Prince changed his name to the unpronounceable symbol in 1993 due to a bitter contract dispute with Warner Brothers Records.  Just before the name change, he appeared in public with the word "Slave" written on face. He was never one for understatements.  

 "On December 31, 1999, my publishing contract with Warner-Chappell expired, thus emancipating the name I was given before birth -  Prince  - from all long-term restrictive documents. I will now go back to my name instead of the symbol I adopted to free myself from all undesirable relationships." Thus stated the pop singer during a press conference on May 16th. Why did he wait until now to change his name back? Was the irony of the contract expiration date too much for him that he had to wait five months? 

Prince accused the label of interfering too much in his career by trying to dictate the amount of new material that had to be released and demanding control of his master recordings.  Typical record company stuff. 

So now that he is once again Prince, what does he have planned? First off is a weeklong party dubbed "Prince: a Celebration". Prince's hometown of Minneapolis will be host to the festivities from June 7th through the 13th.  What's on the agenda? Nightly theme parties, an open house for Prince's Paisley Park recording studio, the release of a new song, "Cybersingle", on his web site - www.newfunk.com and finally a live concert at Northrup Auditorium to wrap things up.  

Wait, there is more! Not being afraid to embrace the internet, Prince will have a special Internet-only release of his Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic album originally released by Arista is 1999. The web version will be called Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic and will include two new singles and remixes of several tracks. 

Now all he has to do is find a record company he can work with and he can party like it's 1999. (Sorry had to say it)