Prince fans who can’t exactly get into the groove with Queen of Pop Madonna tributing her fellow music royal at this year’s Billboard Music Awards will be sorely disappointed to learn she’s still being billed as the show’s most highly anticipated feature.
According to Mark Bracco, the ceremony’s executive producer, the show will continue as planned despite a viral petition calling for Madge’s removal from any tribute to the fallen icon. Their efforts, Bracco suggests, were noticed…but disregarded.
Get his official statements below:
“Listen, I think everybody is entitled to their opinion and everyone can have their own opinion, but I will say that we are honored and could not be more excited for Madonna to be on the show and to pay tribute to someone that was her friend and her peer and her colleague,” Mark Bracco said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. “I think it’s going to be fantastic.”
“It’s going to be very, very intimate and very respectful, and I think it’s something that is really going to pay tribute to Prince as the incredible, groundbreaking artist that he was and the influence that he had on music,” he said. – source
Airing Sunday, May 22, the Billboard Music Awards will include Madonna’s tribute to Prince (as scheduled) and performances from Rihanna, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, P!nk, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and so many more.