Nicki Minaj set for a party at Birmingham LG Arena
When US rapper Nicki Minaj flies into Birmingham tomorrow to headline the city's LG Arena, it will feel like a home from home.
Minaj hosted an after party in Birmingham in June, after headlining the city's NIA. She hit the floor at Gatecrasher and among the many celebrity fans who joined her at the venue were Katie Price and her best friend Danielle Lloyd, the wife of Wolves footballer Jamie O'Hara.
Minaj used that tour to learn lessons that have informed her bigger, better shows, in vast arenas like the LG.
She said: "Obivously the set is gonna be on steroids, all of the things that I love when I go and see a tour – the lights and the backdrops and the video content and the dancers and all of that stuff – we are just gonna make it into a real movie this time and I will incorporate the things that people love. The good thing about starting off small is that I get to be what people react to."
Minaj enjoyed seeing what members of the audience at the NIA enjoyed and plans to put those lessons into practice when she plays at the LG.
"It's kinda like I'm learning the people so that when we come back with the arena tour we can hit it that much harder," she said.
Minaj has been one of music's biggest success stories in recent years. The multi-platinum selling superstar enjoyed an incredible 2011, when her multi-platinum-selling debut album Pink Friday boasted the most charted singles by any female rap album in Billboard history.
She also became the first artist to have seven singles on the Billboard HOT 100 chart simultaneously.
She won Best Hip Hop Video at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards along with Favourite Rap/Hip Hop Album and Favourite Rap/Hip Hop Artist at the 2011 American Music Awards. Her second studio album the certified Gold Selling Pink Friday… Roman Reloaded was released in April this year, entering the UK charts at number 1.
It has already spawned one of the most successful singles of the year – Starships which is three times platinum in the UK, was top 20 on iTunes in more than 40 countries and to date has received an astonishing 87 million views online. Videos for tracks Beez in The Trap and Right By My Side have received similar number of online hits.
Minaj is notoriously profane and has no plans to clean up her act for Birmingham.
"I used to see Eminem in concert and people were bringing their little brother or whatever. Nobody stops them and says 'Would you stop swearing, Eminem, for loads of money?' I don't get it, I don't get it."
Tickets are available at www.lgarena.co.uk