Prince, one of the most celebrated songwriters in modern music, has announced he will tour Australia this year — in fact, he will arrive this month.

Australia and New Zealand are both last-minute additions to Prince’s solo Piano and a Microphone tour.

The tour was to kick off in Europe late last year, but Prince cancelled those dates in the wake of the Paris attacks.

He did perform some solo shows at his Paisley Park Estate in the US last month and set lists from those dates suggested a wide and varied selection of tracks from across his discography.

Prince has announced a surprise tour to Australia and New Zealand.

It was also reported Prince played a few covers, including songs from Joni Mitchell and Ray Charles, and shared a few stories from his life.

This morning's unexpected announcement did not include Prince's Australian tour dates.