Well, it seemed to come from a good place and Madonna's outfit was on point. She seemed to be holding back tears throughout.

It felt really sad, though, and not in a cathartic way IMO. Maybe Madonna was shooting for hauntingly beautiful but for me she landed on dreary and depressing. The song choice added to the sadness, but the black and white background images of a graveyard certainly didn't help. I swear I saw the word "Death" flash across the screen. Just strange.

Prince's music had such life, light and joy. The best part of the tribute were the photos of him in the background. Seeing them felt like a punch in the gut in such a dreary context, though.

Oh well...This was just a big deal because it was the first high-profile tribute since his death. There will be more and better tributes for sure.

Goddess4Real said:

setyrmindphree said:

[img:$uid]http://i1248.ph.../img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i1248.ph.../img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i1248.ph.../img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i1248.ph.../img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i1248.ph.../img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i1248.ph.../img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i1248.ph.../img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i1248.ph.../img:$uid] [img:$uid]http://i1248.ph.../img:$uid] [Edited 5/22/16 21:29pm]

Prince shade is EVERYTHING!

Thanks setyrmindphree - these are GREAT!

rabbutt said:

I ain't gonna lie...I'm a 49 str8 white man who CRIED LIKE A BABY during parts of tonight's tribute, but there was a reason y he didn't like people covering his songs............ cuz can't nobody do Prince better than Prince. ,They did a fine job . The somber tone was what was in order with his passing being so fresh and this being the 1 St major acknowledgment , let BET be the upbeat celebration , then at the Grammys an old school superstar band, heck I'm sure he'll get a lil something at the oscers

SoulAlive said:

all I see is a snapdragon trying to co-opt, DISGUSTING

babynoz said:

Why not just air the NOTHING COMPARES 2 U video sung superbly by PRINCE & Rosie?

[Edited 7/11/20 22:13pm]

Tonight's tribute would have been much better with past or present musicians from Prince's camp. He deserved so much more!! The background graveyard scenes left me puzzled. It wasn't until images of Prince came across the screen that it seemed like maybe the performance was taking a turn for the better but NOPE it got worse. I appreciate the effort on behalf of Madonna and Stevie but the whole thing was cheesy. Poorly executed.

rabbutt said:

I ain't gonna lie...I'm a 49 str8 white man who CRIED LIKE A BABY during parts of tonight's tribute, but there was a reason y he didn't like people covering his songs..... cuz can't nobody do Prince better than Prince. ,They did a fine job .
The somber tone was what was in order with his passing being so fresh and this being the 1 St major acknowledgment , let BET be the upbeat celebration , then at the Grammys an old school superstar band, heck I'm sure he'll get a lil something at the oscers

I did think Madonna looked nice. After seeing her outfit at the Met gala I was worried that she was going to wear the yellow jumpsuit from MTV.

I did not like the graveyard shots behind her. I would have prefered pictures of P. It seems like no tribute can happen now without Purple Rain. I am not sure that is a good thing.

migmigmig said:

i seriously doubt any slick, well-thought-out, super-produced tribute this year will ever match, in performance value, the heartwrenching perfection of D'Angelo slicing open his heart at Prince's piano on Fallon.

*

there might be better career retrospectives than we saw tonight (it won't be hard to top just projecting five very well-known photos - yawn) but for sheer musicality and winning song choice, i believe that ship has sailed.

*

unless one of the remaining tributes (BET, etc) agrees to put a close Prince collaborator/bandmate onstage and lets them to rip into a classic - which i highly, highly doubt on both counts - i think we've already seen the high water mark for tributes to the man.

*

i'm just going to go back to doing what i've been doing, which is listening to the Prince songs i need to hear in any given moment.

[Edited 5/22/16 20:28pm]

This.

Goddess4Real said:

jdcxc said:

Stop with the sanitized scrubbed down schmaltz...I was hoping she would give a tribute to our Rayal Badness. Who's gonna do Erotic City?

IMO the song choice was predictable, I too wanted some funky jams, but then again I wanted to see Sheila E, The Time etc, I give it a B for overall effort, Madonna's outfit an A for the fashion slay.

[Edited 5/22/16 20:20pm]

Haven't watched it yet, but already I'm disappointed with her choice of wardrobe. Very much along the lines of Gaga with Bowie. This is not a Prince impersonation context, it's a tribute. Wear a purple scarf, a purple anything, for crying out loud, but don't. Just don't. It's silly.

Vashtix said:

Well . . . BET has responded

https://twitter.com/BET/status/734584199546589184

You know what? Just cried watching that. Damn. Hits you right in the spot.

batman89 said:

babynoz said:

Because of the backlash they drag Stevie out at the last minute for damage control.

Probably her idea, so she would not take the beating alone.

I'm in Europe so didn't see it. But from what I've heard it was tragic.

-

Thank goodness its over.

-

The Prince shade gifs have me dying tho.

-

After this hopefully BET, Soul Train Awards (does that still exist?), Grammy's should do a proper tribute.

-

Amatuer night!

-

NOTE TO OTHER AWARD SHOWS:

DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT PERFORM PURPLE RAIN. IT WILL BE A DISGRACE NO MATTER WHO SINGS IT.

Madonna performance at the Billboard Awards, Prince in heaven be like...

Vashtix said:

Well . . . BET has responded

https://twitter.com/BET/status/734584199546589184

"Don't worry, we saw that. We got you"

.

lmao

.

.

All i can say is I'm glad i did not stay up for this. It was awful, just awful. The clothes, the cane (for crying out loud, this is not Vegas, no impersonators please!), her "rendition" of Nothing Compares 2U was atrocious, her voice sounds cold and emotionless (it always does, for me, at least) and that PR ending was... dreadful. They could have gotten Santana (just an example) to do the guitar solo. As it was, sounde bland and just dreadful. No soul whatsoever. I'm usually all teary eyed with things like this, but the only time i teared up was when his pictures emerged. And what was that with the graveyard footage? If you don't know any better, just throw a purple screen on it and let the colour do the rest.
Just as i expected, which actually saddens me cause I wanted to be wrong. Like someone said above, it's the first gathering of artists to pay a tribute that would be watched worldwide.
This was not relevant at all!

Oh, and BET throwing shade on the tribute was funny as hell, imo. Made me cry and all, that's how much I (we) am looking forward to some form of musical celebration that makes him justice.

rlj1965 said:

Madonna performance at the Billboard Awards, Prince in heaven be like...

I swear because of him I've started doing those facial expressions

MMJas said:

All i can say is I'm glad i did not stay up for this. It was awful, just awful. The clothes, the cane (for crying out loud, this is not Vegas, no impersonators please!), her "rendition" of Nothing Compares 2U was atrocious, her voice sounds cold and emotionless (it always does, for me, at least) and that PR ending was... dreadful. They could have gotten Santana (just an example) to do the guitar solo. As it was, sounde bland and just dreadful. No soul whatsoever. I'm usually all teary eyed with things like this, but the only time i teared up was when his pictures emerged. And what was that with the graveyard footage? If you don't know any better, just throw a purple screen on it and let the colour do the rest.
Just as i expected, which actually saddens me cause I wanted to be wrong. Like someone said above, it's the first gathering of artists to pay a tribute that would be watched worldwide.
This was not relevant at all!

Oh, and BET throwing shade on the tribute was funny as hell, imo. Made me cry and all, that's how much I (we) am looking forward to some form of musical celebration that makes him justice.

Ironically the BBMA's took place in Vegas this year so it makes sense she was tryna impersonate our guy

Whether it was cool or not, I can't say - I haven't heard all of it...a couple of snippets on the Guardian website.

What would have been cool - I reckon - would've been for Madonna to have walked on to Love Song - spoken briefly about the time they shared together and then - if there's footage out there to allow it - sang Like A Prayer with Prince playing the guitar part on video.

That would've been a bit more authentic and within her range.

Just a thought. That's all.

This tribute gives me Lady Gaga Bowie tribute teas with Madonna dressing up like Prince. I think Madonna did better than Gags but still, what is up with people sounding like shit when doing tributes? I mean Madonna isn't that good of a singer so that's it for her but Lady Gaga actually has a good voice. I thought Stevie would've saved Madonna, but it only dug the grave deeper IMO.

I know Stevie is a legend and one of the greatest artists to ever live but, he sounded really bad last night.

I cried when the Prince pictures where showed. I was amazed that everyone stood up to honor Prince. That was a beautiful moment but this whole thing still seems half-assed to me.

And I too was really puzzled by the grave montage. Conspiracy theories anyone?

thedance said:

https://www.youtube.com/w...y95JYyp2Pk



probably gonna be deleted in no time..

Thanks for this.

I thought it was awful and was not moved one bit.

What a disservice to Prince's memory.

How hard would it have been to assemble artists like The Bangles, Sheila E, Sheena Easton, Mavis Staples, George Clinton, Celine Dion & others to perform a "purple medley" of songs he'd written for them to illustrate the range of his talent as a songwriter? Then, to draw in the younger crowd, have more current performers trade verses on one or two of his more uptempo hits to close the show?

This strategy might have done more to satisfy actual fans, who'd enjoy seeing these rarely performed tunes, it would expose people who never knew his ability as a writer to what he was capable of doing across so many genres & it'd satisfy Billboard's interest in appealing to a demographic that has barely heard of Prince.

As it stands, last night's tribute is better described as a trainwreck.

UK peeps

If you want to watch it on TV this is the current airings,

23 May 9pm on 4Music

25 May 6.30pm on The Box

28 May 1.30am E4 HD

It was on last night live also but only in Standard Definition, I've recorded it.