Nicki Minaj was forced to cancel her headlining 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 from performing, at the last minute, due to ‘safety concerns.’
‘Out of concern for the well-being of our team and myself, I have been advised by my security detail not to travel to Romania’s festival tonight due to safety concerns regarding protests in the area,’ she tweeted, just hours before her set. ‘I look forward to seeing you all at another time.’
She continued: ‘As a mom, I have to make sure I’m making sound decisions for me to make it home to my son and for my team to make it home to their families.
To not heed the advice of security at this time is simply not what I think I should be doing. I love you and thank you for your understanding and support.’
SAGA Festival also shared the update with a ‘heavy heart’ as they called her decision ‘beyond’ their powers.
‘The news has left us all devastated, and we know it’s a huge disappointment for all of you, just as it is for us,’ the organizers wrote.
Anyone with an unscanned ticket for the Sunday festival will be able to receive a refund.
Although Minaj did not specify what protest caused the security concern, according to Rolling Stone, there appears to be a ‘march in Bucharest’ planned for Monday.
The publication cited a post, uploaded by Crisis2, which reads: ‘Business groups and taxpayers are demanding improvements to the state’s fiscal policies and processes. Demonstrators will then rally in front of the Ministry of Finance until 13:30.’
Crisis 24 reports that ‘several hundred to low thousands of protesters will take part’ and ‘the demonstration will likely be peaceful.’
Minaj will next perform in London at Wireless Festival on Friday.
In May, Minaj was briefly arrested before being fined at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on Saturday on allegations that ‘soft drugs’ were found in her luggage.
She was traveling from Amsterdam to Manchester for her next Pink Friday 2 Tour show at the time. This led to her show in Manchester getting cancelled at the last moment as a result of her brief detainment.
Despite vehemently denying that she was carrying any drugs, the rapper was told that she needed to go to the police station in footage captured during an Instagram Live.
In the recording, a man explained to her that she ‘would get a lawyer at the office’ and they would go ‘as fast as possible.’
During the Instagram Live, the Anaconda hitmaker said she was told ‘to get into this [police] van and go into the precinct with no lawyer present.’
She further alleged that someone working for airport security requested she made a ‘statement with no lawyer present’ after finding ‘pre-rolls’ in ‘bags that they were not authorized to take.’
It is currently unclear if she was booked at a police station.
A spokesperson for the police in the Netherlands confirmed to NBC News that they ‘arrested a 41-year-old American woman at Schiphol Airport because of possession of soft drugs.’
They did not identify Minaj, or anyone else by name, as the person arrested.
Before the arrest, Minaj shared a series of posts on X (previously known as Twitter), about her bags getting pulled for a thorough search at the airport.
‘They’ve been trying everything they possibly can to TRY to stop this tour,’ she wrote in one tweet, before theorizing that they were trying to ‘plant things’ in her luggage.
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Source: New York Post
