Pop icon Prince, who was confirmed dead this morning, has been honoured by fans around the world.
Police were called to Prince’s Paisley Park estate on Thursday and found his body in a lift.
“It is with profound sadness that I am confirming that the legendary, iconic performer, Prince Rogers Nelson, has died,” his spokeswoman said.
“There are no further details as to the cause of death at this time.”
In a statement, Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson said his deputies responded to a medical call at about 09:43 local time (11:43 GMT) and later found an unresponsive adult male in an elevator at Paisley Park Studios.
First responders tried to revive him with CPR but he was pronounced dead at 10:07.
Prince was born in 1958 and reportedly wrote his first song when he was just seven.
He released his first album in 1978, and went on to sell more than 100 million records and is best known for hit songs including Rasberry Beret, When Doves Cry and Little Red Corvette.
In recent weeks Prince had cancelled shows on his “HITnRUN: Phase Two” tour through the US, which was released in December 2015.
The singer was flying home from a show in Atlanta, Georgia when he was taken ill forcing his private jet to make an emergency landing in Molina, Illinois.
After a trip to the hospital it was reported the pop legend was suffering from the flu.
Just this last Saturday night, Prince appeared on stage at Paisley Park near his Minnesota home in front of adoring crowds.
He didn’t perform, but he did show off his new guitar.
He then told fans “wait a few days before you waste any prayers.”
It’s this comment that has set the rumour mill into overdrive, with many claiming Prince knew he was dying.
Not much is known about Prince’s health conditions. But in an interview in 2009, Prince revealed he struggled with epilepsy as a child.
“I used to have seizures when I was young. My mother and father didn’t know what to do or how to handle it but they did the best they could with what little they had,” he said in the PBS interview.
Latest reports claim drugs could have been the cause of Prince’s death.
WATCH: remembering music legend Prince
Prince’s Personal life:
Prince was twice married and had a baby boy Gregory Nelson, who sadly died just one week after birth.
Gregory was the child of Prince and first wife Mayte.
The couple fell pregnant in early 1996 and wed that summer – a wedding that was live on the internet.
The Daily Mail reports Prince marked the occasion by composing the song Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother/Wife.
Their son was born a month premature and was diagnosed with Pfeiffer syndrome, a rare disease which causes the baby’s skull to harden earlier that it should, compressing the brain.
He died a week later.
The couple famously went on the Oprah Winfrey show a week later and talked as if their son was still alive.
Speaking to The Daily Mail Mayte said they did this because they couldn’t yet comprehend the loss.
“We believed he was going to come back, that souls come back. We didn’t want to acknowledge he was gone, it was our way of grieving,” said Mayte.
“Losing a baby is a terrible thing. Some couples are brought closer together after the loss of a child, others are driven apart; in our case the latter happened.”
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