Madonna, Stevie Wonder pay homage to Prince at Billboard

Madonna paid homage to Prince by wearing his signature color and bringing another icon - Stevie Wonder - onstage to sing the classic 'Purple Rain' at Sunday's Billboard Music Awards.

Sitting atop a purple throne, Madonna kicked off the tribute with a version of 'Nothing Compares 2 U,' which Prince wrote and Sinead O'Connor recorded. She as teary-eyed as she sang the song, videos and photos of Prince projected behind her.

Wonder, in a purple scarf, later joined her for 'Purple Rain' as the audience at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas sang along.

'Most of all, thank you Prince Rogers Nelson for all that you've given us,' Madonna said after the performance.

Prince died on April 21 at age 57. The icons collaborated on 'Love Song' in 1989 and Madonna was met with criticism online when Billboard announced she would be the one to pay homage to The Purple One. Some felt she should not do the tribute alone, and others said a black artist should be involved.

'All of us live in the land of music and his departure was an earthquake,' Roots drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson said before the performance. 'I just want to take a moment to remember the great Prince Rogers Nelson.'

From Associated Press Via Yahoo! News

Comments

[trey]

Drew,

I don't understand the backlash either. It's so tiring. I thought she did a nice tribute. Guess I was wrong!

[jackj]

To me the backlash is about this... when I hear Nothing Compares to U the first thing that comes to my mind is Sinead O'Connor and not Prince, who wrote the song. I loved M's performance of the song... tender and heartfelt... but she should have included some signature Prince songs in the tribute. I'm sure she won't be thrilled if a tribute to her showcases a song she wrote but sung and made famous by someone else. Her and Stevie's performance of Purple Rain felt like an afterthought...

[Drew]

Madonna honestly cannot catch a break right now. She is being skewered over this performance, and I'm not sure why. I'm guessing that no matter what she did, she would have been taken to task....if she had tried to do one of his fast songs complete with dancing, etc, then everyone would say 'oh it's all about her'. It was minimalistic (for Madonna) and sweet.......some imperfections with her voice, yes, but that's always been who she is.

I guess I don't really understand the backlash she is getting for what she did.