Muso Jam

'Starships' singer Nicki Minaj makes surprise appearance at SpaceX Starship launch

· Business Insider

Nicki Minaj had a mega-hit with "Starships," and Elon Musk's Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built.

Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images / Marc Piasecki/Getty Images

  • Let's go to Starbase Texas, let's go get away.
  • Nicki Minaj attended SpaceX's Starship launch, which ended up being scrubbed due to technical issues.
  • "Elon, thank you for everything that you're doing for humanity," the "Starships" singer said.

SpaceX's Starship was meant to fly, and Nicki Minaj had a front row seat.

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The launch, which was testing a new version of SpaceX's most powerful rocket, was scrubbed on Thursday due to technical issues.

"The hydraulic pin holding the tower arm in place did not retract," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X.

"Starships" singer Minaj made a surprise appearance at the company's Starbase Texas launch site wearing a SpaceX Starship T-shirt.

"Major shout-out to Elon," Minaj said on the SpaceX livestream during the countdown. "Elon, thank you for everything that you're doing for humanity."

She added: "This is historic. This is a major moment, y'all."

SpaceX was aiming to test Starship V3 for the first time, which has been redesigned to carry larger payloads — eventually, to the moon.

Ultimately, Minaj wasn't able to witness what she said would be her first live rocket launch. Whether it's SpaceX, NASA, or Blue Origin, rocket launches are often canceled at the last minute due to adverse weather or technical problems.

However, the company will try to do it one more time. Musk said there would be another launch attempt on Friday evening if the tower arm could be fixed.

They need rappers like me

It may have been Minaj's first time at a SpaceX rocket launch, but neither she nor Musk is a stranger to the sphere of President Donald Trump.

The rap star has been increasingly supportive of the president and other conservative leaders.

In January, Minaj said she was Trump's "number one fan" onstage alongside the president.

Minaj supported Trump's "gold card" visa.

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Minaj's SpaceX visit also follows in the footsteps of Trump, who has attended at least two rocket launches for Musk's company in recent years. Musk supported Trump's second presidential campaign, including through donations, and later co-led the Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk has had a busy week. On Monday, he lost his blockbuster lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

On Wednesday, SpaceX filed its IPO prospectus publicly. Minaj made "Starships" a chart-topper, and now Musk is aiming to make the Starship-maker a record-breaker: It's expected to be the largest IPO in history, with a valuation potentially reaching $2 trillion.

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Imagine Dragons fans first to get look at RBC Amphitheatre

· Toronto Sun

Las Vegas rockers Imagine Dragons kicked off the latest summer concert season at the newly renamed RBC Amphitheatre on Thursday night and concertgoers would have had to have been blind not to notice the sponsorship difference.

The former Budweiser Stage has a new blue-yellow-and-white (the RBC colours) archway over a blue carpet for fans to enter and where taking photos proved infectious.

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Sadly, the popular marquee sign that used to display that night’s act at the venue has been replaced with a more corporate looking one but there is a new vintage photo booth courtesy of Simons.

Also, if you thought it was challenging to find parking before, it’s pretty impossible right now with the Exhibition Place site locked off due to the upcoming FIFA World Cup at BMO Field (Toronto Stadium).

Rideshare or public transit is strongly suggested but I opted for the David Copperfield walking option, parking in the Green P lot behind the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and it took a good 25 minutes to trudge past the construction site that is currently Ontario Place to get there and about the same time getting back.

On site, there is new food and drink options like bacon and cheese hotdogs topped with Kraft Dinner mac and cheese ($14), as well as a selection of bold Heinz mayo-style sauces including Mango Habanero and Forty Creek Whiskey BBQ.

Six new specialty cocktails and margarita flavours ($27) are also being served at a new tequila bar plus there’s the new El Jimador Pier space located on the Riverwalk.

The big news announced last fall i s that the Toronto waterfront concert venue will be open year-round as of 2030.

The renovated venue will have a new pedestrian bridge to improve access and ease crowd flow and a new lookout deck with elevator access to the lawn.

RBC Amphitheatre is expected to close for renovations in fall 2027 and reopen in summer 2029 as venue with full-year capabilities complete by summer 2030.

In addition to being able to hold shows yearround, the renovated RBC Amphitheatre will include expanded summer capacity with both seated areas and an open-air lawn section (May to October), and approximately 9,000 seats in the winter.

The renovations will increase lawn seating by 2,000 to 9,000 and total capacity to 18,000 during the summer season.

Imagine Dragons fired up the crowd

As for Imagine Dragons, they turned out to be the perfect act to rev up a winter-weary audience with their anthemic hits and frontman Dan Reynolds’ muscles on full display.

Shirt? Who needs a shirt?

If Reynolds — initially dressed in a hoodie, white tank top, gym shorts, white socks and sneakers before he stripped down to show off his ripped upper body — ever gives up his day job he could go straight into hosting exercise videos.

The group, rounded out by guitarist-keyboardist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee, and touring drummer Andrew Tolman (replacing Daniel Platzman who left the group in 2023), came prepared with plenty of memorable songs and showmanship bolstered by an impressively large video screen, bursts of confetti, steam and fire.

“Hello Toronto! What a day to be alive!” said Reynolds after opening the show with Enemy before ending it an hour-and-40-minutes later with Radioactive.

Other highlights included It’s Time, Whatever It Takes, Bad Liar, I’m So Sorry, Shots, In Your Corner, a big drumming introduction to Eyes Closed, Thunder — with Reynolds borrowing a fan’s pair of sunglasses and jumping into the audience to wander around the venue while singing — a cover of George Ezra’s Budapest – Believer, Demons, and On Top Of the World with large beach balls infiltrating the stage.

Reynolds also noted how Imagine Dragons founded the Tyler Robinson Foundation years ago to support families of children with cancer and then delivered an inspirational version of Walking the Wire praising the kids in the audience who are part of the foundation.

Still to come this summer at RBC Amphitheatre are a record-breaking 85-90 shows taking place over the next six months including Paul Simon, Santana, The Doobie Brothers, Jack White, Muse, Tim McGraw, The Black Crowes, Motley Crue, Chicago, Styx, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foreigner, Hilary Duff, Deep Purple, Kansas, Jefferson Starship, Squeeze, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, En Vogue, Wu-Tang Clan, Lily Allen, Shaboozey, and Foster The People,

Imagine Dragons set list

Enemy

It’s Time

Sharks

Whatever It Takes

Bad Liar

I’m So Sorry (Ben McKee Bass Intro)

Shots (Broiler Remix)

In Your Corner

Eyes Closed

Bones

Walking the Wire

Thunder

Budapest (George Ezra cover)

Wrecked

Believer

Demons

Natural

On Top of the World

Radioactive

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The Trump phone is not here

· The Verge

Where's the Trump phone? We're going to keep talking about it every week. We've reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone's whereabouts. It's now been more than a week since Trump Mobile announced that phones would "start shipping this week."

Last week Trump Mobile announced that the T1 Phone was ready to start shipping by the end of the week. Almost two weeks later, there's no sign that's actually happened - and the company still hasn't shipped either of the two phones ordered by The Verge.

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Depending on where you get your news, you might believe the company when it says the phone has now launched: The phone is "here" according t …

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