Nicki Minaj Skips Grammy Awards Again, Fans Confused by Mistaken Announcement

Condolences to all the Barbz hoping to see their favorite rapper on the Grammys red carpet tonight—and were sorely disappointed. Tonight’s 66th Grammy Awards show has forged ahead without the attendance of one of the annual ceremony’s most beloved nominees: Nicki Minaj. Despite being a nominee in two categories this year, the rapper was a no-show—which may come as no surprise, if you’re aware Minaj hasn’t attended the award ceremony in nearly 10 years.

Minaj’s last Grammys appearance was in 2015, when she had also earned nominations in two categories. The following year, the rapper earned three nominations, but ultimately ended up opting out of the ceremony altogether. At the time, she mentioned her absence on issues with “timing.”

This evening, Minaj has been recognized in the categories Best Rap Song and Best Song Written for Visual Media, for “Barbie World”—her contribution to the soundtrack for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film, and an apt one, considering Minaj’s career-spanning connection to the iconic doll. (The rapper has endearingly referred to her legions of ardent fans as “Barbz” for over a decade.)

She reflected on the sentiment behind the track during a red carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight at the Barbie premiere in July 2023. “I’ve been saying Barbie my whole career, so it’s a very full-circle moment,” she said.

Minaj collaborated with Ice Spice on “Barbie World,” which samples Danish-Norwegian electropop group Aqua’s iconic 1997 single “Barbie Girl.”

“There were a couple of songs that I didn’t love, and then there was another song—well, this ‘Barbie’ sample, I loved it,” Minaj told ET. “I just wanted it to have a dope drum, and so the one they sent me, I loved and I jumped on it right away.”

The Recording Academy announced a slew of early winners ahead of Sunday night’s official show, and they appear to have mistakenly announced Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s “Barbie World” as the winner of Best Rap Song, before seemingly deleting the tweet and announcing that “Scientists & Engineers” by Killer Mike actually won. And fans seem…confused, to say the least. There are even some people who believe this is part of a wider conspiracy theory on the part of the Recording Academy to snub Nicki specifically (she’s been nominated 12 times but never won).

Nicki has a complicated history with the Grammys. In 2022, she called out the Recording Academy for moving her hit “Super Freaky Girl” from the rap category to the pop one, saying (via Billboard), “It was done to ensure I don’t have a shot of winning awards for ‘Super Freaky Girl.’ It was done to remove me from the category that they don’t want COMPETITION in!!!!!!! They are all scared to death of the success of that song & thought it would be super EASY for them (like it’s been for the last few years) but ‘SFG’ is such a global smash, certain members are AFRAID to keep it in the competition.”

Neither Nicki, Ice Spice, nor the Recording Academy have spoken out about the mistake at this time, but stay tuned!