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Prince Will Trade Guitar for a Piano on New, Stripped-Down Tour

LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 19: Musician Prince performs 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)

Update: Prince has postponed his Piano & A Microphone Tour in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. He shared the news on Twitter by posting a link to the German venue Wiener Konzerthaus’ website, which displayed the following message: “Due to the tragic events in Paris, the tour promoter has decided to postpone the upcoming European tour until further notice”. 

Prince is renowned for his god-like ability to shred on his (literally) signature axe, but the Purple Rain maestro revealed that he’ll be forgoing his guitar in favor of a more intimate piano for a just-announced, globe-spanning new tour. The Prince Spotlight: Piano & A Microphone Tour — which is rumored to make stops in a dozen countries in less than a month — will feature solo Prince performances where he only wields (you guessed it) a piano and a microphone.

“Why do this now? For several reasons. For starters it is a challenge,” he told Cultura, who broke the news. “I rarely get bad reviews because this is something that’s been perfected for over thirty years. You have to try new things. With the piano it is more naked, more pure. You can see exactly what you get.”

A tweet from the meme-loving Prince’s Twitter account furthered this idea.


In typical Prince fashion, the performer’s yet to officially announce countries, dates, or cities for the tour, though Cultura claims he’ll play the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and The Netherlands. According to Dr. Funkenberry, the tour will kick off November 21 in Vienna and end December 22 in Brussels.