“1999” is the 1999 Prince song famous for imagining a New Year's Eve at the end of the millennium.
Prince released “1999” as the title track of his fifth studio album in 1982. The song combines a dance-oriented rhythm with lyrics about partying in the face of uncertainty and an approaching symbolic end date. Its memorable opening uses spoken and sung lines to set a futuristic, celebratory mood.
The single was not initially Prince's biggest chart success, but it gained renewed attention during the 1990s as the year 1999 approached. It later became one of his signature recordings and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.
The song's premise is sometimes connected directly to the year 2000, but its title is 1999 and its lyrics focus on the moment before that year changes. Prince did not write it as a literal forecast of catastrophe. It is a pop song using a widely anticipated calendar milestone as a setting for dancing, celebration, and anxiety about the future.