--- title: Rihanna Dabs During Billboard's Madonna Prince Tribute description: Rihanna enjoyed the performance in a way he would have appreciated: by doing the dab as Stevie Wonder and Madge belted out "Purple Rain." canonical: https://time.com/4345110/rihanna-dab-prince-tribute-billboard-awards/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-23T17:59:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:32:38.260Z og:title: Watch Rihanna Dab During the Billboard Prince Tribute og:description: Look at her dab. og:url: https://time.com/4345110/rihanna-dab-prince-tribute-billboard-awards/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03656098f67f636a/6988946d196cf4ad1f03bb62/rihanna-dabs-during-prince-tribute.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 2016 Billboard Music Awards - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Rihanna Dab During the Billboard Prince Tribute twitter:description: Look at her dab. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03656098f67f636a/6988946d196cf4ad1f03bb62/rihanna-dabs-during-prince-tribute.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Rihanna Live Her Best Life by Dabbing to 'Purple Rain' at the Billboard Awards  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 23, 2016 5:59 PM UTC  LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 22: Singer Rihanna arrives at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards at T-Mobile Arena on May 22, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage) LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 22: Singer Rihanna arrives at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards at T-Mobile Arena on May 22, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)Gregg DeGuire—WireImage  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang May 23, 2016 5:59 PM UTC While there were plenty of [people who voiced being underwhelmed](http://time.com/4344679/madonna-prince-billboard-music-awards-reactions/) with [Madonna’s Prince tribute](http://time.com/4326754/madonna-prince-tribute-2016-billboard-awards/) at the [Billboard Music Awards](http://time.com/4344366/billboard-music-awards-2016-best-and-worst/), one [Robyn Fenty](http://time.com/4198509/rihanna-anti-review/) appeared to enjoy herself wholeheartedly. Rihanna — who re-confirmed that she was the queen of everything [with a soulful rendition of her song, “Love on the Brain”](http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/bbma/7378391/rihanna-love-on-the-brain-billboard-music-awards-2016) during the show — enjoyed the performance in a way that his Royal Purpleness would no doubt have appreciated: by [doing the dab](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAmLInI%5FpS4) as Stevie Wonder and Madge belted out “Purple Rain.” > [](https://twitter.com/KarenCivil/status/734582038842507264) All hail Rih. May we live life as fabulously as she does. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4345110/rihanna-dab-prince-tribute-billboard-awards/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4345110/rihanna-dab-prince-tribute-billboard-awards/"},"headline":"Watch Rihanna Live Her Best Life by Dabbing to 'Purple Rain' at the Billboard Awards","datePublished":"2016-05-23T17:59:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:32:38.260Z","description":"Look at her dab.","url":"https://time.com/4345110/rihanna-dab-prince-tribute-billboard-awards/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","Prince","Rihanna"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03656098f67f636a/6988946d196cf4ad1f03bb62/rihanna-dabs-during-prince-tribute.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03656098f67f636a/6988946d196cf4ad1f03bb62/rihanna-dabs-during-prince-tribute.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2016 Billboard Music Awards - Arrivals","caption":"2016 Billboard Music Awards - Arrivals","creditText":"Gregg DeGuire—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4345110/rihanna-dab-prince-tribute-billboard-awards/","name":"Watch Rihanna Live Her Best Life by Dabbing to 'Purple Rain' at the Billboard Awards"}}]}] ```