Madonna joined by Stevie Wonder for Prince tribute at Billboard Music Awards

After some outrage following the initial announcement that she would be the sole performer of the Prince tribute at this year’s Billboard Music Awards, Madonna was joined on stage by Stevie Wonder for her highly-anticipated performance last night (May 22).

An emotional Madonna began the performance sat on a revolving purple throne with watery eyes, before bursting into Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, which was famously covered by Sinead O’Connor.

Accompanied by an orchestra and video screens showing photos of the late star, Madonna was then joined on stage by special guest Stevie Wonder to perform iconic hit ‘Purple Rain’ under the purple lights of the arena.

Stevie. Madonna. Purple Rain. #BBMAs https://t.co/iB7ARJcDfx

— dr.* deray mckesson (@deray) May 23, 2016

The performance was introduced by Questlove, who proclaimed: “On April 21st, we lost Prince. I say ‘we,’ because it affects us all, and no matter what kind of music we make, no matter how long we have made it, no matter our race, our color, our creed, our sexual orientation – all of us live in the land of music. And his departure from it was an earthquake,” before a one minute silence was held.

An Epic Moment for Me to sing in honor of Prince with Stevie Wonder☔️☔️. #luckiestgirlintheworld pic.twitter.com/69uGQT7ygi

— Madonna (@Madonna) May 23, 2016

Elsewhere, Britney Spears opened proceedings with a stunning medley performance, The Weekend was the night’s big winner with a colossal haul of seven awards, mainly in the sales and streaming categories, while Adele took home five of the biggest prizes including ‘Top Artist’ and ‘Top Billboard 200 Album’ for 25.

The Billboard Music Awards 2016 were held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday (May 22).

In This Article: