Sheila E., Maxwell, The Roots & More Honor Prince At BET Awards
By Andy Kahn Jun 27, 2016 • 9:39 am PDT
Photo courtesy of NPG Records
Last night the BET Awards ceremony was held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The evening’s program saw a number of musical tributes to the late great Prince.
After the Billboard Music Awards Prince tribute aired, the official BET Awards Twitter account promised to deliver an homage to The Purple One, and the musician who unexpectedly died earlier this year at age 57 was indeed honored several times throughout the night. The Roots backed vocalists Erykah Badu and Bilal on a moving version of “The Beautiful Ones” and Stevie Wonder and Tori Kelly and delivered a rendition of “Take Me With U” followed by Jennifer Hudson’s emergence to lead well-received performance of “Purple Rain.”
Vocalist Maxwell offered his touching arrangement of “Nothing Compares To U,” altering the lyrics to address Prince. A medley featuring portions of “Delirious,” “Kiss,” “Pop Life,” and “I Would Die 4 U” was vibrantly performed by Prince collaborator Janelle Monáe and another of his longtime cohorts closed the show. Percussionist Sheila E., who backed Prince for several years at the peak of his popularity, lead the finale medley that saw renderings of “Let’s Work,” ”A Love Bizarre,” ”The Glamorous Life,” ”America,” “Housequake” and “Erotic City.”
Watch videos of the performances honoring Prince below (click the links if you have issues with the clips below):
