Nicki Minaj has given fans a brief glimpse of her Vogue Arabia cover shoot. Nicki will appear on the September issue, making it her first Vogue cover. In a video posted to Instagram, cropped stills from the rapper's photos for the cover story can be seen along with the line: "The Queen Is Back."
In October 2017, Rihanna covered Vogue Arabia. At the time, the magazine faced some criticism for featuring non-Arab women on its cover. Prior to that, Vogue India faced similar backlash when it featured Kendall Jenner on its tenth-anniversary issue. The magazine responded with a statement: "India has given the world so many beautiful faces to admire. After all, we are Vogue, an international brand, and we want to give the love back by featuring some of the best international celebrities on our covers. Occasionally!"
While it's her first for Vogue, Nicki has already appeared on many major magazines including Rolling Stone, Billboard, Fader, XXL, Time and Cosmopolitan. More recently, she appeared on Paper Magazine's Break The Internet issue in November 2017.
Minaj's Vogue Arabia cover follows the release of her long-awaited fourth studio album Queen. This week, it will compete with Travis Scott's Astroworld to place at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The project features guest appearances from the likes of Eminem, Swae Lee, Foxy Brown, Ariana Grande, Lil Wayne, and more. It is available to stream across all platforms.