The American rapper Nicki Minaj missed her planned gig in Manchester on Saturday night after she was arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport on suspicion of possession of soft drugs.
Minaj, 41, had been due to perform at the Co-op Live arena as part of her Pink Friday 2 World Tour. Sharing news of her arrest on Instagram Live and via a series of posts on Twitter/X, the rapper denied that she had been carrying any drugs.
She said police claimed to have found drugs in her luggage when her belongings were checked by customs. “They said they found weed,” she said. “They took my luggage without consent.” A police officer seen in the footage also appears to be saying: “You are under arrest”.
Referring to the set she was due to perform in Manchester at 8pm, the rapper posted: “It’s a 45-minute to an hour flight. So they’re probably trying to stall for about 4 hours.”
She added: “Jealousy is a disease. You know the rest.”
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Robert van Kapel, a spokesman for the Dutch military police, told NBC News: “We can confirm that we have arrested a 41-year-old American woman at Schiphol airport because of possession of soft drugs. The suspect was fined and can continue her journey.”
At about 9.30pm thousands of fans inside the Co-op Live arena were told the gig had been cancelled. A spokesman said: “Tickets will remain valid for the rescheduled performance which will be announced ASAP. Despite Nicki’s best efforts to explore every possible avenue to make tonight’s show happen, the events of today have made it impossible.”
Minaj was silent on social media from about 4pm until shortly after 1am on Sunday when she told her fans that she had finally arrived at her hotel in Manchester after “sitting in a jail cell for 5-6 hours”. She said she was unable to make the concert even though the venue had been willing to stay open past 11pm and pointed the finger at unidentified figures who “succeeded at their plan to not let me get on that stage tonight.”
The Trinidadian-born rapper said the show could be rescheduled for June or July. “Please please please accept my deepest & most sincere apologies,” Minaj wrote on X. “I’ll find a way to not only make up the date with the performance but I’m going to create an added bonus for everyone that had a ticket for this show. Promise.”
Fans said they were unsure whether they could make the rescheduled show. Frankie Harper, 20, from Andover, Hampshire, said: “[I’m] distraught to say the least. It definitely hurts more that it was on my birthday. Not sure what happens with the hundreds of pounds that you spend on a train and hotel.”
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Nord Herida, 23, had travelled an hour from Barnsley and had waited outside the arena since 1pm.
Minaj is best known for songs such as Super Freaky Girl, Anaconda and Starships. Over the course of her career she has been nominated for 12 Grammy awards. This concert formed part of a tour that is also due to take her to Paris, Poland, Germany, Romania and Switzerland.
Minaj’s performance is only the latest cancelled at the new arena, which was plagued with problems before finally opening on May 14 with a gig by Elbow. The Bury band should have been the 15th act to play, but performances by Olivia Rodrigo, Take That and Keane among others had to be postponed because of technical issues and delays in construction. The arena, which developers promised would “place Manchester on the global entertainment map”, was soon nicknamed the Co-Flop Live. At least this one was out of its hands.
