On November 25, Prince will launch his “Welcome 2 Canada Tour,” which will be his first multi-city tour of Canada since 2002. Dates announced so far stretch to December 17 and will include stops in Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver. Kicking off the tour will be a two-night stand at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

The tour is a follow up to the Purple One’s “Welcome 2 America Tour,” which included 34 shows between December 15, 2010 and May 29, 2011. Included in that stretch was a 21-night stand in Los Angeles. Included in that tour were a number of guest performers, including Janelle Monae, Sheila E., and Larry Graham & Graham Central Station. No word has been released as to whether the Canadian shows will feature guests.

Prince’s most recent album was 20Ten, released in July 2010. The album was the singer’s 35^th studio album, and the “20Ten Tour” was confined to Europe and Asia, as the album was not released in the United States.

Eschewing normal album release practices, Prince decided to release 20Ten as a free “covermount” on magazines throughout Europe. In addition to not releasing the album in traditional methods, the artist also elected to withhold the record from any digital music download or streaming sites.

In further rejection of the internet, Prince also shut down his official website in 2010, saying “The internet is over.” This was said during an interview with the Daily Mirror (one of the distributors of the free 20Ten copies), and he went on to say “The internet’s like MTV. At one time, MTV was hip, and suddenly it became outdated.”

No word has leaked about any future album plans (or what distribution practices he’ll use for release). The notoriously prolific artist hasn’t taken more than two years to release an album since 1988, and often puts out at least one album every year.

Prince, the rock ‘n roll legend and musical mystic, has made the decision to forgo recording until changes are made regarding digital music. The Guardian UK has reported that the singer of “Purple Rain” has heavily criticized the Internet as a whole, but what really bothers him is file-sharing.

In an interview with the Guardian, Prince said, the industry has changed. Before piracy got real crazy, we did make money online. Now the only ones making money are the phone companies, Google and Apple. I am supposed to meet at the White House to discuss copyright protection. Out there it’s like a gold rush. Or like carjacking. There aren’t any boundaries. In the meetings I’ve been in, they say, you don’t understand Prince, it’s dog-eat-dog. So I’m just going to hold off doing any recording.

Prince, after recording more than 25 studio albums, is done — at least for now. So it looks we will see him on stage a lot more, unless he finds a way of outsmarting the evil Internet.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist Prince, who is currently in the middle of performing a long stretch of shows near Los Angeles at The Forum, is planning to perform three club gigs on Wednesday May 24 in the city.

The shows on Wednesday are being billed in a press release from Live Nation as a “Private Charity Event,” “Jazz Cafe” and “Late Night Jam,” with each of the venues yet to be announced. On Tuesday, May 24 at 12 pm PT, tickets will be going on sale via Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Ticket prices have not been announced yet.

The three club gigs will not be the first intimate performances in L.A. for Prince this year. He performed two shows earlier this month at the 500 capacity club The Troubadour in West Hollywood, California.

Prince next scheduled performances at The Forum will be May 27-29. After those shows are in the can, Prince will have played 15 out of the 21 promised shows for the venue.

During his recent appearance in the late night talk show Lopez Tonight hosted by comedian George Lopez, acclaimed and veteran singer Prince was in an activistic mood. His cause: the illegalization of song covers, particularly, covers of his own songs. The singer has always been vigilant in protecting his music from being revived or reworked, whether from artists who are under the same record label as he is or any other artists for that matter. He has gone to great lengths – lawsuits, court restraints, and name changes – to ensure that all of his creative works, which includes his screen name, are his sole property and not the record label’s.

In the brief appearance, Prince emphasized that the practice of covering or reworking is not apparent in other artistic media such as movies, stage work, TV series, books, etc. Our guess is he might not have seen or noticed the age-old crossing over of movies onto Broadway and vice-versa, the remakes of several TV shows like Hawaii Five-O and 90210 and movies too, like King Kong and The Karate Kid, and the revival of more than a dozen Broadway hits like Les Mis and Hair. It has been a successful practice for many songs, movies or shows, which is why producers and creators continue to do it and let’s face it, people just never get tired of versions.

What we’re trying to point out here is that Prince’s latest and old standing advocacy on intellectual property still remains to be a long shot, again, we’re just saying.

Prince shouted, Inglewood is mine. After performing thrilling music for two hours, who could doubt him. During opening night for his run of 21 shows at the Forum outside of Los Angeles, he performed a 15 minute, epic rendition of “Purple Rain,” which climaxed with stars made of purple confetti being shot out of a cannon. Numerous celebrities joined him onstage, from Javier Bardem to Eva Longoria. He and special guest artist Sheila E. even performed a duet together wearing matching outfits made of gold lame. So when victory was declared by Prince and house lights went on, more than half of the audience headed to the parking lots completely sated. Fans who stayed and waited for 15 minutes got four more encores consisting of ll songs, bringing the show to well past midnight.

New Power Generation’s current iteration includes identical twin dancers and multiple keyboardists, but no guitarist. However Prince himself, for around half of the show, also eschewed the guitar in addition to his band. On “Kiss” for example, a song that had been built around shimmering guitar licks originally, was transformed and had a synth funky groove. It was not entirely successful but was interesting. However when Prince finally strapped his six string on, he played like a hero. “Little Red Corvette” was transformed into a bluesy showpiece. He also hammered through a grungy rendition of Peach” and with “Sometimes It Snows in April” spun long, lyrical solos.

Many of Prince’s songs were performed in shortened versions. However none was as short as “Darling Nikki.” After the opening riff was churned out by the band, Prince cut it off and proclaimed, I am in rehab. A wide array of covers was also included in the concert including “Dance (Disco Heat)” by Sylvester and “Make You Feel My Love” by Bob Dylan, which provided a showcase for Prince’s backup singers. A mash-up rendition of “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” by Michael Jackson was most interesting. Prince portrayed a hype man and exhorted his backup singers and then interpolated his own composition “Cool.”

Prince, at the age of 52, is not a whirling dervish out on the stage any longer. His days of doing splits are over. However his sense of showmanship is still unfailing. While the band exited the stage using a staircase, the show’s undisputed star used a hydraulic lift from the center of the stage. As Prince vanished out of sight, he was still able to strike a pose. Three slow jams ending the main set delivered even better theater: “Adore,” “Scandalous” and “Insatiable.” Prince pretended to offer resistance to his band, if we play it there will be some baby making, he quipped. He sang with his glorious falsetto before shying from the microphone. The audience as well as Prince appeared to not believe the sounds coming from his throat.

For all the fans who only paid $25 for their tickets (which was 85 percent of them), the show of 3 1/2 hours only cost them approximately $7 per hour, just below minimum wage. However you don’t have to worry over how Prince can afford his fringed ponchos and sparkling shoes. The other seats cost $205-$781. By the time the marathon was over, the bargain arena shows was transformed into an intimate after-party. There was the feeling that Prince might invite all of the audience members remaining to his house to have pancakes and play basketball.

Prince will be continuing his “Welcome 2 America” residency-style tour with a gigantic stand of 21 nights at the Forum in Los Angeles, starting April 14. He made the announcement on Thursday night on the George Lopez show through a phone call.

Prince said, next Thursday I will begin a stand of 21 nights at the Form in L.A. on the 14th along with New Power Generation as well as a whole group of special guests. I will be blasting the roof off. I promise.

A clarification in the Los Angeles Times was given by the singer’s rep that all of the dates will not be in the Forum. More details will be made available shortly.

Then Prince said he would make an appearance Wednesday night on Lopez’s show to further discuss the residency. At press time additional information wasn’t available and details on the shows were not posted on the Forum website yet.

Prince, since December, has performed concert series residency-style in Oakland, CA, South Carolina and New York.

The shows have included featured guest appearances from a wide range of performers including Leighton Meester, Kim Kardashian, Carlos Santana, Sheila E. and Cee Lo Green, along with stellar opening acts which have included the Dap Kings, Sharon Jones, Esperanza Spalding and Janelle Monae.

The symbol that is now a Prince seems to have a unique way of touring. First, he introduced his latest ‘Welcome 2 America’ tour with a healthy helping of NYC and Jersey dates last December. Seemingly without warning, he popped back up like a whack-a-mole for a double dose of concerts for Oakland. Evidently, he’s been communing with some old-school James Taylor of late because now its Carolina that’s on his mind. He’s bringing the purple brigade to South Carolina for three nights in Charleston (March 30), Greenville (March 28) and Columbia (March 21). Not to be outdone by the princely one, North Carolina gets three nights of its own – Greensboro (March 26), Raleigh (March 23) and Charlotte (March 24). The Carolina dates go onsale on March 14-15.

So why is the deep south proving such a Mecca of dates for the New Power Generation? Evidently, two band members hail from South Carolina so the extended stay will serve as a bit of a homecoming.

No opening acts have been announced for this leg of the Prince tour. On the prior New York and Oakland legs, he pulled in the talents of diverse acts like Grammy darling Esperanza Spalding, Janelle Monae and Shelia E. Check back in with ConcertTour.org because this erratic Prince tour schedule is sure to unearth more dates before the summer is through.

Prince announced that he will be playing two concerts in his “Welcome to America” tour in Oakland in on February 21 and February 23, with each concert starting at 8:00 p.m.

Prince has recently completed six concerts in the New York region. The concerts were highly praised as is evidenced by the New York Daily News’ report that “Prince worthy of all royal accolades…the hit-friendly show had a kinetic confidence and racing pace that spoke of his singular place in pop history.” The New York Times got in on the act by stating, “It’s easy to envision Prince as another Chuck Berry or James Brown, barnstorming for decades to come.” The Star-Ledger followed up with, “Any doubt that the diminutive singer could still bring the heat was put to rest at the explosive concert that kicked off the Welcome 2 America tour…Prince, remarkably, remains at the height of his powers. He’s a national treasure. Catch him while you can.”

Friday, February 18th marks the date when tickets for the newly-announced concerts in Oakland will be available.

Prince has added an extra “Welcome 2 America” show at Madison Square Garden in New York due to overwhelming demand.

The new show will take place on February 7.  Special guests will be featured and will be announced shortly.  Tickets will go on sale on January 15.

In other Prince news, the Dap-Kings and Sharon Jones are now confirmed guests for the January 18 “Welcome 2 America” concert in Madison Square Garden.

Prince in October announced plans for playing a series of concerts with special guests called “Welcome 2 America.”  He said he was going to be the Master of Ceremonies for the event and would be performing with the New Power Generation, his band.  Special guests at previous shows in December held at Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ and Madison Square Garden included Larry Graham, Cassandra Wilson, Lalah Hathaway, Sinbad, Mint Condition, Maceo Parker, Esperanza Spalding and Janelle Monae.

Prince has unveiled the guest list for four of his upcoming five New York City area shows for his event “Welcome to America.”

Esperanza Spalding, jazz vocalist and bassist, and Lalah Hathaway, R&B artist, are joining Prince on the first date of the event, on December 15, at Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ.  Prince, at Izod Center as well, will be joined on December 17 by Cassandra Wilson, jazz performer, and Maceo Parker, funk saxophonist.

The first of three shows of Prince’s at Madison Square Garden in New York City will feature Graham Central Station, Larry Graham and Sinbad.  During Prince’s show Sheila E will be performing.  On December 29, also at Madison Square Garden, special guests will include Janelle Monae and Mint Condition.

A third Madison Square Garden show was recently announced and will take place on January 18.  No special guests have been announced yet.

Prince in October announced plans for playing a concert series along with special guests called “Welcome to America.”  He said he would be Master of Ceremonies of the event and perform with New Power Generation, his band.