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May 5 (UPI) -- Prince will be honored with a seven-mile stretch of highway named after him, seven years after his death. The Minnesota Senate passed a bill to name a portion of Trunk Highway 5, which runs through the Minneapolis suburbs of Chanhassen and Eden Prairie the Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway. The highway runs past Prince's Paisley Paisley Park studios in Chanhassen, Minn., which is about 20 minutes from Minneapolis.
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Though memorial signs are typically brown, the lawmakers worked with the Department of Transportation to allow the signs on Prince's highway to be purple, his signature color.
"Though we lost him far too soon, his music and his legacy will live on forever," Republican senator Julia Coleman, R-Waconia, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said Thursday. "Prince was a true genius, a visionary artist who pushed the boundaries of music and cultures in ways that will never be forgotten."
Prince was born in Minneapolis on June 7, 1958. He was the architect of the Minneapolis sound, bringing artists like The Time, Sheila E., and Vanity 6 to the forefront. He wrote hit records for other artists including Chaka Khan, Sheena Easton, and the Bangles. His often provocative lyrics and sexually charged songs offended some and made others lifelong fans.
He released 39 albums in his lifetime, including the soundtrack for his 1984 movie Purple Rain and his critically acclaimed 1987 double album Sign O' the Times. His 2007 Super Bowl XLI halftime performance in pouring rain in Miami is considered among the best halftime shows ever.
Prince fought for artists' rights in a public battle with his record label, Warner Bros., and was a pioneer in selling music online, doing so directly at one point in his career.
He died at Paisley Park on April 21, 2016, from an accidental overdose of fentanyl.
Mark Webster, who worked in security for Paisley Park spearheaded the idea and was there to celebrate the vote for the signs, as was Prince's sister, Sharon Nelson, who was one of six siblings who inherited his estate.
It is expected that the signs will go up before what would have been Prince's 65th birthday on June 7 though no dedication date has yet been scheduled.
Prince fans are already heading to the annual Celebration event at Paisley Park that starts the day after. The lineup was announced this week including Minneapolis artists Sounds of Blackness and Stokley leading the performers with special appearances by new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Khan, rappers Doug E. Fresh and Chuck D, who worked with Prince, and Club Quarantine star DJ D Nice. The Estate has also promised some unreleased music at the three-day event.
"The Prince 'fam' community is always hungry for more music, and there's been a lot of chatter on social media over the past year about the lack of new releases," says musician, marketing executive and Prince scholar Rhonda Nicole Tankerson, who has attended previous Celebrations and spoken on panels about Prince's life and work. "This year's event will include unreleased music as well as concert footage, and hopefully we'll also get an announcement of upcoming re-issues or super deluxe sets.
She added, "The thing I love most about Celebration is the opportunity to connect with people who are as passionate about Prince and his music as I am, in the place where he lived and created and dreamed, and to dance and laugh and smile and cry to the music that forms the soundtrack of our lives."
