While Barbs may still be bummed that Nicki Minaj‘s fifth album Pink Friday 2, which was supposed to be released tomorrow (November 17), won’t arrive for another few weeks, they can still look forward to a tour announcement. Tomorrow also marks the premiere of The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes.
Ahead of the premiere, Rachel Zegler shared a hilarious story on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon about how she accidentally started a rumor that Minaj would be on the movie’s soundtrack.
“It was one of those things where there’s a character named Barb Azure in the movie,” said Zegler. “And the actress who plays Barb Azure has a great sense of humor. Her name is Honor Gillies. She’s so fantastic and posted a video of Nicki Minaj saying, ‘Calling all Barbz’ when she got cast. And her character plays the standup bass in the movie so obviously I commented, ‘Slappin’ that super bass.’ As you would.”
This comment was quickly sniffed out by the Barbz, who immediately began sharing theories on social media that Minaj would contribute to the soundtrack.
“They were screenshotting those comments, posting them all over social media, being like, ‘What is Mother doing?’ They are very, very, very dedicated and amazing,” said Zegler of Minaj’s fan army. “I am a Barb. I love Nicki. But she’s not on the album.”
At one point, Zegler herself even believed Minaj may appear on the soundtrack, recalling how Minaj once shared a video with “The Hanging Tree” from The Hunger Games playing in the background.
“She knew what she was doing. I had no idea what I was doing,” Zegler said. “I didn’t know if she was on the soundtrack so I was like, ‘Okay.’”
Barbz can look forward to hearing Pink Friday 2 on December 8, on the birthday of the Queen Barb herself.
You can see the clip from The Tonight Show above.
