Looking at Nicki Minaj’s early career, a couple songs stand out as being most important or noteworthy: In 2011, “Super Bass” was her first top-5 single, and the next year, “Starships” was her second. “Starships” is also one of Minaj’s most-streamed songs with over a billion plays on Spotify. Minaj, though, doesn’t seem to be the single’s biggest fan these days.
During a New Year’s Eve concert at E11EVEN in Miami, she got a few lines into “Starships” before stopping, saying, “Hold on. Psych, psych, psych, psych. I don’t perform that song no more, y’all.” After some audible discontent from the audience, she continued, “I don’t like it, what y’all want me to do? Stupid song.”
@raptherapth When Nicki past Starships ! @Nicki Minaj #starships #nickiminaj
– Rap the rap
According to setlist.fm, Minaj hasn’t performed the song live since 2019. Of course, that was the last time she went on tour (for the The Nicki Wrld Tour with Juice WRLD), but she has played some festivals since then and the song didn’t make any of those setlists.
This isn’t Minaj’s first time distancing herself from “Starships.” In a 2020 interview, she said, “I wish I had never recorded ‘Anaconda.’ I like the video, but ick. My first-ever solo song on Billboard was ‘Your Love.’ To this day, I like the video but I hate the song. I could go on and on. I hate ‘Starships.’ I mean, ew… ‘Starships are meant to fly?’ Why did I do that?”