The Way We Were: Here Are the Many Ways Mayte Garcia Has Said She Met Prince, 1997-2017
Over the years, several accounts of when, where and how Mayte met Prince have been reported. So, what’s really the truth? Let’s examine the many ways Mayte has met Prince.
January 1997: He (Prince) says he met Mayte in 1990 in Europe. Then both tell how she was "dragged" to a Prince concert ill Barcelona, Spain, by her mother and sister. While watching the artist perform for the first time, she says she felt a "familiarity" with him. Two weeks later the Artist saw her in a crowed (with her mother) from the window of his car in Germany. "There's my future wife," he told Rosie Gaines, who was with him. A short time later he met the young woman he admired from afar after his friend and associate producer Kirk Johnson gave him Mayte's videotape. "On it was a photo of her as a belly dancer," he recalls. "She was 16. I fell in love." Source: https://sites.google.com/site/themusicinterviewarchive/prince/1997-ebony-magazine
December 16, 2006: The family followed her father's postings abroad, and it was in Germany that they all went to a Prince concert. ‘My dad showed him a video of me dancing and Prince asked to meet me.’ They were invited backstage by the roadies, and it was there that Mayte came face to face with her future husband. Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-422943/The-artist-known-Princes-wife.html#ixzz4dZqeSXJU
June 25, 2012: At the 1:30 mark she talks about the going to the Nude Concert and meeting Prince two weeks later when he performed in Germany. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gerxXf0BrgI
June 27, 2012: “My dad showed him a video of me dancing and Prince asked to meet me,” Mayte recalls. Prince, who was 32 at the time, later met 16-year-old Mayte for the first time backstage. Source: http://starcasm.net/archives/162951
June 12, 2015: The pair were introduced backstage at a Prince show after he’d seen a video of her bellydancing. They stayed in touch and two years later she joined his band and became an integral part of his life. Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/princes-ex-wife-mayte-garcia-5874346
April 21, 2016: It was in 1990 when Garcia met the late music legend at a concert in Spain at just 16-years-old. Her mother Janelle, a big Prince fan, had passed on a video cassette of her daughter performing belly dancing routines to one of Prince’s backup dancers. Five days later after watching the tape, Prince – who was previously engaged to Susannah Melvoin – hired Garcia to dance with his Diamonds and Pearls tour. His fondness for her even enabled her to record English and Spanish vocals for his albums. Source: http://people.com/celebrity/prince-dead-inside-prince-and-mayte-garcias-tragic-love-affair/
April 25, 2016: The year was 1990 — Garcia met Prince while at a concert in Germany. The Alabama-born Puerto Rican's mom, who was a huge fan of the iconic "Purple Rain" singer, passed along a video to Prince of her daughter dancing. He was impressed and hired Garcia to be a dancer on his Diamonds and Pearl Tour. She later even got to do English and Spanish vocals on his albums. Source: http://www.latina.com/entertainment/buzz/mayte-garcia-prince-relationship
November 1, 2016: Mayte sent Prince a videotape of her dancing via Kirk Johnson. Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=EAVxDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136&dq=mayte+garcia+met+prince+in+barcelona+spain&source=bl&ots=OMEE28WRYE&sig=_cdXUceATVbyP8GTQwwtzH-ss_E&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjm76Tx2ZLTAhXJSCYKHSbBBc4Q6AEITjAM#v=onepage&q=mayte%20garcia%20met%20prince%20in%20barcelona%20spain&f=false
March 17, 2017: As a successful teenage belly dancer in 1990, Garcia delivered a tape of her performing to the singer at one of his concerts in Germany. The star ultimately invited Garcia backstage, telling her, “I like your tape. Prince said, writes Garcia, “Are you really 16?” After confirming her age, Prince asked for Garcia’s number. “The encounter lasted forty seconds but it felt like we’d stepped outside of time,” she says. Later that evening, Garcia says Prince invited her to his hotel room, where they watched more tapes of her performances. The singer, then 32, then began a phone and mail correspondence with the teen. Source: http://people.com/music/mayte-garcia-on-meeting-ex-prince-at-16/
April 4, 2017: When she was 16 years old, her mother hatched a plan: She told her daughter to bring a videotape of herself performing to a Prince concert. Somehow, her mom got the family backstage and put the tape in the hands of one of Prince's dancers. "I remember her saying, 'My daughter's a dancer and she'd just love to perform for him or have him see her tape, because she's been doing this for such a long time," Garcia recalls. "And I'll never forget it: The dancer was like, 'Sure! I'll be right back,' and he took it. And about five minutes later: 'Prince would like to meet you. He saw your tape." Source: http://www.npr.org/2017/04/04/522473839/mayte-garcia-knew-she-would-marry-prince-but-could-never-have-predicted-how
No year dated: While still in Germany, Mayte went to a Prince concert with her family. At the concert, her mother and father noticed that his song “Thunder” had a very Arabic vibe to it. Mayte’s mother told her to send Prince a tape of her belly dancing to his song to show him her talents. Although she laughed off her mother’s suggestion, she eventually obliged. At another Prince concert just a week later, Mayte’s mother convinced some members of the New Power Generation (NPG) to give the video to Prince. Ten minutes later, Mayte was asked backstage by Prince, and for two years, they kept in touch. Source: https://www.mayte.com/
