Prince: Sign 'o' the Times

If you're only going to see one show on the big screen this year, let it be Prince.

In the summer of 1987, his European tour was a show of absolute stage form. In Rotterdam, Prince performs 13 songs with the band, most of them from the double album “Sign 'O' the Times” — one of the most important of his career.

It's a concert bursting with energy, color and ideas. Neons pulsate above the stage, the scenography resembles a district of a big city illuminated at night, and short film scenes appear between the tracks. Sheila E., Boni Boyer and Cat add a powerful dose of rhythm, vocals and stage expression to it, and Sheena Easton appears in the “U Got the Look” music video sequence.

At the center of everything, of course, is Prince — constantly in motion, magnetic and completely absorbing the viewer's attention.

The French “Le Matin” called the performance “two hours of hot perfection”, the Dutch “Trouw” wrote that Prince “surpasses everything ever shown on the pop scene”, and the German “Abendzeitung” described him as “the Mozart of rock”.