Minnesota highway to be renamed in honour of Prince

A picture of Prince performing in his “Lovesexy World Tour” at McNichols Sports Arena on November 3, 1988 in Denver, Colorado

(Image credit: Photo by Mark Junge/Getty Images)

Minnesota's Senate this week voted to rename a local highway after Prince.

State Highway 5 in the Minneapolis suburbs of Chanhassen and Eden Prairie will be renamed the Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway in honour of the late star, who died in 2016 at the age of 57.

The highway runs past Prince’s Paisley Park museum and studios.

Prince's sister Sharon Nelson watched as the Senate voted 55-5 to pass the bill, AP News reports.

Purple signs will be erected along the highway, bearing the name Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway.

The bill's lead sponsor, Senator Julia Coleman, said: "Prince was a true genius, a visionary artist who pushed the boundaries of music and cultures in ways that will never be forgotten.

"His influence can be heard in the work of countless musicians who came after him, and his legacy continues to inspire new generations of artists to this day."

Prince lived and recorded music at Paisley Park, and it's where he died in 2016. Thousands of fans now visit the site which is now a museum run by his estate.

Sharon Nelson told reporters her brother’s music will live forever. She said his spirit “sneaks up on me sometimes.”

Prince was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2004 in recognition of a career that included seven Grammy awards and a string of huge hit albums such as 1984’s Purple Rain and it’s predecessor 1999, released in 1982.

In 2015, he released his final two albums – HITnRUN Phase One and HITnRUN Phase Two.

Prince sold more than 100million records across the course of his career.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.