After much controversy, last night (May 22) at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards, Madonna tributed Prince to the praise and dismay of many.
Questlove gave the opening intro to the highly-anticipated performance, and after the backlash from many Prince fans who felt the performance wasn’t up to par, he took to Twitter to defend Madonna’s tribute. The Roots musician reminded followers that Prince’s shoes are hard to fill, and anyone who steps up to sing any of his catalog should be applauded.
In a series of Tweets, he writes:
“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,” the Roots’ drummer wrote. “For starters it’s hard to accept him no longer being here. [And] in the upcoming award season for ‘17 there will be a gang of tributes. Naturally there will be folded arms & shade thrown because the Purple Standard is hard boots to fill & a lot of us don’t wanna come [to] grips [with] the fact that Prince – (an on the surface) face of health & invincible agelessness – [succumbed] to something so… friggin basic. So I know there is gonna be A LOT of ‘feel a certain ways’ about who you want to see do his music justice – but you gotta put that aside y’all,” he wrote. “Every Prince rendition will not be a life changing orgasmic [experience]. Just to SING his work is brave enough. Again feeling are on high, and 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 with playing the ‘Prince would and wouldn’t approve’ game.”
Questlove makes some valid points, and surely Prince would appreciate any tribute….but I still want to see what BET has in store.
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