Prince announces surprise tour
Prince will play four shows in Melbourne at the State Theatre on   February 16 and 17 ahead of two shows at the Sydney Opera House on   February 20. 
The multi-instumentalist, who last toured Australia in 2012, has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide and won seven Grammy Awards in a career that began with his debut album For You in 1978. 
After his Melbourne shows, Prince's "Piano and Microphone" tour will touch down at the Sydney Opera House for two shows before playing Sydney's State Theatre on   February 21 and then move onto New Zealand for a show in Auckland on   February 24.
The legendary performers' solo Australian performances will be the most scaled back shows he's done outside his late night shows at small clubs and bars, such as Bennetts Lane in Melbourne and the Basement in Sydney almost four years ago. 
Late last year Prince, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, cancelled several European dates in favour of a short residency at his Paisley Park estate in his home state of Minnesota.
Reviews of those intimate show suggest not just a sonically intimate show but also a personal and emotional one, with the Purple One running through several hours of music covering his entire career and songs not yet released.
The shows were framed by the story of how he mastered the piano and emerged from the shadow of his father, jazz pianist John L. Nelson, according to Rolling Stone magazine. "The set moved chronologically (with a few exceptions) through the first decade of Prince's career, "including at least one song from each of his first 10 albums."
* Tickets go on sale for Princes' Australian shows at 12 noon on   February 9, and for the New Zealand shows at 12 noon on   February 11.