Samiul Bashar Samin
Madonna saluted her friend and collaborator Prince with a two-song performance at the Billboard Music Awards. Paying tribute to the late legend at the Las Vegas show, she performed “Nothing Compares 2 U” and “Purple Rain,” which included a surprise appearance from Stevie Wonder. The tribute was heavily hyped throughout Sunday night’s BBMA broadcast. But the night-capping performance was apparently underwhelming for plenty of fans and other media outlets, who took to social media to excoriate both Billboard and Madonna for the lackluster show. Mic.com music editor Tom Barnes called Madonna’s performance “criminally underwhelming,” while British music producer Dave English tweeted, “Please don’t have Madonna attempt a prince song,” before adding: “Too late.” British TV star and editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail Piers Morgan also piled on, telling Good Morning Britain on Monday that he felt that, “as a tribute to Prince, doing a poor karaoke version of Sinead O’Connor’s version of a Prince song just wasn’t appropriate.”
A Change.org petition urging the show’s producers to replace Madonna as the leader of the tribute had gathered 8,937 supporters before the awards show kicked off. “We cannot let Madonna be the main and only artist tributing Prince during the 2016 Billboard Awards,” the petition said. “He is more than worthy of a better choice as a main performer.”