The Jam of the Year World Tour was a

concert tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...

which took place from January 1997 to January 1998 visiting cities all across the United States and Canada. This tour took place in support of

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

's 19th studio album, ''

Emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranch ...

'' released in November 1996. This is one of Prince's most notable tours and is also Prince's first tour in North America after he changed his name in 1993.

Background

After wrapping up his performances at the Blaisdell Arena on his Gold Tour to promote his 17th studio album, ''

The Gold Experience ''The Gold Experience'' is the seventeenth studio album by American singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Prince. It was credited to his stage name at the time, an unpronounceable symbol (shown on the album cover), also known as ...

'', Prince was due to embark on a North American Leg of the tour in March 1996 with The Time, D'Angelo and

Tony Rich Antonio Jeffries (born November 19, 1971), better known as Tony Rich and The Tony Rich Project, is an American Grammy-award-winning Contemporary singer-songwriter best known for his hit single "Nobody Knows". Early career Rich was born in Det ...

. However, due to the fact that Prince was working on ''Emancipation'' and quickly putting out projects to hurry and get out of his 1992 Warner Bros. deal, he cancelled the tour. He fired everyone from the

New Power Generation The New Power Generation, also known as The NPG, was the backing band of musician Prince from 1990 to 2013. They were replaced by 3rdeyegirl as his backing band in 2013. In 2015, the New Power Generation reunited as Prince's backing band for ...

at the time and made a completely new configuration of the band. In July 1996, Prince released his 18th studio album, ''

Chaos and Disorder ''Chaos and Disorder'' is the 19th studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on July 9, 1996, by Warner Bros. Records. The album reached number 26 in the United States - his poorest performance with an album of new mater ...

'' which marked to be his final album to complete the requirements under his Warner Bros. contract. In November 1996, Prince released his 19th studio album ''

'' and announced that he was going on a world tour. He said due to the fact that the Warner Bros. contract doesn't end until December 31, 1999, the tour would continue until the year 2000 so that he wouldn't have to return to the studio. He quickly broke that promise with the release of the

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

Prince album, '' Newpower Soul'' by the

leading him to change the title of the tour in February 1998. The world tour was planned to start overseas in Sweden in June 1997 however, all those concerts were cancelled due to reasons unknown. Prince was also supposed to start promo for ''Emancipation'' with one-off concerts all across the world planning to come to Brazil, Italy, Germany, England, Spain, France & Netherlands but all further plans were cancelled. Rumors that Prince also planned to headline the 1997 Super Bowl XXXI Halftime Show at the

Louisiana Superdome The Caesars Superdome, commonly known as the Superdome (formerly known as Mercedes-Benz Superdome), is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the home stadium of the New Orleans Saints ...

however none of those plans fell through either. However, in December 1996, Prince announced that he was going to do public warm-up shows for his band in support of his charity, Love 4 One Another. It was named the Love 4 One Another Charities Tour and it started on January 7, 1997, in

Upper Darby, Pennsylvania Upper Darby Township, often shortened to Upper Darby, is a home rule township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The township borders Philadelphia, the nation's sixth most populous city as of 2020 with 1.6 million residents. As of the 2020 ce ...

at the Tower Theater. Tickets went on sale just three days before the first show and sold out almost immediately. All of the proceeds made from the tour went to his charity. In July 1997, almost 2 weeks before the first show of the Jam of the Year World Tour began, tickets were put on sale on July 10 for the first round of shows for the official tour. The first date of the tour started on July 21 in

Clarkston, Michigan Clarkston is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, United States. A northern suburb of Detroit, located about northwest of downtown Detroit, Clarkston is surrounded by Independence Township, but administered independently since its incorporation i ...

Background

Setlist

Tour Dates

Cancelled Shows

References