Madonna to Honor Prince at Billboard Awards with live performance

[groovyguy 63,856]

https://twitter.com/billboard/status/734578180409991168

billboardVerified accountâ€@billboard

.@Madonna's Prince tribute at the #BBMAs already feels like an instant classic

[groovyguy 63,856]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4c6085_madonna-taking-to-the-bbmas-stage-snapchat_fun

[groovyguy 63,856]

Madonna, Stevie Wonder's Prince Tribute Draws Standing Ovation At 2016 Billboard Music Awards

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/05/23/madonna-prince-billboard-2016_n_10101374.html

It's been more than "seven hours and 13 days" since multi-hyphenate musicianPrince passed away in April, but Madonna and Stevie Wonder's tribute to the late artist at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday proves his legacy will continue on.

 

The highly-anticipated homage took place on a purple stage — the artist's signature colour — and started with Madonna, seated atop a violet throne singing "Nothing Compares 2 U," the Prince song popularized by Sinead O'Connor's cover.

 

Madonna — who was born in 1958, the same year as Prince — performed wearing a lavender, paisley-print suit with frilly lace sleeves, a cravat and a cane, inspired by the singer's costume from the film "Purple Rain."

 

Once Madonna wrapped the last bars of "Nothing Compares 2 U," she was greeted on-stage by Stevie Wonder, and the two sang the film's title song together.

 

During their rendition of "Purple Rain," the show repeatedly cut away to Rihanna, who was seen singing, swaying and snapping during the tribute.

 

The two-song medley brought the awards show audience to their feet for the duration of the production.

 

"Thank you, thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen," said Madonna, to the crowd after the performance. "And most of all, thank you, Prince Rogers Nelson, for all that you have given us. Thank you. Good night."

 

The Billboard Music Awards wrapped shortly thereafter, and it's fair to call this touching moment one of the night's most memorable highlights.

[o_g_c_x 2,785]

So sad to read all the hate towards Madonna in the social media... I guess she will never be respected until she's not longer here...

[groovyguy 63,856]

Madonna’s Touching Prince Tribute and the Diva-Dominated Billboard Music Awards

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/23/madonna-s-touching-prince-tribute-and-the-diva-dominated-billboard-music-awards.html?via=twitter_page

It was a night of defied expectations. Madonna’s Prince tribute wasn’t a train wreck, and the otherwise pointless Billboard Awards showcased the industry’s undeniable girl power.

 

When it is announced that Madonna, of all artists, is giving the first major Prince tributeat a music awards show—and, hell, that yet another of the industry’s roughly 53 music shows is happening (I swear one country music awards aired each week the entirety of last month)—you expect the worst.

 

What you don’t expect is a highly emotional night packed with enough show-stopping performances interspersed in the endless telecast to make other awards shows’ batting average laughable i comparison. And with regard to Madonna and Prince, you don’t expect a touching, understated, intimate and respectful homage.

 

More pleasant was the easing of the tension in our shoulders and release of our cringes when Madonna was finally called to the stage for the Prince tribute. Her “Nothing Compares 2 U†cover and “Purple Rain†duet with Stevie Wonder was about as lovely as you could hope for from the legendary button-pusher.

 

When it was announced that it would be Madonna delivering a special performance in honor of Prince at Sunday night’s awards, there was a backlash so loud—a Change.org petition against the decision was even launched—that the show’s executive producer was compelled to release a statement defending the whole idea.

 

“Listen, I think everybody is entitled to their opinion and everyone can have their own opinion, but I will say that we are honored and could not be more excited for Madonna to be on the show and to pay tribute to someone that was her friend and her peer and her colleague,†executive producer Mark Bracco said. “I think it’s going to be fantastic.â€

 

While there’s still validity to argument that there may have been artists who would have been more suitable—and more poignant—choices to perform the tribute (specifically, artists of color whose paths into the industry were trailblazed by Prince, his success, andhis stands against record companies), the truth is that Madonna and Prince have a long history together.

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4c2pr4_madonna-stevie-wonder-s-billboard-music-awards-2016-prince-tribute_fun
Madonna & Stevie Wonder's Billboard Music... by NBATOPHIGHTLIGHT

 

And so when Madonna emotionally thanked “my friend†Prince Rogers Nelson on stage Sunday night, it may not have been as controversial as some originally had thought. In fact, neither was her performance.

 

As the opening swells to “Nothing Compares 2 U†started, a purple throne in which Madonna was seated, holding one of Prince’s signature canes, turned to reveal the singer in one of his iconic suits with a ruffled shirt. As she walked down a staircase, she sang a simple, frills-free version of the tearjerker, which was written by Prince before being made even more famous by Sinead O’Connor.

 

But as an entertainer, and one skilled at capturing the gravity of a moment and grounding an audience in the immediacy of that moment, she excelled.

Jeff Kravitz/BBMA2016/FilmMagic

Stevie Wonder (L) and Madonna perform a tribute to Prince onstage during the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.

 

The emotion was there. The poignance was there. She stood still center stage during an orchestral break while photos of Prince flashed behind her. That stillness means something in an age of frenetic, showboating tributes. 

[groovyguy 63,856]

The BET shade is so pathetic  & rude on so many levels... 

The fact they made it before the tribute performance is just disgusting.

[Inco 9,846]

Wonderful tribute and song choices (I didn´t know Nothing Compares to U was written by Prince).

Madonna was wonderful too but the same hair, the same kind of outfit, why this walking stick?

It would be wonderful if she sang with black hair. Dreams...

[Independent Thinker 160]

BET obviously made that TV spot before Madonna's performance. It's so obvious that it has nothing to do with the performance itself. They just don't like her. And since it's BET who is throwing shade, it makes it look racist. It looks like they don't like her just because she's white.

 

It's terrible how she's treated. I thought the performance was great and she sounded good. And when you look at the stars from Prince's era, Madonna is the ONLY one still with us. She was the right choice for that tribute, whether BET likes it or not.

[IconicQueen 315]

Shaking my head at everything going on lately..it's just getting worse and worse. I understand if you don't like Madonna, if you don't like her voice etc, but the level of criticism, disrespect and vicious hate thrown towards her for simply still being around is on a whole new level, it's sick.

[IconicQueen 315]

madonnaAnyone 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 ☔ï¸@beautyandessexlv

[cindy_ve 800]

i really cry for this preformens

so sweet of madonna and with stevie  my heart break

[Stevo 6,436]

Great photo. If she wore the outfit to a red carpet even I'd hate it, but for a performance and as a homage to Prince it works, and she looks pretty damned good to me. That even includes the "Sticky & Sweet" hair 😉😉 (which I kinda like)

[survivalartist 6,468]

Wonderful tribute and song choices (I didn´t know Nothing Compares to U was written by Prince).

Madonna was wonderful too but the same hair, the same kind of outfit, why this walking stick?

It would be wonderful if she sang with black hair. Dreams...

.

 It was likely an homage as Prince was quite fond of the walking stick in recent years. 

 

[Madame Madonna 4,107]

Madonna 

 

"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"

 

OH MY God!

This is the reason why I love her so much!

 

So classy and So Genius respond to these shitty nobody!

Now This Genius and classy Madonna respond make that Shitty pathetic BET looks more shittier! LOL

 

I mean we can clearly see that who is the one which full of love for Prince And who is the pathetic shitty ass hole. ;)

 

Simply Genius! I love her so much!!

 

This is the Queen of Pop I love so much!       

[Stevo 6,436]

So sad to read all the hate towards Madonna in the social media... I guess she will never be respected until she's not longer here...

I think you're right. The old saying is "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" and it's so true. Look at Michael Jackson, not to my taste musically really, but I can't deny that He was majorly talented! He is worshipped and idolised......now, after death, but in the last few years of his life he was ridiculed, the butt of jokes and got a lot of criticism. I see the same with M. She gets slated for the way she is. Sure, I don't like every choice she makes but I try not to get personal and nasty for the sake of it. A lot of people ridicule the way she behaves, dressess, her age and slam her singing but do it really aggressively and overly harsh and personal. It's not the best voice on the earth, but I'd rather it any day over warbling and OTT vocal gymnastics some singers do, and when she's not dancing at the same time her vocal improves ten fold - the intimate, slow songs sound miles better live than the faster ones. When she dies (I don't like typing things like that as I feel it's tempting fate) I have no doubt she'll be praised for all the stuff she's been attacked for while she's alive.

[El hijo de la Pantoja 42]

Anybody knows where can I download the video? :D

[RUADJAI 14,944]

Anybody knows where can I download the video? :D

 

 

here ya go.

edited

[El hijo de la Pantoja 42]

Thank you so much, bro! 

[patrice1711 2,084]

JUST WATCHED IT!!!!BEAUTIFULL,don't needed much more,to me!!!!!MY QUEEN,as they said intimate,and I LUV IT!!!!!

[Drum Dub 1,883]

Ohh!! Really wonderful tribute! So moving 

[stfan97 2,829]

Celine talks about Madonna:

[groovyguy 63,856]

Excellent piece   

 

Madonna’s Only Wrongdoing Is That She Is Still Alive

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/madonnas-only-wrongdoing-is-that-she-is-still-alive_us_57435497e4b09f28cf5a02ba

When Madonna honored Prince at last night’s Billboard Music Awards, I thought to myself, there is no other artist more suitable to honor the music and art of the tragically deceased Prince. After all, Madonna’s close relationship with Prince is well known and documented (check their duet- Love Song on her Like a Prayer Album) and let’s be honest, she is the only artist from the “Prince era†still managing to fill stadiums and make hit records (her latest Rebel Heart Tour grossed over US$170 million, making her the highest grossing solo tour artist and her latest album peaked at number one worldwide when released last year).

 

So what went wrong with Madonna’s tribute? Or should I say, why has the whole world become so anti-Madonna?

 

My honest answer- the world simply cannot accept the fact that Madonna, a music icon and legend, is still alive. But not just that! She is 57 and looks better than girls half her age. Hell, she even sings better than the latest parade of manufactured Barbie pop stars. Yes, she might not be scoring Top 10 hits like in her prime but people still pay big bucks to see her and the fact that her latest album which was leaked 3 months before its release still managed to become number one album worldwide, says a lot about a woman that many claim is “irrelevantâ€.

 

If Madonna (god forbid) died tomorrow, all of the haters would post her music videos on Facebook, buy her albums and praise her as a genius and a true revolutionary. Her name would be trending on Twitter (not because of hate but praise) and I am confident that radios will play her music nonstop(unlike now). They would say that she changed the world, paved the way for women around the world, fought for sexual revolution and stood for her beliefs.

 

The “problem†is, Madonna is still alive. Unlike Michael Jackson, Elvis and even Prince (sorry, do not want to offend any fans), she is not using drugs, is not addicted to any substances, is healthier than probably 90% of the world population and most importantly, she doesn’t seem to want to retire. I mean why should she? She is Madonna!

 

So why don’t we all just give Madonna a break and admit that without her, the world of music would be a very boring place. Let’s not wait until she is gone to say that we have a true revolutionary and icon living among us. Let’s not make the same mistake that we did with many long forgotten artists who were praised only after they died. Let’s celebrate our icons while they are still among us.

 

Madonna once said:  “I want to be like Gandhi and Martin Luther King and John Lennon but I want to STAY ALIVE.† For the world media, the fact that she wants to stay alive seems to be a problem.  Sadly, we have been taught to praise only dead Icons. Maybe Madonna is about to change that.

[groovyguy 63,856]

Rolling Stone is so right, Less is More. 

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/billboard-music-awards-2016-20-best-and-worst-moments-20160523#ixzz49UeVpXCo

BEST: Madonna and Stevie Wonder Lead a "Purple Rain" Sing-AlongSome viewers were unimpressed or even outraged at the modest scale of this performance – BET tweeted shade afterward. But no star – probably no stageful of stars – could hope to embody Prince's genius in a single performance, and maybe it was wise not to try to imitate him. After a moving Questlove speech – Prince's "departure," the lifelong Purple One fanatic said, "was an earthquake" – Madonna was revealed, seated in an enormous purple throne that rotated to reveal her spectacular outfit: a silver suit with a Prince-like ruffled shirt. She set aside her trademark fierceness to sing an unshowy "Nothing Compares 2 U," as photos of the late superstar flashed behind her. Then, unannounced, Stevie Wonder stepped from the wings singing "Purple Rain." A duet soon became arena-wide sing-along – just as it has in homes and bars and clubs and arenas around the world for the past month.

[survivalartist 6,468]

That Celine Dion is a strange bird but I really enjoyed her performance of Freddie's iconic tune. She has been knocked around a bit over the last year with the shocking deaths of her husband and brother. There was always kind of a mega gap between her and Madonna on the diva scale, they inched it a bit closer tonight. I think Celine was feeling what we were all feeling in that pic posted of her watching the monitor. It is ok to grieve.

[Breathless 5,286]

All these magazines, and online news sites who always attack Madonna for anything and everything are going to praise her when she's gone, believe me. Then it's going to be all nice talk..... 

 

Btw, she should definitely wear more colours, like the purple outfit, it suits her much better than black.