American rapper Nicki Minaj cancelled a show in Manchester, England, on Saturday after being detained by police at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on allegations of possessing soft drugs.
The Co-op Live venue in Manchester announced on X, “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, 41, was detained just hours before the scheduled start of the show. Dutch military police confirmed that a 41-year-old American woman had been held for possession of soft drugs on Saturday, noting that it is prohibited to take such substances out of the Netherlands. While the police did not identify the suspect, they later posted on social media platform X that the woman had been fined and released around 19:45 GMT. This was 45 minutes after Minaj was due to begin performing at the Manchester Co-op Live.
Earlier, Minaj had posted a video on X in which a Schiphol employee informed her that police wanted to “search all her luggage.” Another video on her social media showed a police officer accusing her of “carrying drugs,” which Minaj denied. In a subsequent post, she said, “Now they said they found weed & that another group of ppl have to come here to weigh the pre-rolls.”
Minaj, a former “American Idol” judge, played a show at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome on Thursday and is scheduled to return there for another performance on June 2.
Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (born December 8, 1982), professionally known as Nicki Minaj is a Trinidadian-born rapper and singer-songwriter based in the United States. Often hailed as the “Queen of Rap,” Minaj is celebrated for her musical versatility, animated rap style, and distinctive alter egos. She first gained prominence with the release of three mixtapes between 2007 and 2009.
