And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week

CMU Beef Of The Week #131: Stevie Nicks v Nicki Minaj

By | Published on Friday 12 October 2012

Nicki Minaj

You might not have been keeping up with what’s been happening on the latest series of ‘American Idol’. I mean, how should I know how you spend your time? So, just in case, let’s have a quick recap of a few events.

OK, so Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey are now both judges on the show. Oh my God, two divas! What were they thinking? That’s a recipe for chaos, no? Yes! And it’s turning the very serious business of trying to find an American who is good at singing into a farce. Really, anyone would think this programme was primarily intended as light entertainment rather than a serious A&R search.

Signs of cracks appeared early on, with TMZ obtaining a video earlier this month of Minaj engaged in an expletive filled rant at Carey during one of the auditions. “I’m gonna knock you out”, sources claimed that Minaj said at one point during the rant – though conveniently not while being filmed. Then on another occasion the rapper supposedly said that, were she in possession of a firearm, she would shoot Carey right there and then.

Luckily for the flagging ‘Idol’ franchise, as well as reporting on these outbursts, lots of newspapers, magazines and websites are also busy debating whether or not the feud is real, with plenty of people involved in ‘American Idol’ seemingly available to pass comment, whether named or anonymously. If this is a manufactured feud designed to boost coverage of the show, then there should be pats on the back all round. And extra pats for getting half the commentators to say that it was staged and the other half to say it wasn’t. Well done everyone.

Anyway, that’s the background to what happened this week. Former ‘American Idol’ coach Stevie Nicks was asked for her opinion of what has been going on this series. And according to The Daily, the Fleetwood Mac singer said at a press conference for her new documentary on Tuesday: “How dare this little girl! If I had been Mariah I would have walked over to Nicki and strangled her to death right there. I would have killed her in front of all those people and had to go to jail for it”.

So that’s nice. I always like to respond to unlikely rumours that someone threatened to killed someone else with actual threats of murder. Stevie Nicks doesn’t though. The next day she issued a statement saying: “I want to apologise for my remarks about Nicki Minaj’s behaviour towards Mariah Carey, which I said during a long and exhausting day of interviews. It was very out of character for me and I deeply regret what I said. I feel very protective toward Mariah Carey who has gone through many difficulties in her life and I spoke without thinking. I think all artists should be respectful towards one another and that includes me. I am truly sorry”.

Speaking to the New York Post she added: “I am a very emotional person. I saw what I had said and I didn’t sleep all night. I have been touring since June … I lost my mom a couple of months back, and usually I would have called her to ask, ‘What should I do?’ My mother would have said, ‘You rushed in to save your friend Mariah. That is not wrong. What was wrong was the words you used. You are a writer. You would never say those words, and that should be a lesson for you for the rest of your life'”.

She continued: “I could have taken my mom’s view on it, but instead I took out the insane soldier. From the bottom of my heart I would say I am very sorry.” She continued, “[After I saw my words] I felt, did this really happen? I don’t even recognise my words”.

Oh well, it’s all water under the bridge now Stevie . All’s well that ends well and all that. Let’s all relax, have a cup of tea, punch a colleague and forget all about it.



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