Madonna’s Prince Tribute Actually Earned Many Fantastic Reviews
Judging from social media and some legitimate bad reviews, you would think Madonna’s Prince tribute was the worst thing she has ever done. However, once one gets past the noise, there were a lot of people who loved Madonna’s tribute. David Toussaint from the Huffington Post is one of the many people who loved Madonna’s tribute.
“Madonna performed a love song for Prince, and it wasn’t about who’s the most talented performer on Earth, or who’s the best (there are no ‘bests’ in subjective mediums), or who can prove they’re the right person to honor a dead man,” Toussaint claims in an article that also says the tribute was “purple perfect.”
Billboard put Madonna’s tribute at the top of their list when they counted down the best tributes at the awards show.
“After Madonna slowly faced the arena from a purple throne, she began to sing ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ (famously covered by Sinead O’Connor). What the crowd wasn’t prepared for was when Stevie Wonder strolled onstage to help the pop icon lead ‘Purple Rain.’ Rihanna, dabbing in time, and The Weeknd were singing along as the whole arena waved their light-up wristbands, which were, of course, purple.”
Then again, not everybody in the comments section agreed.
“Madonna was just NOT the best performer, Celine’s performance was way better,” claimed Mrs. Brooks.
“The only good thing was the chair. That was pretty cool. Then it all went downhill. Those stairs were very meaningful,” said Face The Facts.
Lyndsey Parker of Yahoo said Madonna’s tribute was nothing short of stunning.
“Perhaps it was these artists’ overlapping discographies of overtly lovesexy material that had some detractors worried that Madonna’s show-closing BBMAs tribute would be some sort of shamelessly R-rated spectacle… But instead, Madonna gave a tasteful, gimmick-free, uncharacteristically subdued performance that demonstrated great respect for her old friend’s legacy.”
It’s important to note that although several on Twitter thought Madonna’s tribute was offensive, there were also several who thought the tribute to Prince was stunning.
The stunning @Madonna doing a tribute to @prince…
No words…so beautiful. #BBMAs #Hit30 pic.twitter.com/htUxOgNxXf
— Ash London LIVE! (@AshLondonLIVE) May 23, 2016
Madonna's tribute to Prince @ the BBMAs was so beautiful, i got emotional ???
— xtin (@ratedXtin) May 24, 2016
Last week, there was a Change.org petition that was created in order to stop Madonna from heading the Prince tribute at Billboard’s headlining show.
“We cannot let Madonna be the main and only artist tributing Prince during the 2016 Billboard Awards. He is more than worthy of a better choice as a main performer. Please sign and share this petition so that we can get a proper tribute on May 22, 2016. Timing is tight! Spread the word.”
There were more than 8,000 people who signed the petition (which accounts to about 0.004 percent of people who watched the show this year), but there were several who claimed they found software to manipulate the petition, enabling them to sign it hundreds of times.
In an email, Change.org denied that people could manipulate one of their petitions, but a test using the software by the author of this article proved that one person can sign a petition several times under fake email addresses (usually with a first name, last name, and a domain of a company such as “Starbucks.com”). However, doing this hundreds of times would take several hours and there is no doubt that at least half of the signatures of the petition were real.
What do you think of the controversy over Madonna’s Prince tribute? Was it as good as some critics are claiming? Was it as bad as some on social media are making it out to be? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]
