Fresh off canceling her July 18 performance in Saudi Arabia at the Jeddah World Fest Monday morning due to public backlash, Nicki Minaj took to Twitter that night to inform her following of a traumatic event she experienced in Jamaican.
“I performed in Jamaica before (and) when I got off stage I was surrounded by police with guns drawn,” Minaj said in a tweet. “They were ready (to) take me to jail (because) they said I forgot to bleep a couple curses.”
I performed in Jamaica before & when i got off the stage I was surrounded by police with guns drawn. They were ready 2 take me to jail b/c they said I forgot to bleep a couple curses…. I could make one mistake & go to jail in a diff country where women have no rights. #FreeAsap
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) July 10, 2019
Considering Saudi Arabia’s traditional cultural treatment of women, and Minaj’s then-secret encounter with Jamaican police, it’s obvious Minaj didn’t want to risk a similar encounter in at the King Abdullah Sports Stadium in Jeddah during the Jeddah World Fest.
A few hours after her initial tweet, Minaj clarified in a second tweet that her incident in Jamaica was the catalyst in her decision to bow out of the Jeddah World Fest.
Ummm for the ppl in the back, I wasn’t saying Jamaica doesn’t have women’s rights. I gave an example of what happened in JA to explain how easy it would be to do one thing wrong in Saudia Arabia b/c I’m not aware of every single rule & be locked up. Everyone knows I love JA. STFU
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) July 10, 2019
“Ummm for the ppl in the back, I wasn’t saying Jamaica doesn’t have women’s rights,” Minaj said in an additional tweet. “I gave an example of what happened in (Jamaica) to explain how easy it would be to do one thing wrong in (Saudi) Arabia (because) I’m not aware of every single rule & be locked up.”
