Madonna's Prince Tribute - Flawless or Flop?

Yesterday, Billboard Music Awards was graced with the presence of the Queen of Pop herself to pay tribute to the recently deceased music legend, Prince. Both of these famous icons reached astronomical success during the 1980s and along with Michael Jackson, have been labelled as the 'Holy Trinity' of music. However, only one remains to rule the kingdom, and that is none other than Madonna herself. Prince and Madonna have a lot of things in common - their provocative and sexual nature in their music, they were both born in 1958 (along with Michael Jackson) and both have collaborated on a duet on Madonna's eternal Like A Prayer album. Mixed reviews came flooding in on social media when Billboard announced that Madonna would pay tribute to both her ex and her friend at the Billboard Music Awards. Whilst diehard Madonna fans couldn't wait for this iconic occassion, many people felt that this was a weak choice and would have preferred someone like Stevie Wonder, Beyonce or Lenny Kravitz to take on such a mammoth of a responsibility. This consequently led to mass protest as well as petitions in order to stop Madonna hogging the stage. However, Billboard stood by their choice and allowed Madonna to carry on.

The highly anticipated performance consisted of a Madonna singing 'Nothing Compares 2 U', dressed in a purple suit, on a purple throne with a diamond encrusted cane. Afterwards, the lights turned purple and Stevie Wonder made his iconic presence and assisted Madonna in lighting up the room with the rendition of 'Purple Rain'. Whilst many fans and celebrities showed their support and admiration, media scrutiny soon followed as well. Many felt that this tribute was subpar, Piers Morgan referring to it 'as a karaoke session'. To be perfectly honest, I do not believe that her tribute was poor one yet I don't feel it was very satisfactory to the level of either artists. Whilst the costume itself was iconic and the performance emotional, it didn't THRILL me. Remember the Lady Gaga David Bowie tribute? Gaga incorporated various songs and costume changes in order to show off the amazing catalogue of music Bowie had to offer. This is what I feel Madonna should have done. Perhaps she could've blended in the infamous Prince symbol guitar or done a medley of '1999' 'Cream' 'Kiss' 'Raspberry Beret' 'Controversy' to show off various reinventions of Prince - sex, disco, rock. I feel merely singing Purple Rain was a bit predictable. That would have definitely turned some heads and would have gone as the most memorable moment of the night. Whilst it was the most watched event of the night, it definitely received attention for all the wrong reasons, mostly by ageist, sexist commentators who felt that the only reason Madonna shouldn't do the tribute because she has no talent and that she should retire...

Sorry, are we still talking about the revolutionary Madonna that has managed to remain successful and one of the most relevant artists for over 3 decades, managing to sell a whopping 500 million records and managing to outsell many 'fresh artists' of this generation? I'd think again about the reasons why people dislike Madonna. Sure, the performance wasn't her greatest, but age and gender does not come into play at all and as much as the media tries to destroy Madonna, she always comes out on top as the winner.