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Nicki Minaj’s show at Manchester’s Co-Op Live tonight (May 25) was cancelled after she was arrested in Amsterdam earlier in the day.
The rapper was due to take her ‘Pink Friday 2’ live show to the venue as part of her ongoing UK and European tour, but she was unable to make it to the gig after the events in the Netherlands.
Minaj livestreamed her own arrest this afternoon, as she appeared to be detained by Dutch police for allegedly “carrying drugs” while travelling between countries. The Dutch National Police Corps confirmed that she had been arrested, but that she had since been released.
Doors at the Co-Op Live opened at 7pm, with Minaj due on stage an hour later. However, as fans continued to wait, the announcement finally came at around 9:30pm that Minaj would not be performing after all.
The venue later posted an official update: “Nicki Minaj’s scheduled performance at Manchester’s Co-Op Live on Saturday 25th May has been postponed,” they wrote. “Tickets will remain valid for the rescheduled performance which will be announced ASAP.”
Pink Friday 2 World Tour Update pic.twitter.com/IOhOcS73pT
— Co-op Live (@TheCoopLive) May 25, 2024
“Despite Nicki’s best efforts to explore every possible avenue to make tonight’s show happen, the events of today have made it impossible. We are deeply disappointed by the inconvenience this has caused. More information will be available at your point of purchase.”
The chain of events come after the Manchester venue, the largest indoor arena in the UK, suffered a plague of issues in the run-up to its opening last month, including postponements for shows by Peter Kay, The Black Keys, Olivia Rodrigo and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie.
In an Instagram Live post earlier today, Minaj filmed what appeared to be a group of Dutch police officers arresting her and asking her to enter a police vehicle so they could take her to the station.
Watch the footage below:
Nicki Minaj has been arrested in Amsterdam (of all places) for “carrying drugs.”
Minaj immediately went on Instagram Live and asked for a lawyer.
She initially declined to get into a police vehicle until she had a lawyer and repeatedly asked for the address of where she was… pic.twitter.com/3QwFockAnu
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 25, 2024
They tell her that they believe she is “carrying drugs”, which she immediately denies. Minaj repeatedly says that she is not going anywhere without the presence of a lawyer, to which one of the officers attempts to explain that she would “get a lawyer at the office”, and that they would go “as fast as possible”.
Minaj asks for the address of the station they are going to, which they do not give. The officers also explain that they will try to help her get to her show in Manchester tonight.
Minaj had posted a series of tweets which appear to show her bags being searched thoroughly at the airport.
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) May 25, 2024
“They’ve been trying everything they possibly can to TRY to stop this tour,” she wrote in one post.
“They took my luggage & when I asked where it is they said it’s on the plane. It couldn’t have been, I just pulled up,” read another.
Minaj went on to say she was worried that they might “plant” something in one of her bags.
Minaj’s current tour comes in celebration of her long-awaited ‘Pink Friday 2’ album, which arrived in December and received a four-star review from NME‘s Nick Levine upon its release.
Levine wrote: “‘Pink Friday 2’ feels like a consolidation and refinement of everything Minaj can do – including dropping pop culture references that no other artist would think of. “Ducking ’em like Björk?” That’s surely a wink to the Icelandic musician’s infamous skirmish with a photographer. Thirteen years after ‘Pink Friday’, Nicki Minaj hasn’t lost her ability to catch us by surprise.”