Questlove Defends Madonna's Prince Tribute at Billboard Music Awards
The Madonna-led Prince tribute was among the highlights at Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards, with the singer performing “Nothing Compares 2 U” before Stevie Wonder joined her onstage for "Purple Rain.“ It was a moving, elegant and – compared to the Grammys’ David Bowie tribute – simple homage to the late singer, but not everyone was a fan of the performance: The BET Awards wasted no time shading the tribute and promising one more worthy of Prince at their ceremony in June.
A photo posted by Madonna (@madonna) on May 23, 2016 at 7:22am PDT
Following the award show, Questlove, who helped engineer the Prince tribute and introduced it, defended the performance, saying that any negativity toward the tribute is a step in the natural progression of mourning the singer’s still-shocking death.
“Because of [Prince’s] well-known love for the *poof* vanishing act, a lot of us are left feeling incomplete in the act of saying goodbye,” Questlove wrote in a series of tweets. “For starters it’s hard to accept him no longer being here. & in the upcoming award season for ‘17 there will be a gang of tributes [with] the fact that Prince – (an on the surface) face of health & invincible agelessness [succumb] to something so….friggin basic.
“So [with] mourning will come sadness & anger. 1st week I cried. 2nd week I tried to atone for his sins w gettin 8-10 hrs of sleep he didn’t get. Now anger is in the air [with] who (in our eyes) is allowed to mourn & how they are allowed to mourn.—none of us were prepared for his death.”
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Questlove also subtly acknowledged the BET Awards’ tweet – “Yeah, we saw that. Don’t worry. We got this,” that awards show reassured Prince fans after Madonna’s tribute – by stating that paying tribute to Prince shouldn’t be a competition. “Every Prince rendition will not be a life-changing orgasmic xperience. Just to SING his work is brave enough,” he wrote.
“EVERYBODY wants and deserves a chance to say goodbye in their own way. But remember: there will be AMAs, SoulTrain, NAACP, mtv, GRAMMYS. "And a gazillion other tributes. But the point is let’s not get ugly w playing the ‘Prince would and wouldn’t approve’ game. & this isn’t *just about* the Madge/Stevie tribute btw.”
Questlove also revealed that Prince’s inner circle had besieged him prior to the Billboard Music Awards, providing a brief look into the mess that Prince left his estate in after he died without leaving a will.
“I’ve been gettin earfuls from in/outside the Purple Circle concerning inclu/exclusions of his estate/work/memorials/tributes who in who not,” Questlove tweeted.
On Monday, Madonna herself took to Instagram to defend the performance. Alongside a picture of the singer clad in purple, Madonna wrote, “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.”
Watch the BET Awards mock Madonna’s Prince tribute below:
#BETAwards #PrinceTribute pic.twitter.com/VpnjybXia2
— #BETAwards (@BETAwards)
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