Nicki Minaj starships

Photo Credit: Eva Rinaldi / CC by 2.0

‘I don’t like it; what y’all want me to do? Stupid song.’ — Nicki Minaj officially retires ‘Starships,’ telling a Miami audience on New Year’s Eve that she won’t perform it anymore.

Nicki Minaj surprised the crowd during her New Year’s Eve performance in Miami, beginning the first few lines of her 2012 hit, “Starships,” before suddenly stopping and calling for the backing track to stop.

“Hold on,” the rapper told the audience, as seen in a fan-recorded video posted to social media. “I don’t perform that song no more, y’all. I don’t like it; what y’all want me to do? Stupid song.”

The 41-year-old Minaj has long been open about her disdain for the song, as well as some of her other hits.

“I hate ‘Starships.’ I mean, ew, ‘Starships?’ I’m like, ‘Why did I do that?’ I really think that every time I hear it,” she said in a 2020 interview. “I wish I never recorded ‘Anaconda.’ I like the video, but ugh,” she added. “My first ever solo song on Billboard was ‘Your Love’ — to this day, I like the video, but I hate the song. I could go on and on.”

The song was the subject of a tiff between Nicki and TV/radio personality, Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg, back in 2012. The latter’s on-stage remarks about the song during the station’s Summer Jam festival that year led to the artist cancelling her performance — probably in part from having a tumultuous relationship with the song to begin with.

Minaj’s highly anticipated album, Pink Friday 2, the sequel to her debut album, Pink Friday, dropped early last month on the artist’s birthday. But a birthday release was far from the original plan; the album was set for an October 20 release, before being pushed to November 17, and finally to December 8.

Nicki first hinted at the album on social media in 2020, before officially announcing it in June 2023 as a sequel to her 2010 debut. Pink Friday 2 features 22 tracks and collaborations with Drake, Lil Wayne, J. Cole, Future, and Lil Uzi Vert, among others.