The Pink Friday Tour was the debut concert tour by Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj in support of her first two studio albums, Pink Friday (2010) and Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012). The tour was officially announced on May 1, 2012.
The tour began in May 2012 with shows in Australia and Asia. The tour then continued on to Europe and North America in June, July, and August 2012. The tour concluded on August 14, 2012, in New York City at the Roseland Ballroom. After playing 41 shows on 4 continents, Minaj followed up the tour with the Pink Friday: Reloaded Tour.
Background and development
While promoting her second album in the UK, Minaj revealed tour dates for major cities in England. Minaj officially announced the tour via Twitter on May 1, 2012. She also mentioned that the tour would have an "intimate yet big" feel.
Laurieann Gibson served as creative director and choreographer for the tour, and stated; "Nicki Minaj was so much fun for me, and it was like a real breath of fresh air, and musically, to get back to the rap game, to see a female MC dominate the pop charts, this, historically, for me, I feel a bit of responsibility", in a MTV interview.
Concert synopsis
The concert is divided into five acts, which all incorporate Minaj's hip-hop, pop, rap, and R&B music.
An intro was played at the beginning the show with Minaj's voice explaining that her alter ego "Roman", warrior of "Pinkslam", must travel for 40 days, and 40 nights, to planet Earth to defeat an evil force known as "Nemesis".
Minaj begins the concert in a black cloak, singing the fiery-bar spitting song "Roman's Revenge" or the fast-paced "Roman Holiday" while standing on top of the stage with a church themed backdrop. After the first chorus, Minaj takes off the cloak and reveals a new outfit which consisted of pink and black polka dot high rise panties, and a yellow and black polka dot jacket, or a graffiti themed jacket, paired with leggings underneath. She then begins her hip-hop segment with "Did it on 'Em" followed by her verses in "I Am Your Leader" continued with "Beez in the Trap" and then on to a snippet of "Stupid Hoe" before rolling into her verse in Big Sean's "Dance (A$$)".
After a brief pause, Minaj continues the show with a new segment starting with "Right by My Side" that flows into "Champion" and concludes the segment with "Moment 4 Life" while wearing the same attire as last segment. The medley's backdrop consisted of a sky themed backdrop. After finishing, the DJ plays an interlude leading up to the next segment.
After the interlude ends, Minaj returns to the stage wearing a white vest, white leggings, and a white tutu accompanied with white high heels. Minaj's dancers have also changed into gold attire. Minaj then takes a splatter-painted gun and sprays the crowd with white fog. After Minaj sets the gun down she returns to her group of female dancers before jumping into "Starships" which starts the pop segment of the concert. To go along with "Starships" the backdrop was inside of a "Starship". After "Starships", she then sings "Pound the Alarm". Next, Minaj walks around the stage slapping her dancer's butts before heading into "Whip It". Minaj then dives into her verses in David Guetta's dance anthem "Where Them Girls At". Then Minaj performs "Turn Me On". Minaj then walks off stage for a second time for another outfit change.
At the end of the interlude Nicki emerges from backstage with a pink dress on and also changed her wig to a short blond wig with pink accents. She then talks about how she got her heart broken and wanted to literally kill someone. She followed that statement with saying "But instead I wrote a song." which lead into "Fire Burns" with an Autumn themed background. She followed the song by then performing "Save Me" with Barbie's house as a backdrop. After "Save Me" she left the stage which ended her softer, more emotional segment of the show. Another DJ interlude played while she made her final costume change of the concert.