Janelle Monae and The Roots lead Prince tribute at BET Awards
Janelle Monae, The Roots and D'angelo are to honor Prince at the Bet Awards later this month (Jun16).
The tribute to the Purple Rain musician, who died in April (16) aged 57 will also feature percussionist Sheila E and other yet to be announced acts.
Bosses at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Network, who run
the awards bash celebrating African Americans and other minorities
in entertainment and sport, announced the news on Tuesday
(07Jun16), writing on Twitter that these would be, "only a few" of
the acts involved.
Since Prince's death, acts from across the world have paid tribute
to the iconic musician, with Stevie Wonder headlining a Los Angeles
concert honoring him and Madonna performing her own musical
memorial at the Billboard Music Awards last month (May16).
The Vogue singer's tribute, which saw her belt out the track Prince
wrote for Sinead O'Connor, Nothing Compares 2 U, did not go down
well with all audiences however, and saw her have a run in with the
BET Network.
After her performance, which also included a duet with Stevie
Wonder, a post on the TV company's Twitter feed featuring a trailer
for their own Prince tribute read, "Yeah we saw that. Don't worry.
We got you (sic)." It was subsequently deleted.
Madonna responded to the tweet by posting a picture of her in a
floral motorcycle jacket Prince had given her, which she captioned,
"Wearing the jacket Prince gave me back in the day without
permission from BET lol (laugh out loud)! God Bless America."
The BET Awards will be hosted by Black-ish stars Anthony Anderson
and Tracee Ellis Ross and will air live from Los Angeles' Microsoft
Theater on 26 June (16).
Big name nominees included Beyonce, The Weeknd, Rihanna and
Kendrick Lamar, with Canadian rapper Drake leading the way with
nine nominations.
Earlier this month (Jun16), it was announced that Prince, who
received a BET Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, had died after
accidentally overdosing on the opioid painkiller Fentanyl.