Mariah Carey And Nicki Minaj Leave American Idol
May 31, 2013 by Lindsay Cronin
Just three weeks after Randy Jackson announced his departure from American Idol, the series has lost two more of its judges. Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj, who both sat at the judges table for just one season, have revealed that they too will be leaving.
On Thursday, Mariah announced her exit by re-tweeting a message from her representation. “W/ global success of “#Beautiful” (#1 in 30+ countries so far) @MariahCarey confirms world tour & says goodbye 2 Idol http://mariahcarey.com,” the tweet said.
Moments after Mariah’s revelation, American Idol production partners Fox, FremantleMedia, and 19 Entertainment issued a joint statement. ”Mariah Carey is a true global icon — one of the most accomplished artists on the planet — and we feel extremely fortunate that she was able to bring her wisdom and experience to the American Idol contestants this season,” they said. “We know she will remain an inspiration to Idol hopefuls for many seasons to come.”
Just hours after Mariah’s announcement, Nicki shared her own news. “Thank you American Idol for a life changing experience!” she tweeted to fans, “Wouldn’t trade it for the world! Time to focus on the Music!!! Mmmuuuaahhh!!!”
Nicki’s message was also followed up with a statement from production. It read, “Nicki Minaj is a superstar who brought a level of honesty and passion toAmerican Idol and who had a tremendous positive impact on so many contestants this season. Given her extremely busy career, we understand and respect her decision and wish her the best.”
Keith Urban is now the only remaining judge to have not yet revealed his future with the show. According to him, that’s because he doesn’t know what it will be. ”I have no official information of anything,” he explained in a statement yesterday. “I’m pretty much in the same boat as everybody else here with the rumors that have been floating around. I don’t know anything more about what’s happening next season. It was like this before I signed on … so it’s not unusual for the ‘Idol’ folks to be in this place of figuring out what they want to do, then they always pull it together.”