Nicki Minaj Steps - S 2015
Instagram/@summerupofficialNicki Minaj is scheduled to perform in Finland for the first time ever this — and the Finnish are pretty excited about it.
This morning, Helsinki residents awoke to find the 150-year-old Helsinki Cathedral, located in the city’s center, covered in 1,000 life-size cardboard cutouts of the rapper. The cutouts, naturally, were taken from the butt-centric, meme-spawning artwork for her 2014 single “Anaconda.”
According to Finnish site Helsingin Uutiset, the stunt is a promotional event for the Summer Up Festival (the site of Minaj’s Finnish debut). Not only are organizers hoping that concert-goers will bring the cutouts to the show, but 100 lucky Barbz will find two-day festival passes “mounted” on, er, their “backsides.”
No word from the rapper herself on the slightly subversive ploy — but it makes sense that European festival promo doubles as an ephemeral pop art installation. The Summer Up Festival takes place July 3 and 4 in Lahti, Finland.
This article originally appeared on Billboard.com.
June 10, 3:48 p.m. – A Summer Up Festival rep tells The Hollywood Reporter that no permission was granted from the city of Helsinki prior to the promo stunt (though Minaj’s label was aware). Over 60 fans of the rapper arrived at the cathedral as early as 5:30 a.m. to set up the cutouts, a process that took an hour. Most of the cutouts were later taken home by fans throughout the day.
