On Wednesday, April 27, Beyoncé kicked off her Formation World Tour in Miami, where she remembered the late Prince with a singalong tribute. The tune came on while Bey did a costume change backstage. During the interlude, the stadium screens turned purple, as fans at Miami’s Marlins Park broke into a massive singalong. With their cellphones held high in the air, concertgoers belted out “Purple Rain,” marking a few minutes of celebration in honor of the artist who inspired us all.
Purple Rain. ? #FormationWorldTour #MIAMI pic.twitter.com/3zaOaIUbou
— BEYONCÉ REIGNS (@BeyonceReigns) April 28, 2016
“Prince, thank you for your beautiful music,” the “Flawless” singer said later in the show.
Beyoncé and Prince performed onstage together back in 2004. The pair opened the 46th Annual Grammy Awards with a medley that included “Purple Rain,” “Baby, I’m a Star,” “Let’s Go Crazy”; and Bey’s smash hit, “Crazy in Love.”
Later on, after streaming the same adorable family videos from her mini-film, Lemonade, the 34-year-old closed the show with “Halo,” along with yet another special tribute. “I want to dedicate this song to my family, thank you guys for supporting me,” she said to Jay Z, who sat in the audience. “I want to dedicate this song to my beautiful husband, I love you so much.”
As previously reported, Prince, 57, died at his Paisley Park estate in Chanhassen, Minnesota, on Thursday, April 21. Like so many others, Beyoncé paid her respects to Prince via social media following the news. On Thursday, she posted a quote from The Purple One. “Everyone has their own experience,” the quote read. “That’s why we are here, to go through our experience, to learn, to go down those paths and eventually you may have gone down so many paths and learned so much that you don’t have to come back again.”
