Ellen DeGeneres Honors ‘Genius’ & ‘Icon’ Prince With Emotional Tribute [Video]


Ellen DeGeneres is paying an emotional tribute to Prince with a segment on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

DeGeneres honored the late superstar with a 5-minute long tribute on her popular talk show, set to air on April 26, where Ellen recalled Prince appearing and performing on the series during the show’s very first season back in 2003.

“The coolest part of having this job is that I get to meet incredible artists and heroes of mine and they perform right here in front of me,” Ellen revealed, before telling the audience “of all the bands and artists that I’ve had on the show there was no one like Prince.”

“He was an artist, he was an icon, a genius, and he was kind enough to appear on my show in the very first season, in 2003,” DeGeneres continued on the show on April 26, before admitting that big artists rarely appear on talk shows like hers during the first season because they often wait to see if “it’s going to be successful.”

“They wait to see if it’s a cool thing to do before they say yes, so [Prince] did it on the first season and it meant the world to me that he did that,” Ellen DeGeneres added, before introducing a snippet of Prince’s 2003 The Ellen DeGeneres Show interview and re-broadcasting his performance of his iconic 1986 hit, “Kiss.”

Prince later appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show once again in 2009, where he performed the track “Crimson and Clover.”

DeGeneres’s latest tribute to the late Prince comes just days after Ellen took to Twitter to honor the singer after news of his death broke around the world on April 21.

“Prince was brilliant and larger than life. What a sad day,” DeGeneres tweeted out after Prince’s death last week, which has since been liked on the social media site almost 30,000 times.

DeGeneres also posted a snap of herself and Prince on Instagram a day after his death on April 22, where Ellen revealed that Prince’s music is always played in the studio during the show’s commercial breaks while filming.

“I always play Prince’s music for my studio audience during commercial breaks. I love his music and I love him,” Ellen captioned the shot, telling her more than 28 million followers that the photo was “from the last time he was here. #RIPPrince.”

Ellen took to social media again on April 25 to announce her plans to honor the legendary performer on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show with the special segment airing to honor the late musician on April 26. “Honoring Prince on my show tomorrow,” DeGeneres tweeted.

Ellen DeGeneres Honors 'Genius' & 'Icon' Prince With Emotional Tribute [Video]
[Photo by Vince Bucci/Getty Images]
Fans also flocked to Twitter to praise Ellen for her fitting tribute to the late singer, whose official cause of death is still yet to be released.

“Watched the Ellen show, she had Prince on in her 1st season. She played it, he sang ‘Kiss,’ Nothing compares to you,” Twitter fan @Becky78344366 wrote on the 140-character site, while Twitter fan @GarrickTheDJ noted that they “Really enjoyed @TheEllenShow’s #Prince tribute with footage from the first season. #Ellen #RIPPrince #EllenDegeneres.”

Viewer @EarlxGreat also praised Prince following the emotional Ellen DeGeneres Show tribute, writing “Prince still showed up on Ellen’s 1st season despite not knowing if the show would take off. How can you not love the guy?”

As reported by CNN, Prince was found unresponsive in an elevator at his studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota, on April 21. Authorities confirmed that paramedics at the scene attempted to revive him, but Prince was later pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m.

What do you think of Ellen DeGeneres’s tribute to Prince on The Ellen DeGeneres Show?

[Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images]

Share this article: Ellen DeGeneres Honors ‘Genius’ & ‘Icon’ Prince With Emotional Tribute [Video]
More from Inquisitr