What year was singer Nicki Minaj born?

Singer and rapper Nicki Minaj was born in 1982.

She was born Onika Tanya Maraj on December 8, 1982, in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago. Her family later moved to Queens, New York, when she was a child, and New York’s hip-hop culture strongly influenced her developing musical identity.

Before becoming a mainstream star, Minaj built attention through mixtapes and performances, including Playtime Is Over in 2007 and Sucka Free in 2008. She signed with Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment in 2009, joining a label roster that also included Drake.

Her debut studio album, Pink Friday, arrived in 2010 and produced major hits such as “Super Bass.” The album established her as one of the most commercially successful female rappers of her generation. Some trivia sources have incorrectly listed other birth years, but December 8, 1982, is the widely documented date in authoritative biographies and reference works.