The surprise death of pop star Prince at the age of 57 dominated the front pages in the Netherlands on Friday, as commentators analysed the career of the man dubbed by the NRC as the ‘biggest little renewer of funk’.

The Melkweg concert venue held a spontaneous memorial for Prince on Thursday night, opening its doors to fans free of charge from midnight. Prince had given two concerts in the club in 2011.

Dutch artists and concert organisers who had worked with Prince praised his dedication to detail.

Monique Klemann of Dutch band Lois Lane, which went on a six-week European tour with prince in 1990, said she was totally shocked at the news. ‘This is indeed a Sign of the Times,’ she said.

‘After the tour, we went to Minneapolis to record a couple of numbers with him. It is really weird to think he is no longer with us,’ she told the Telegraaf. ‘Prince could be very sweet but also has hard as nails. He was quite a dictator to his crew and musicians. We refused to adopt his style… and I think he liked that. Or he thought “let them mess around a bit”.’

Phenomenal

Jan Willem Luyken, director of the North Sea Jazz festival, described Prince as a phenomenal performer.

Prince gave three night performances at the festival in 2011 and two years later made a surprise guest appearance with Larry Graham. ‘Prince was a perfectionist,’ Luyken said. ‘I was totally impressed by the control he had over everything, from the sound to the perfect combination of players.’

Meanwhile, Dutch singer Gerard Joling is unrepentant for sending out a tweet in which he said: ‘I will never forget that he was once at one of my performances in Amsterdam.’

The tweet led others to speculate what Prince would have said if Joling had died. “I’d rather Prince was still alive but at least he won’t ever have to think back to that Gerard Joling concert,’ one commentator said.