Like David Bowie, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones, Prince is one of those artists with such an embarrassment of riches at his disposal that on any given night, the question isn’t whether he has the material to sustain a great performance, more whether he’ll get the song selection right and be sufficiently focused to deliver a kick-ass show.
He ticks every box at Malahide, his first Irish gig in eight years and one that finally puts all the shenanigans surrounding his pulled Croker gig firmly in the rear view mirror. Prince is clearly in the mood to make this a special evening, and early on, the setlist is studded with such glittering gems as ‘1999’, ‘Little Red Corvette’, ‘Raspberry Beret’ and the epic ‘Purple Rain’.
The diminutive singer truly is the complete package. In addition to his brilliance as a singer and songwriter, he busts the kind of moves and strikes the kind of poses that denote star quality. If you were looking for conclusive evidence that Prince is a musical genius, you need look no further than the extraordinary ‘Kiss’; probably knocked out during a lunch break in the ’80s, the song hit No.1 in the US and provided a sonic blueprint for everyone from Nine Inch Nails to The Neptunes.

The first encore features a wonderful performance of the gorgeous ballad ‘Sometimes It Snows In April’ (great title) and a soul/gospel version of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ (which ends with the singer sending out “love and respect to Sinéad O’Connor”). Returning again after another short break, Prince and his ultra-tight band kick into James Brown mode, with a funky jam that interpolates snippets of ‘Alphabet Street’, ‘Nasty Girl’ (which soundtracked a memorable scene in Beverly Hills Cop and is a bit of an overlooked classic) and ‘When Doves Cry’.
The sequence concludes with Prince offering the truthful observation, “I got too many hits – we could play ’til tomorrow night”, although he does find time to round out the evening with ‘Sign O’ The Times’ (probably his lyrical masterpiece), the ridiculously funky ‘Controversy’ and a rocking ‘U Got The Look’. This was a magnificent performance that offered a timely reminder of Prince’s status as one of the all-time greats.