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Nicki Minaj at Co-op Live, Manchester – stage times, setlist, rescheduled dates and more

Pink Friday 2 is here.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 30th May 2024

Nicki Minaj will have another go at performing at Co-op Live this week, after her first concert had to be postponed.

The ‘Queen of Rap’ has two slots at Manchester’s huge new arena as part of the Pink Friday 2 World Tour, her largest tour to date.

The first was supposed to be on 25 May, but it was called off a few hours after fans arrived at Co-op Live because Nicki Minaj had been arrested in Amsterdam.

Still, her fans – collectively nicknamed The Barbz – are loyal to a tee and will soon be flocking back to see her performing her many hits live.

She’s managed to rearrange the first night already, and tonight’s gig is set to go ahead as planned.

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If you’re going along to Nicki Minaj at Co-op Live, here’s everything you need to know.

What dates is Nicki Minaj playing Co-op Live in Manchester?

Nicki Minaj will now be playing in Manchester on 30 May and 3 June, after her original show was postponed.

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All tickets for the original date of 25 May should have automatically switched to the new date of 3 June.

If you have any issues, get in touch with your original point of purchase.

And just to note, she does have to go back to Amsterdam the night before the second gig again…

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Are there still tickets available?

Nicki Minaj is coming to Manchester's Co-op Live on her Pink Friday 2 World Tour
Nicki Minaj is coming to Manchester’s Co-op Live on her Pink Friday 2 World Tour

There are actually quite a few tickets still available for Nicki Minaj, especially for her rescheduled date.

Standing tickets are £98.50 each, while seated tickets range from £75.95 to £132.50, plus booking fees.

You might be able to grab a bargain through fan-to-fan resales too.

See the latest availability through Ticketmaster here.

Stage times for Nicki Minaj in Manchester

Nicki hasn’t exactly been punctual on the Pink Friday 2 tour so far, so don’t hold your breath that stage times will remain as publicised.

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Neither Co-op Live nor artist have released stage times just yet, but doors will open at 6.30pm.

Based on previous tour dates, the show should start with a DJ set at around 8pm, before Nicki takes to the stage around 9pm.

When the show was initially delayed last week, Co-op Live pushed its curfew back to 11.30pm, which will be the absolute latest it can end.

If and when exact stage times do get released, we’ll be sure to update this article.

Expected setlist for Nicki Minaj at Co-op Live

Setlists are always subject to change, but the below setlist gives us a good idea of what’s to come from Nicki’s Manchester shows.

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  • I’m the Best
  • Barbie Dangerous
  • FTCU
  • Hard White
  • Press Play
  • Win Again
  • Big Difference
  • Interlude
  • Pink Birthday
  • Feeling Myself
  • Favorite
  • Cowgirl
  • RNB
  • High School
  • Your Love
  • Needle
  • Ganja Burn
  • Chun-Li
  • Red Ruby Da Sleeze
  • Forward From Trini / Black Barbies
  • Barbie World
  • Roman’s Revenge
  • Monster
  • Are You Gone Already
  • Fallin 4 U
  • Right Thru Me
  • Save Me
  • Let Me Calm Down
  • Nicki Hendrix
  • Last Time I Saw You
  • Super Freaky Girl
  • Anaconda
  • I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)
  • Super Bass
  • The Night Is Still Young
  • Moment 4 Life
  • Pound the Alarm
  • Starships
  • Everybody

How to get to Co-op Live and travel info

Tram

Now, as for how you’ll get to shows at Co-op Live, luckily it’s right next door to a rather famous big blue stadium and its integrated Metrolink stop.

Head along the light blue or orange lines directly to the Etihad Campus or Ashton-under-Lyne and you can get off the tram literally spitting distance from the arena. You can find the full map HERE.

Trams run frequently on the Ashton-Eccles line to the Etihad stop, with services leaving every six minutes from the city centre and until 1am Fridays and Saturdays.

Tram travel is free for Co-op Live ticket-holders until 30 June.

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Bus

If you want to take another new and improved arm of Manchester’s public transport system, not only is there a whole host of routes that drop you off close to the venue but there’ll also be a free shuttle bus from the city centre to and from events between 20 April-30 June 2024.

You can find the full list of bus routes HERE, with the one in closest proximity to the venue being the 53 bus which runs from Cheetham Hill through to Higher Crumpsall, Old Trafford and Pendleton, leaving just a two-minute walk to Co-op Live. You also get free Bee Network travel with any valid event ticket.

Getting there by car and parking

If you’re driving, there is limited parking available at the venue but this must be pre-booked ahead of time and there are designated drop-off areas.

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The postcode is M11 3DU and you can follow the signs towards the wider Etihad Campus as you get closer; directions to the adjacent drop-off points will also be signposted.

Keep in mind that congestion on the roads close to the stadium is expected to gather around two hours prior to any event, so if you are travelling on the road, these are the suggested times they provide come event day – though estimates will obviously vary:

  • Alan Turing Way (both directions): plan an additional 20 minutes into any journey by road.
  • Hyde Road (eastbound): expect an additional 15 minutes to be added to your journey.
  • Mancunian Way (westbound): plan for an extra 10 minutes of travel time.

There are also three park-and-ride facilities near Co-op Live but be advised that the Velopark and Holt Town stops will be closed post-event to help safely manage crowds:

  • Ashton Moss (Ashton line) – 183 spaces and 12 disabled spaces
  • Ashton West (Ashton line) – 184 spaces and 11 disabled spaces
  • Ladywell (Ashton-Eccles line) – 332 spaces and 22 disabled spaces

Walk/cycle

Lastly, Co-op Live is only a half-hour stroll from Manchester Piccadilly and they’ve developed a new City Link walking route lined with light installations to help you find your way.

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Greater Manchester now also offers the option to hire bikes through the Beryl, with riders able to locate, unlock, get to their destination and then safely lock up the boke all through an easy-to-use app. There are hire points just near the south-west corner of the Etihad Stadium on Ashton New Road.

For more information on all travel options, you can check out the enhanced journey planner.

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Featured image: Co-op Live

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Ticket requests are now officially open for Harry Styles’ one-night-only Manchester gig

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

The time has come – the ticket request system for Harry Styles’ one-night-only gig in Manchester is now live.

In case you hadn’t heard, it was announced on Wednesday evening after much speculation that Harry Styles would be making a return home to Manchester for a one-night-only ‘intimate’ gig at Co-op Live to celebrate the release of his fourth studio album next month.

Styles is set to share Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally with the world on Friday 6 March – and it’s that very same night he’ll be taking to the stage in Manchester.

Although little is known about what to expect at the gig, the poster for the event does state that there’ll be a ‘special performance of the album’, so it seems fair to say that Manchester will be the first to hear the new set of songs in full live.

And if all of that wasn’t exciting enough as it is, the tickets are only £20 per person.

But, of course, there is a bit of a catch, as this isn’t your regular online queuing up for tickets scenario, this is a ‘ticket request’ system instead.

So, like us – and literally every other fan in the vicinity of Greater Manchester and beyond this week – you’re probably wondering what a ‘ticket request’ system is… what does it look like? How does it work? Basically, what the heck is it? Well, we’ve done a bit of digging around to get to the bottom of it so you’re not left too much in the dark.

According to Ticketmaster’s website, if an artist is running a ticket request, they’ll invite fans to request tickets so you don’t have to compete in a first-come, first-served sale.

This means you can take your time to review the available options and request the right tickets for you.

All you need to do is tell Ticketmaster which shows you’re interested in, the type of ticket you want, and your payment details. Then, if the tickets you request can be fulfilled, your card will be charged and you’ll get emailed instructions to access them in the Ticketmaster App.

Unfortunately, as much as we’d love it to be the case for everyone, submitting a request doesn’t guarantee you tickets – it really is just luck of the draw.

To request tickets, you’ll need to follow these three simple steps:

  1. Visit the Harry Styles request page
  2. Select which shows you’re interested in and the type of ticket you want
  3. Add your payment details
Harry Styles will be performing at the BRITs in Manchester
Harry Styles ticket requests are now live / Credit: Johnny Dufort (Publicity Picture)

Ticketmaster will then send you a summary email that details the tickets you’ve requested. Your card won’t be charged at this time, but they may charge a temporary £1 authorisation to your card to validate your request.

A maximum of two tickets per person can be requested, which has been set to allow for as many fans as possible to get tickets.

Now, here’s the crucial part – you will need to submit your request for tickets while the window is open until Sunday 8 February at 11pm GMT. After the request window closes, you’ll get a second email by 11:59pm GMT on Tuesday 10 February confirming whether or not your request has been fulfilled.

Read more:

It’s as simple as that.

All that’s left to do now is provide you with the link here and send you on your way… oh, and may the odds be ever in your favour.

Featured Image – Wikimedia Commons

Audio

The story behind Sâlo: the rising Georgian-born Salford artist set be one of the region’s next stars

Danny Jones Danny Jones Salo singer songwriter Salford musician asylum seeker

We always love stories of people moving to Manchester to be more creatively engaged, but tales of entire families relocating here for a better life and art being born out of it is something truly special – and besides her obvious talent, that’s what has attracted us and plenty others to Sâlo.

This up-and-coming Salfordian artist may have been born around the border between Eastern Europe and Western Asia during a particular fraught time for her country, but she’s been raised and moulded like so many of us by this city’s rich music culture and wider artistic heritage.

She came to the UK with her family as a baby, with her parents fleeing poverty and lingering friction in Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 90s, and their journey as asylum seekers eventually brought them here to the North West.

It was clear from a young age that Sâlo (short for Salome) had a gift for the piano, but it was when her family moved to the Greater Manchester area that her own interest in genres and styles began to develop. Here’s a little snippet of her recent performance at the stunning Stoller Hall.

This short video was taken from her feature in a recent episode of Manchester: Unplugged, the web series by StreamGM that launched just last year and spotlights local songwriters.

Honing in on one of her newest releases, ‘Set Me Free’, which taps into that pure love for the keys.

While this clip shows a stripped-back version of the fully-fledged electronic studio version, with production playing a key role in defining her sound, she blends everything from classical music and jazz to neo-soul as well as drum and bass.

You hear the phrase ‘genre-bending’ thrown around a lot these days, but if this mid-20s star in the making isn’t the epitome of that term, then we don’t know who is.

Speaking more about her background in the short documentary film, which aired on YouTube this week, she talks about her first memory of visiting Forsyth Music Shop in Manchester city centre, and the inspiration behind the track in question.

You watch the Sâlo episode of Manchester: Unplugged in full here.

Detailed in the description of the newest edition of the online show, “Classically trained from the age of four, Sâlo’s journey runs through some of Manchester’s most important music spaces”, including time spent at the RNCM and Chetham’s School of Music and more.

As for the tune itself, not only do the lyrics revolve around a difficult patch in a personal relationship – this being one of the first times she felt like she’s fully opened up and not held back on letting people know what she’s speaking about – but it’s also the first track she’s produced and mixed entirely on her own.

Painstakingly mastered from a small studio at home, she almost “fell out of love” with the song altogether, but getting back to that simple joy of playing piano helped revive her passion for it.

With a stunning voice, natural musical talent when it comes to her instrument, and a great blend of different analogue and digital influences, Sâlo is definitely one to watch moving forward.

A new online series spotlighting Manc songwriting is set to debut this month
Fancy finding out more about Unplugged? Look no further.

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For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — StreamGM (supplied)

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