Madonna Slammed For Prince Tribute At Billboard Music Awards, Questlove Responds

BET threw shade at Madonna for her Prince tribute at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night.

Madonna performed one of Prince’s songs, “Nothing Compares 2 U,” on the broadcast while being joined on stage by Stevie Wonder.

Many people took to social media to slam Madonna for her performance. One detractor on Twitter even called it “trash.”

BET tweeted a short promo video for the BET Awards using Prince’s logo and purple city buildings which then zooms out and fades into Prince’s face with rain drops on the screen. In the background, the sound of rain can be heard, a reference to Prince’s hit song, “Purple Rain.” At the end the the promo video, words appear at the bottom, left of the screen reading, “Yeah, We Saw That. Don’t Worry. We Got You.”

One person on Twitter called BET’s shade-throwing “immaculate.” While others are now waiting to see how well BET will do with their Prince tribute.

The Roots band member, Questlove, defended Madonna’s performance, telling fans to “not get ugly with playing the ‘Prince would and wouldn’t approve game.”

Madonna, for her part, also had a few words to say on social media after her tribute performance in reply to all of the negative comments. “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,” she posted on Instagram.

The BET Awards airs on June 26, 2016.