him, or knew someone who worked for him. He was an inescapable, omnipresent force, more so than anyone else.”

Prince was found unresponsive in an elevator in his studios about 9:40 a.m. Thursday, the Carver County sheriff’s office said. Efforts to revive him failed, and he was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m.

He had been suffering from the flu and, while flying back from what were his final live performances in Atlanta on Friday, his plane made an emergency stop in Moline, Ill., where he was rushed to the emergency room but was released after three hours. He seemingly bounced back Saturday and was spotted riding a bicycle around Chanhassen. He also hosted a dance party that night at Paisley Park.

“His music is going to live on and on,” said Mark Bonde, a Minneapolis fan who saw about 160 Prince concerts over the years, most of them at Paisley Park. “This is not something that’s going to fade away. The appreciation is going to go up over time. His catalog is so deep and diverse and amazing, his music will bless generations to come.”

Prince: Through the years

Born June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis, Prince was named after his father, a jazz pianist and songwriter. Encouraged by his father and mother, a jazz singer, Prince wrote his first song at the age of 7. By the time he was a teenager, Prince was playing in several bands and generating enough buzz to land him a record deal with Warner Bros.

In late 1977, he recorded his debut album, “For You,” in California. His unique deal with Warner Bros. gave him complete control over his music, and Prince took full advantage of that, carving out a sound that incorporated rock, funk, R&B, soul, gospel, new wave and whatever other genre struck his fancy.

Prince found success with such early singles as “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and “Uptown,” and also turned heads with his flamboyant personal style that was on full display in the cover art for his third album, 1980’s “Dirty Mind.” On it, he wore an intricate, studded jacket over his bare chest and little else beyond heavy makeup, a bandana and bikini-style underwear. His musical genius was already apparent, but Prince also exuded a sense of mystery and danger at the start of the Reagan administration.

Sean Tillmann, the Minnesota native who records under the name Har Mar Superstar, called Prince his greatest influence. “He means everything to me,” Tillmann said from a tour stop in New Orleans. “I make music because some dude from Minnesota could be so cool, and so amazing. He was an amazing, beautiful soul with a wicked, weird and almost mean sense of humor. And he was better at every instrument than everybody else.”

In 1982, Prince landed his first Top 10 album on the Billboard charts with “1999,” a wildly ambitious collection of songs that solidified what would become known as the “Minneapolis Sound” thanks to its hits “Little Red Corvette,” “Delirious” and the anthem-like title track. He was building such a strong audience, it forced MTV to make him one of the first black artists the network put into heavy rotation, alongside Michael Jackson. But that was just the start.

Two years later, Prince turned his next project, “Purple Rain,” into a multimedia extravaganza, with a hit album, smash singles, feature film and sold-out tour. He didn’t take the easy route, either, as the lead single “When Doves Cry” had Warner Bros. executives sweating with its squealing guitars, harsh electronics and lack of bass. It sounded unlike anything on the radio, yet set the stage for the “Purple Rain” soundtrack to sell 1.5 million copies its first week. It topped the charts in August and stayed there for 24 consecutive weeks. Prince was just 26, but he set a new record by simultaneously claiming the No. 1 album, single and film in the country.

The success of “Purple Rain” allowed Prince to build Paisley Park and transformed First Avenue, where much of the “Purple Rain” film was shot, from a dingy club into a tourist destination and cultural treasure.

Prince’s muse didn’t stop with his own material, either, and he turned musicians such as Sheila E. and the Time into stars, while collaborating with a long line of other artists, including Chaka Khan, Stevie Nicks, the Bangles, Sheena Easton and Madonna.

Grammy Award-winning Minneapolis native Dan Wilson, of Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic, said Prince also served as an example to other local musicians trying to make it in the business. “I feel like living and making music in Minneapolis when he was ascendant was a giant stroke of luck for me and my friends,” said Wilson, who now lives in Los Angeles. “He stayed in town, made his career and his life in his hometown, and gave us all the crazy idea that we could do that, too. And of course, his personality was endlessly puzzling and fascinating. ‘What makes Prince tick?’ could have been the unofficial title of a hundred conversations between me and my Twin Cities music friends.”

Instead of riding the “Purple Rain” wave, Prince moved on to the next project and released “Around the World in a Day,” an impressionistic, psychedelic rock record that surprised and confounded his fans, not to mention his record label.

“I was trying to say something about looking inside oneself to find perfection,” Prince told Rolling Stone in 1985. “Perfection is in everyone. Nobody’s perfect, but they can be. We may never reach that, but it’s better to strive than not.”

Prince continued to score radio hits with “Raspberry Beret,” “Kiss” and “U Got the Look,” although his later movie projects struggled to find an audience. Undaunted, he released his masterpiece in 1987, the sprawling, epic double album “Sign o’ the Times,” which started as a 22-song opus before the label forced him to edit it to 16 tracks.

He appeared naked, sprawled across a bed of flowers on 1988’s “Lovesexy” and helped turn the 1989 film “Batman” into a blockbuster with his best-selling soundtrack. But Prince’s ambitions increasingly left him at odds with Warner Bros. The label wanted Prince to slow down his output, and Prince responded by changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1993 and scrawling the word “Slave” across his cheek to protest his label’s attempts to limit his artistic freedom.

After a messy few years, Prince terminated his relationship with Warner Bros. and spent the rest of his career releasing albums on his own and through one-off deals with other labels, starting with 1996’s “Emancipation.” All the while, he continued to make his presence felt in the Twin Cities.

Prolific Minneapolis musician Jeremy Ylvisaker, who performs in numerous local bands and tours with Andrew Bird, met Prince on stage when Ylvisaker was taking part in a jazz and hip-hop improv night at the Front in the late ’90s.

“We get word from someone in the crowd that ‘his boss’ wants to come play with us,” Ylvisaker said. “I had no idea what was going on and then there he was. He looked perfect. He had the jewels in his ears. He started playing and burned it down, dancing and spinning around. And then he just left. It was the most intense thing I’ve ever seen.”

At the start of the new century, Prince had converted to the Jehovah’s Witness religion, which was reflected in his controversial 2001 album “The Rainbow Children.” He had largely fallen out of the mainstream spotlight by this time, but solidified his relationship with fans through frequent parties at Paisley Park and a membership-driven website where he shared many unreleased songs from his storied vaults.

But when the 20-year anniversary of “Purple Rain” rolled around in 2004, Prince jumped right back to the forefront. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and played the Grammy Awards with Beyonce before launching a comeback tour that earned $87.4 million.

That turned out to be Prince’s final major, traditional tour. He instead turned his concerts into special events, performing residencies in Las Vegas, London and on July 7, 2007, downtown Minneapolis when he played three shows that ended with his return to First Avenue. Prince played the Super Bowl halftime show in 2007 and the Coachella Festival in the California desert the following year. In 2010, Time named him among the most influential people in the world.

In recent years, Prince began opening Paisley Park once more for last-minute weekend gigs where he sometimes, but not always, performed live. Last year, he announced plans to play a series of solo piano shows in Europe, but postponed them after the terror attacks in Paris.

In January, he debuted the solo piano concept at Paisley Park during two intimate, autobiographical performances unlike anything he had done in the past. He then took his piano on the road, first to Australia and New Zealand and then on to Oakland, San Francisco, Montreal and Toronto. He postponed performances in Atlanta earlier this month after coming down with the flu. While still ill, he played two shows Friday in Atlanta. During the dance party the following night at Paisley Park, he told the audience he planned to release a live recording from Atlanta, and played a half-hour of it over the loudspeakers.

In yet another surprise, the famously private Prince announced last month that he was going to write his autobiography. He rarely gave in-depth interviews during his lifetime, leaving many personal details lodged somewhere between fact and legend.

He married Mayte Garcia in 1996, and they had a son who died a week after he was born due to a rare birth defect. They divorced, and Prince went on to marry Manuela Testolini. Their union lasted from 2001 to 2006.

Former Fox 9 reporter and anchor Robyne Robinson befriended Prince during his marriage to Garcia. Her on-air piece about Garcia won Prince over, and he asked Robinson to accompany him to the Essence Awards in 1998.

“I had many cool experiences with him,” Robinson said Thursday between tears. “One night, the two of us just watched old ‘Midnight Specials’ together at Paisley Park. He was incredibly generous to me, and I wouldn’t have a career in this town if it wasn’t for him.

“He liberated people’s minds and cared about people and his community. Yes, he was misunderstood and he screwed up sometimes and made people mad. But you can never doubt that what he brought to people’s lives was unmatched. There will never be another Prince. Never. We should all celebrate the fact that we got to witness him while he was here.”

Tory Cooney, Sarah Horner, Tad Vezner, Marino Eccher and Jaime DeLage contributed to this report. This report includes information from the Associated Press.