The US singer and rapper was released from custody just before 9pm on Saturday but she will have to pay an undisclosed fine for “illegally exporting soft drugs from the Netherlands to another country”
Nicki Minaj’s concert at the Co-op Live arena in Manchester, attended by thousands of fans, has been postponed at the last minute after she was arrested hours earlier in the Netherlands.
The American singer and rapper, 41, was held at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on suspicion of possession of soft drugs.
And fans had been let into the Manchester indoor venue on Saturday evening despite the star’s detention.
A post on the arena’s X account said shortly after 5.15pm: “Please note that general admission and premium doors for tonight’s Nicki Minaj show will now open at 19:00.”
Minaj was released just before 9pm but must pay an undisclosed fine for “illegal export of soft drugs from the Netherlands to another country”,
Despite her release, she did not make it to Manchester in time. But early Sunday morning, Minaj posted a livestream to Instagram from downtown Manchester, showing a crowd of fans gathered in the street below.
Performance will be postponed to a later date. Organizer Live Nation said in a statement: “Tickets remain valid for the rescheduled performance and performances will be announced as soon as possible,” adding: “Nicki is pursuing all options to go ahead with tonight’s show. “We have done our best to find out, but today’s event has been cancelled.” I made that impossible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. ”
In a series of social media posts on X and Instagram, Minaj previously claimed that police found drugs in her luggage after going through customs.
About X, she wrote: “They said they found grass.” She also claimed “they took my luggage without my consent” and “they’re trying to lock me out of Manchester”.
Messages also included: “Btw this is Amsterdam – cannabis is legal.”
The star, whose hit songs include Starships, Super Bass and Anaconda, also filmed what appeared to be an airport official asking her to have her luggage checked.
Minaj later wrote: “It’s a 45 minute to an hour flight. So they’re probably trying to stall for about 4 hours.”
And she added: “Now they said I have to go 5 mins away to make a statement about my security to the police precinct.”
Asked about Minaj, Robert van Kapel, a spokesman for the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee military police, earlier told UAE Breaking News’ US partner network NBC News: “We can confirm that we have arrested a 41-year-old American woman at Schiphol Airport because of possession of soft drugs.”
Concert-goers ‘sobbing’ after announcement
Fans of the singer expressed their dismay at the decision to postpone the concert.
“Die-hard Nicki fan” Charu, who had travelled from Liverpool for the show, said the evening was “so ridiculously disappointing”.
“My sister and I had been looking forward to this for months. I’m in the middle of taking my medical school exams and I had been working around this day and was so looking forward to it,” they said.
“People around us said they’d travelled from Ireland and Scotland, paid for hotels for the night in Manchester, which is not cheap.
“So the fact that tickets will be refunded or still valid for another concert doesn’t really put into perspective the time and money that we have all spent on this night.”
They added: “Your team knew tonight’s concert would not be possible, but waiting until 9:30pm to let them know is disrespectful of our time and efforts.
Charu said that the concert attendees “wept.” After the announcement, I did not have high expectations for attending the postponed concert.
“Every time she postpones, there’s no guarantee that people will be able to take time off from work and afford a train, plane, or hotel to go to the show. It’s so unfortunate and annoying.”
Pink Friday 2 as part of the World Tour , Minaj will perform in Birmingham on Sunday, followed by a concert at London’s O2 Arena next Tuesday.
She is scheduled to perform in Glasgow on Wednesday and again at Manchester’s Coop Live on Thursday.
Britain’s biggest indoor venue, the beleaguered £365m arena, opened earlier this month after being plagued by a series of problems.
There were weeks of setbacks, cancellations and postponements before live music finally began on May 14, when Manchester rock band Elbow took to the stage.
Problems included part of the building’s ventilation and air conditioning system falling from the ceiling to the floor during an acoustic inspection in early May.
The 23,500-capacity venue was originally scheduled to open in full with two Peter Kay stand-up shows on April 23 and 24, but problems arose during a test event with Ricky Astley. This date has been postponed.
The arena was then scheduled to open for American rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie on May 1st, but due to a defect in the ventilation system, the arena closed just over an hour before his performance. It was canceled after the doors opened to fans.
Due to ventilation problems, scheduled performances by US pop star Olivia Rodrigo and British band Keene have been postponed, and many of Take That’s performances have been moved to Manchester’s AO Arena.