Nicki Minaj was forced to cancel her headline performance at SAGA Festival on Sunday night due to a planned protest in Bucharest, Romania.
The Grammy-winning rapper, 41, revealed she made the decision to pull out of her performances at the last minute due to “safety concerns.”
“For my own sake and that of our team, my security team has advised me not to travel to the Romania festival tonight due to safety concerns over protests in the area,” she tweeted, just hours before her performance. “I look forward to seeing everyone another time.”
She continued: “As a mother, I have to make sure I make the right decisions so that I can get home to my son and so that my team can get home to their families. Ignoring safety advice at this time is simply the wrong thing to do. I love you all and thank you for your understanding and support.”
SAGA Festival also shared the update with “great regret” while calling their decision “beyond” their powers.
Nicki Minaj was forced to cancel her headline performance at SAGA Festival on Sunday night due to a planned protest in Bucharest, Romania; seen in March 2024
“The news has left us all devastated and we know it is a huge disappointment for all of you, as it is for us,” the organisers wrote.
Anyone with an unscanned ticket for Sunday’s festival will be eligible for a refund.
Although Minaj did not specify which protest caused the safety concern, according to Rolling StoneA “march in Bucharest” appears to be planned for Monday.
The publication cited a post, uploaded by Crisis2, which reads: “Business groups and taxpayers are demanding improvements in the state’s tax policies and processes. Protesters will then gather in front of the Ministry of Finance until 13:30.”
Crisis 24 reports that “several hundred to thousands of protesters will participate” and “the demonstration will likely be peaceful.”
Minaj will next perform in London at the Wireless Festival on Friday.
In May, Minaj was briefly arrested before being fined at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Saturday over allegations that “soft drugs” were found in her luggage.
At the time she was travelling from Amsterdam to Manchester for her next show on the Pink Friday 2 tour, so her performance in Manchester was cancelled at the last minute as a result of her brief detention.
The Grammy-winning rapper, 41, revealed she made the decision to pull out of her performances at the last minute due to “safety concerns.”
Despite vehemently denying she was carrying drugs, the rapper was told she needed to go to the police station in a video captured during an Instagram Live.
In the recording, a man explained that he would “call a lawyer to the office” and that they would come “as quickly as possible.”
During the Instagram Live, the Anaconda singer said she was told “to get in this (police) van and go into the police station without any lawyer present.”
She further claimed that someone working for airport security asked her to make a “statement without a lawyer present” after finding “pre-rolled beer bottles” in “bags they were not authorized to carry.”
It is not yet clear whether she was detained at a police station.
A spokesman for the Dutch police confirmed to NBC News that ‘a 41-year-old American woman was arrested at Schiphol Airport for possession of soft drugs.’
They did not identify Minaj or anyone else by name as the person arrested.
Prior to her arrest, Minaj shared a series of posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) about having her bags thoroughly searched at the airport.
“They’ve been trying everything they can to TRY to stop this tour,” she wrote in a tweet, before theorizing that they were trying to “plant stuff” in her luggage.
In May, Minaj was briefly arrested before being fined at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Saturday over allegations that “soft drugs” were found in her luggage; seen in 2023
She also shared images on her Instagram of a man telling her that the police needed to check her luggage more closely.
In the clip, an airline crew member told him that “a police officer told him” that they had to “unload all the luggage and search everything.”
“I’m very sorry to say that,” he continued.
She then asked: “But wasn’t that what you had planned to do from the beginning? Why didn’t you search for him before putting him on the plane?”
“They just did a quick, random check, but now they want to open it,” he insisted.
After she asked him why, he said, “First of all, because you filmed it… (and)… he doesn’t believe you that you don’t have more with you than you say.”
“No, he asked me if I had any more stuff in those bags and I said no, and I asked him where my bags were,” the rapper said. “They took my bags and put them on the plane before I could even figure out what bags were on the plane.”
The airline crew member simply said he was “very sorry.”
“Okay, of course,” he said before the video ended.
In the caption of the photo, Minaj wrote: “They took my bags before I could see them” and then “put them on the plane.”
“This is what happens when people get paid a lot of money to try and sabotage a tour after everything else has failed. Everything they’ve done is illegal,” he wrote.
Despite vehemently denying she was carrying drugs, the rapper was told she needed to go to the police station in a video captured during an Instagram Live in May.
In the recording, a man explained that he would “call a lawyer to the office” and that they would come “as quickly as possible.”
Prior to the alleged arrest, Minaj shared a series of posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) about having her bags taken for a thorough search at the airport.
“They’ve been trying everything they can to TRY to stop this tour,” she wrote in a tweet, before theorizing that they were trying to “plant stuff” in her luggage.
Minaj also tweeted that “filming every single thing infuriated” airline employees and police.
Minaj went on to claim that she was told she had five minutes “to make a statement regarding” her “safety in front of the police station.”
Previously, she had commented on X that ‘they said they found marijuana and that another group of people had to come here to weigh the pre-rolled joints.’
“Please note that my bags were taken without my consent. My security staff has already informed them that those pre-roll papers belong to him. Oh yeah, and the pilot wants me to delete my Instagram post,” she wrote.
In another post by X, he pointed out that marijuana is legal in Amsterdam.