After Trolling Madonna’s Prince Tribute, BET Announces Their Own
In the wake of throwing shade at Madonna’s Billboard Music Awards tribute to Prince, BET has announced their own which will feature an all-star line-up of Sheila E, Janelle Monae, D'Angelo, The Roots and more.
The network started some social media beef with a now-deleted Tweet following Madonna’s performance, saying “Yeah, We saw that. "Don’t worry. We Got You” and linking to a teaser for their own tribute. They’ve now incorporated into this promo ad:
Many responded to the diss, including Madge herself — twice — on Instagram, first writing on May 23rd: “Anyone who wants to do a tribute to Prince is welcome to. Whatever your age Gender or skin Color. If you loved him and he inspired you then show it!!!! I love Prince 4 ever.”
A photo posted by Madonna (@madonna) on May 23, 2016 at 7:22am PDT
Then, she came back with this #TBT on May 29th: "Wearing the jacket Prince gave me back in the day without permission from BET. lol!“
Questlove, who helped produce the Madonna performance, defended the tribute on Twitter:
Every Prince rendition will not be a life changing orgasmic xperience. Just to SING his work is brave enough. Again feeling are on high
— Questlove Gomez (@questlove)
And EVERYBODY wants and deserves a chance to say goodbye in their own way. But remember: there will be AMAs, SoulTrain, NAACP, mtv, GRAMMYS
— Questlove Gomez (@questlove)
As he predicted, the next awards show to salute The Purple One will be the BET Awards on June 26th.
Like Madonna — who worked with Prince on her Like A Prayer album and was rumored to have briefly dated him — many of the BET performers have personal connections to the late star (who would have turned 58 today).
Prince discovered and mentored Sheila E., who collaborated with him on the Purple Rain soundtrack and his Sign "O"The Times record among others. They, too, had a brief romantic relationship.
He co-wrote a track on Monae’s 2013 album The Electric Lady and the two remained close friends up until his death. She honored him with a special performance this year at Jazz Fest in New Orleans.
Prince was a major musical influence on Questlove, who wrote a moving essay for Rolling Stone following his idol’s passing. (He also shared a hilarious story once about being asked to DJ a Prince after-part, but was then fired after The Purple One opted to watch Finding Nemo instead).
As stated before, June 7th would have been Prince’s 58th birthday. In his memory and honor, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has declared today "Prince Day"and encouraged Minnesotans to wear purple.
