When I talk about Prince with my family, they always refer to him as "Prince, the singer"

To me, he was more than just a singer. He was a song writer, producer and musician. He literally performed and recorded all instruments in his own songs.

I guess when you put Prince in the pop culture/ mainstream, and a lot of his stuff isn't well known to the general public, it's easy to refer to him as a singer?

I would go with "the artist" or "the musician". He was much more than just a singer.

If he had wanted to go the singing route by singing other people's music, I'm sure he could've milked several more hits.

This one comes up a LOT for me. Because my husband and I are from different countries, I always get asked - how the heck did you two meet? When I say "Prince fan website" they look like a deer in headlights. Then I'm like you know "Prince, the Musician". No way in hell would I ever call him a "Singer".

Even funnier, is once in a blue moon I still get a puzzled look after "Prince, the Musician" - so then I say you know, Purple Rain....and then I get "Ohhh THAT Prince, gotcha!".

The Artist.