Prince Announces ‘Welcome 2 America’ Tour

Prince sends us off into the weekend on a high note! The music legend held a press conference on Thursday evening at Harlem’s Apollo Theater to announce Welcome 2 America, a new tour beginning in December.

The 52-year-old singer will perform and play master of ceremonies at each show, which will feature funk, R&B and jazz artists including Janelle Monae, Maceo Parker, Sheila E., Mint Condition, Esperanza Spalding and Cassandra Wilson.

“Bring your friends, bring your children and bring foot spray, because it’s going to be funky,” he said.

There’s not a lot of details about the tour, but Prince made sure to let fans knows that they would not be disappointed.

“If you’ve been to one of my shows, then you know what time it is,” he said.

“You need to come early and come often because every time we play it’s always something new. I got a lot of hits.”

Prince did not get into specifics about exactly when or where the series of concert events will be held, but did reveal that the tour would begin on a ”Purple Day in December in the year 2010.”

The gold-plated Fender guitar that sat on the Apollo stage during the announcement will be auctioned off after the live run, with the proceeds benefiting the economic recovery group Harlem Empowerment Zone.

Live Nation promises that more information about the “Welcome 2 America” concerts will be released soon.

No one knows how many tours Prince still has in him, so any chance to see the legend in action should be greeted with much fanfare; the guy just rocks it so hard in concert it’s ridiculous.