Nigerian singer Onoyom Mbuk, better known as Iyanya, has recounted how he and his team lost millions of naira in a failed bid to feature famous American-Trinidadian Nicki Minaj on one of his songs.

The former Project Fame West Africa winner said after the success of his breakthrough song, ‘Kukere’, he and his team were under pressure to produce the next big single.

Iyanya explained that they had already recorded ‘Flavour, but felt it wasn’t the next single after ‘Kukere’.

He said his producer, DTunez, altered the beat for Kukere and then used it to make ‘Your Waist’, which got a ton of airplay.

According to him, his team wasn’t satisfied with the traction of the song, so his record label boss, Ubi Franklin, suggested a remix with Nicki Minaj to boost the success of the song.

He said they flew to Atlanta, United States, to meet Nicki Minaj for the feature, but they were told that it would cost $200,000 to sign her to a song, which they couldn’t afford at that time.

Iyanya said, “Our waist was so massive we decided it should go international, and we needed the right artist to help with that journey. @ubifranklin1 suggested Nicki Minaj and I asked how we were going to pay for that. He laughed and said, "If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.”