The late and beloved musician Prince has been posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) eight years after his death. The ceremony was held in his hometown of Minneapolis where his sister, Sharon Nelson, accepted the award on Prince’s behalf. Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2016. He was selected to the SHOF in 2013, but was unable to attend the ceremony. Prince reached out to the organisation in 2015 to let them know that the award meant a lot to him. He was scheduled to be inducted in 2016, but passed away that year before the ceremony took place.
Prince was known for writing every song in his catalogue, including five Billboard number one singles. He also wrote hits for other artists including Chaka Khan’s GRAMMY Award-winning ‘I Feel For You’ and Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U.’
The ceremony also featured a 40th-anniversary screening of the rock musical drama film Purple Rain, scored by and starring Prince. Nile Rodgers, the chairman of the award, speaking at last year’s ceremony said “The music industry does not exist without songwriters delivering great songs first. Without them, there is no recorded music, no concert business, no merch… nothing, it all starts with the song and the songwriter. We are therefore very proud that we are continually recognizing some of the culturally most important songwriters of all time.”
Prince is the second artist to be added to the list posthumously, after late country singer Cindy Walker was inducted in April this year. Other songwriters who have won the prestigious award include Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Cat Stevens, Sade, Taylor Swift and Snoop Dogg
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