Tyka Nelson, Prince’s Sister and Singer-Songwriter, Dead at 64

Tyka Nelson, Prince’s sister, as well as a musician in her own right, died Monday, Nov. 4, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune. She was 64.

Nelson’s son, President Nelson, confirmed her death but did not provide a cause. Nelson was Prince’s only full sibling, born two years after her brother on May 18, 1960, to John L. Nelson and Mattie Shaw Nelson. 

In the late Eighties, Nelson followed her brother into music, releasing her first album, Royal Blue, in 1988. That album featured her two most successful songs, with “Marc Anthony’s Tune” reaching Number 33 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and “L.O.V.E.” reaching Number 52. 

Nelson released three more albums: Yellow Moon, Red Sky in 1992, A Brand New Me in 2008, and Hustler in 2011. This summer, she was slated to perform and emcee a retirement concert at the Dakota in Minneapolis, but she fell ill before the gig and dropped out (the show went on without her). In an interview at the time, Nelson told the Star Tribune she was working on a new mixtape and a memoir. 

Nelson also worked closely with Prince during the last few years of his life. After Prince’s death in 2016, Nelson and five half-siblings were named the rightful heirs to the musician’s estate (Prince had not left a will). In the following years, Nelson helped dig through Prince’s famous vault to discover and preserve the trove of archival material the musician had stashed away but hoped would someday be released. 

“Prince always wanted people to hear his music,” Nelson told Rolling Stone in 2021. “How dare I not do what this man broke his back to do all his life? There would be no way that I let one note of his music not ever be heard. I would not allow that museum to never open and not let people see what he envisioned. That man put this mess in motion and I won’t get off this planet until he gets every single solitary thing he worked so hard for and preserved for all of the world to hear.”

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Nelson remained involved in the estate but ultimately chose to sell all but two percent of her shares to the management group Primary Wave. (The company also fully bought out stakes held by other heirs, Omarr Baker and the late Alfred Jackson.)

“I’m one heck of a grateful person who had wonderful people in their life,” Nelson told the Star Tribune about her life — and her role in her brother’s life — this summer. “I miss their wisdom. If I could I’d travel the whole world and meet people that loved him — I’m kind of the last link to him, for some people — it’s like giving back to him. As far as I’m concerned, he stayed because they loved his music. Now you made me cry twice. Don’t do it again.”