by Idara Inyang — December 16, 2023
Nicki Minaj is booked and busy following the release of her latest album, Pink Friday 2, but made a quick stop at Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live for the Thursday (Dec. 14) episode to talk about one of her major personal influences, as well as what the Barbz can expect from the global trek for her new record.
She commented:
“I don’t think people realize how much singing or singers like Whitney influenced me. Whitney’s first album, I know it front to back,” she told Cohen of the late singer.
“I was such a little kid, but I would be with my aunt all the time on the weekends and we would play it on the actual turntable, and it was one of the most fun parts of my childhood, so I have a real connection to her.
And Diana Ross because my mom would always play Diana and the Supremes in the house, too.”
Minaj is in good company with Houston. With summer smash “Barbie World,” the Queens native’s 23rd Billboard Hot 100 top 10, she tied Whitney Houston for the sixth most among women overall in the chart’s history.
During the 41-year-old’s 2022 Video Vanguard acceptance speech, she wished Houston were still alive and that “people took mental health seriously.”
