Wildly popular rapper Nicki Minaj will make the rounds of the U.S. and Canada this summer on her first solo tour.
The Trinidadian-born performer is touring in support of her sophomore album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, released on April 3. The album spawned Minaj’s current hit single, “Starships”, and reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 just two weeks after its release. It currently sits at No. 8 on the Billboard chart.
Despite its title, the new album is not a deluxe edition of Minaj’s first top selling album, 2010’s Pink Friday, but instead has a new collection of songs performed with the likes of Chris Brown, Lil’ Wayne, and Rick Ross.
Minaj’s planned outing is actually part of a larger international tour which kicks off on June 8 in Stockholm, Sweden. According to Rap-Up.com, the performer will travel to a total of ten countries, including Denmark, France, Italy, and England before winding her way back to the U.S. to start the summer tour.
U.S. dates begin at the windy city’s Chicago Theatre on July 16 and also include performances at Atlanta’s Fabulous Fox Theater, Denver’s Wells Fargo Theatre, and Seattle’s Paramount Theatre.
The tour currently wraps on August 12 with its sole Canadian date at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, BC.
According to Minaj’s official website, she is also scheduled to perform at a number of radio-sponsored festivals throughout the summer, including KIIS FM’s Wango Tango in Los Angeles on May 12, New York’s Hot 97 Summer Jam on June 3, and Hot 93.7’s Hot Jam in Hartford on July 20.
Minaj made news this week with the announcement that she is the latest spokesperson for Pepsi and will appear in this summer’s “Live for Now” ad campaign. The campaign also includes Katy Perry as well as footage of the deceased Michael Jackson. A recent Huffington Post article notes that Minaj’s ads for the soft drink giant are highlighting “Moment 4 Life”, a single from Pink Friday, “because of specific lyrics that perfectly captured the Pepsi ethos of living in the moment.”
Public onsales for the upcoming tour began on May 4, and demand on the secondary market seems to be robust. There are, however, some pricing inconsistencies according to region, says Mike Janes, general manager of Event Ticketing for ticket search engine Fansnap.com.
“The average asking price for Nicki Minaj tour tickets is currently $209,” Janes recently told TicketNews, “[but] prices vary widely by city.” The selling price in Seattle for Minaj’s August 11 appearance is up to $287, while tickets for her July 17 Detroit show can be had for as low as $140.
According to Janes, the best buy for tickets at this time is the Wired 96.5 Fest in Camden, NJ on June 1, where fans can snag a ticket for $126.
Janes noticed another early sales trend on the secondary market: “With the exception of the Chicago and Detroit shows, we are seeing only hundreds of ticket listings on the open market for most of her shows vs. the typical 2000+ tickets floating we see for many of the hottest tours.”
Why so few? Janes suggests that reasons for the scarcity of tickets are “mostly venue size-related, but [it] also implies individual ticket owners have no interest in selling and want to hold on to their tickets.”
If these estimations are correct, look for packed houses all across the U.S. this summer when Nicki Minaj comes to town.
