Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey are two of the biggest feud magnets in the music industry. So it didn't take long for tension to grow between them when they joined Randy Jackson and Keith Urban to judge American Idol season 12. It all started with an auditioner named Summer's performance of Bill Withers' Lean on Me.
Summer sparked a debate among the judges when she explained her sound by saying she did "the country thing." Nicki liked Summer, but Keith took offense at her statement. Mariah agreed with Keith, and Nicki wasn't pleased about the whole country music debate that transpired.
She called out Mariah and Randy for picking the auditioner apart. Mariah quickly defended herself by talking over Nicki. Poor, innocent Summer stood there watching the argument blow up until Nicki stormed off the set saying, "You're right I can't help her [Summer]. Maybe I should just get off the f***ing panel."
From there, Mariah and Nicki would get into more disagreements in the show, which sorely strained their relationship. But was it all real or just a publicity stunt? Here's a little pop history lesson.
Mariah Carey Tapped Nicki Minaj For A Collab Before Working Together At 'American Idol'
In 2010, Mariah herself invited Nicki for a collaboration. They made Up out My Face for Mariah's album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. At that time, Nicki was just starting out so she was thrilled to work with the icon who she's always admired growing up.
"I didn’t even tell anyone I shot a video with Mariah because I didn’t even believe. In the back of my mind, I felt like, ‘This video is not gonna come out. There’s no way I’m gonna do a video with Mariah Carey before I even put out my album," Nicki told MTV News.
Nicki also described her experience working with Mariah on the music video as "funny and silly." She said she had expected the Fantasy singer to be a diva on set, but they ended up cracking jokes the whole time. Sounds like they struck up a pretty sweet friendship on set.
Mariah Said The Beef Was Fake
Mariah has always been candid in saying that her time at American Idol was the "worst experience" she's ever had. According to her, the producers of the show also orchestrated her feud with Nicki. "I'm not going to get into what it was. Let's just say, I don't think they had any intentions of us having a good experience through that show," Mariah told Kyle & Jackie O. "Pitting two females against each other wasn’t cool."
That would make sense given her friendly history with Nicki prior to the show. Mariah also said that people were so fixated on the "non-existent" feud that it got so ridiculous. She hated how it took away the attention from the contestants and the competition. American Idol surely suffered significant rating collapses due to that. "I would never want to be involved in it again, but everyone else can like it," said Mariah.
It Was All Real For Nicki
When American Idol season 12 was on air, Nicki would always say in interviews that her little fights with Mariah were only passionate exchanges of opinions. She said that it would always start with them joking around so there were no intentions of it getting heated at all. But she said that they were all real. Just not as bad as most people thought.
However, a video surfaced around that time where Nicki was caught yelling expletives at Mariah. One of the things she said that stuck with the media was "I'm not f***ing putting up with her f***ing highness over there."
It seems like the quarrels didn't affect Nicki at first. But as it went on, it's obvious that Nicki took some of Mariah's jabs as personal attacks. At one point, Nicki had an outburst over a tweet by the gossipmonger Perez Hilton which linked to an article with the headline, "Mariah Carey BURNS Nicki Minaj On Idol For Lack Of #1 Songs!"
Nicki replied, "What u SHOULD be doing (wit your messy a**) is asking why a woman SO successful at her age, is still so INSECURE, and bitter." It's understandable that Mariah thought the feud was fake since the show might have milked it for views while the media also escalated everything. But for Nicki, the effects of the inflammatory headlines that got out at that time were very real to her.
What's sure is that Nicki and Mariah were both victims of this industry that continues to pit women against each other. The two have gone separate ways since American Idol. They're not the closest of friends now, but they're certainly not feuding anymore. Still, they could have been two iconic besties if only the media didn't take things out of proportion.
