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song info
Starships by Nicki Minaj (official video) is a rap dance song.
Song Title: Starships (official video)
Artist: Nicki Minaj
Album: Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded
Genre: dance, rap, pop, hip-hop, Eurodance, Europop, EDM
Composer: Copyright © 2011 Onika Maraj, Nadir Khayat, Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Wayne Hector
Musical key: D Major
Lead Vocals: Nicki Minaj
Backing Vocals: Carl Falk, Wayne Hector, Mohombi
Instruments: RedOne, Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub
Guitar: Carl Falk
Recording assistant: Jon Sher
Director: Anthony Mandler
Producer: RedOne, Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk
Recording: Trevor Muzzy, Ariel Chobaz, Jon Sher (recording assistant)
Recorded: 2011 at Kinglet Studios, Stockholm, Sweden, and Conway Recording Studios, Hollywood, California, United States; Mixed at Conway Recording Studios
Mixer: Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Trevor Muzzy
Released: February 14, 2012
Label: Young Money, Cash Money, Universal Republic
Number of listens: 41461
Summary quotation from Wikipedia:
Starships is a song by American recording artist and songwriter Nicki Minaj, released as the lead single of her second studio album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012). It was written by Minaj herself, along with Nadir Khayat, Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub and Wayne Hector, while production was handled by RedOne, Yacoub and Falk. With the success of her previous studio album Pink Friday, Minaj along with Brian Birdman Williams announced to Billboard that Minaj was aiming for a first quarter release in 2012. With this, Starships would have been released as the lead single. However, before this, Minaj released promotional singles from the album first. It was then announced that her song Va Va Voom would be released as the lead single, and just as the release date was near, it was scrapped in favor of Starships.
Starships received generally favorable reviews from music critics, along with negative remarks, with many critics complimenting the songs composition and found it catchy. Critics also found the songs production solid, however critics believed the song was unoriginal and didnt find Minajs path towards pop music satisfying. However, commercially, the song is recognized as Minajs most successful charting single to date, peaking at number one in countries including Belgium (both Wallonia and Flanders), France, Germany, Hungary, Norway and the United Kingdom. The song has also peaked inside the top ten in more than 25 countries worldwide. The song also remains her most certified single to date. The song also made US Billboard history, debuting in the US top ten and then spending a total of 21 consecutive weeks in the top ten.
Minaj has performed the song live in a number of appearances, and is the encore performance on the Pink Friday: Reloaded Tour. The corresponding music video was shot Oahu Island, Hawaii. Directed by Anthony Mandler, the song features Nicki on a beach in a bikini, and near the end of the video, it shows her and a party-esque dancing to the song and performing. The music video was critically acclaimed from music critics, many praising the kaleidoscope effects in the video and the fun, carefree style. However, some critics noticed its postponed release, because the video for her single Beez in the Trap was released before Starships was. With all the success, the song has also sparked controversy surrounding a pulled live performance.
Background and composition
Following the release and success of Minajs previous album, Pink Friday, Cash Money co-CEO, Brian Birdman Williams announced to Billboard that Minaj was aiming for a first quarter release in 2012. In November 2011, Minaj announced on Twitter that the album would be released on February 14, 2012, but later in January 2012 she pushed the album to April 3, 2012. The album puts focus on the return of Roman Zolanski, one of Minajs alter egos that was first featured on her 2010 debut album, Pink Friday.
Starships is a multi-genre song, which heavily utilizes Eurodance, Europop, and Euro house, while also incorporating other genres such as trance-rap, pop, dance, reggae, pop rock, hip hop, and electropop.
After the chorus, there is a 90s-influenced Eurodance breakdown, which some critics have compared to the likes of Europop groups 2 Unlimited and C+C Music Factory. During the final breakdown, a stadium football chant can be heard chanting the lead notes of the song. The background vocals on the chorus were considered extremely similar to Britney Spears 2011 single Till the World Ends by Scott Schettler of Popcrush. Jocelyn Vena of MTV also said that its hard not to see Spears influence on the rapper/singer when listening to the song. Billboard compared Starships to the work of Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, other artists produced by RedOne. Musically, Starships is written in the key of D major and follows a moderate tempo of 125 beats per minute. Written in common time, the song follows a chord progression of D-A-G-Bm-F♯m-G. The song contains a brief sample of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as written by Jane Taylor.
Music video
Background
The Starships video was filmed on Oahu Island, Hawaii. It was a 3-day shoot, with filming beginning on March 13, 2012 and ending on March 15, 2012. The video was directed by Anthony Mandler with extensive post-VFX produced by Leah Harmony and executed by a team of artists at Culver City-based post production company KILT. In an interview with Capital FM, Minaj briefly commented on the video for Starships, calling it very, very saucy and her best one yet. The video premiered on April 26, 2012 at 7:56 pm on MTV. It serves as Minajs most successful single behind Super Bass. The music video was compared to reality TV star Heidi Montags video for her debut single Higher as soon as it was released.
Synopsis
The video opens with a starship flying towards an island after being summoned by its local tribesmen. The island locals slowly awake as the craft passes overhead. The starship then beams a pink bikini-clad electric green-haired Minaj down onto the beach and she begins to sing. She is presumably being worshipped as a goddess as she is carried away through the jungle by the island locals wearing a pale pink bikini with strands hanging off the bottom and short green hair, which is also worn during some kaleidoscope effects and in one scene of her on the beach singing. Minaj is then seen dancing in the mountains wearing a white, pink and black bodysuit behind a glass box while some of the male islanders run up to her. The scene then shifts towards the volcano top at nighttime where Minaj is sitting on top of the box with some of the locals dancing around her. In the final scene, a blonde-haired Minaj, wearing a white fringed strapless bikini splattered with paint, is partying with the islanders. Intercut scenes show Minaj singing with kaleidoscope effects on her in the second outfit and some more kaleidoscope effects in the same outfit but under blacklights. It ends with her singing the last line while looking directly into the camera.
Reception and contest
MTVs John Mitchell criticized the videos postponed release, finding it strange that the video for the albums third single, Beez in the Trap, was released before that of Starships. On May 28, 2012, a Starships video campaign was announced on Minajs official website. It asked fans to record a video of themselves performing Starships by singing, dancing or with a musical instrument. Minaj will then select 5 winners. The winners will win tickets and passes to meet Minaj on the Pink Friday tour. The song won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video in September 2012.
from Wikipedia (the Wikipedia:Text of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License applies to Wikipedias block of text and possible accompanying picture, along with any alterations, transformations, and/or building upon Wikipedias original text that ThisSideofSanity.com applied to this block of text)
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