What Is the Nicki Minaj Stiletto Trend? All About the Viral Balancing Challenge (Which the Rapper Herself Has Attempted!)

NEED TO KNOW

• The Nicki Minaj stiletto trend has become one of the most viral challenges on social media

• The gravity-defying stunt features people wearing stilettos and balancing on objects with one foot

• Minaj and several other celebrities have participated in the challenge

The Nicki Minaj stiletto challenge has taken the internet by storm.

The viral trend began in early summer 2025 when social media users took one of Minaj’s poses to the extreme. The challenge originated from Minaj’s 2013 music video for her song “High School” with Lil Wayne. In the music video, Minaj wears stilettos and crosses one leg over the other while balancing both feet on the ground on the edge of a pool.

Initially, TikTok users tried to simply recreate the pose, but it quickly escalated to people balancing on one leg while standing on gravity-defying objects — including soup cans, champagne bottles and weights.

After seeing the trend become a sensation, Minaj recreated her original pose while squatting down outside near a pool in a video posted on Aug. 5. In addition to Minaj, several other celebrities have jumped on the stiletto bandwagon.

So, what is the Nicki Minaj stiletto challenge? Here’s everything to know about the strenuous trend.

What is the Nicki Minaj stiletto trend?

The Nicki Minaj stiletto challenge features social media users crossing one leg over the other and balancing on one or both feet in heels. The person often stares into the camera or wears sunglasses as Minaj’s song “High School” plays in the background. As the trend has progressed over the months, it has gotten more extreme, with people posing on all types of objects.

Past viral videos have shown people balancing on bottles of nail polish, a container of Spam, kid toys, Jenga blocks, poles, water bottles and even a traffic cone. In addition to being still, people have also done the pose in stilettos while surfing, doing squats and drinking.

How did the Nicki Minaj stiletto trend start?

The viral trend initially derived from a pose Minaj does in her 2013 music video “High School.” Around 30 seconds into the video, Minaj crouches down next to a pool and crosses one leg over the other while wearing stilettos. She squats in that position for a few seconds while staring into the camera.

In April 2025, TikTok user @1jacore seemed to be among the first to try and do the same contortionist pose. In the video, the user crossed one leg over the other and tried to squat down next to a pool and captioned the video, “how did she even think to do this?”

Although he wasn’t wearing stilettos or standing on an inanimate object, the idea quickly spiraled and evolved into a gravity-defying stunt.

Since the April video, the #nickiminajchallenge has over 130,000 videos on TikTok.

Who has done the Nicki Minaj stiletto trend?

In addition to the more than 100,000 people posting their own versions of the trend on TikTok, several celebrities — including Minaj — have participated in the challenge. Minaj did so by posing in a position more similar to her music video than the one-legged stance now viral, and encouraged her fans to plant both their feet on the ground.

“Dear Barbz, about that pose,” she captioned the video on Aug. 5. “Both feet on the ground tho. Ten toes. Ima put on a diff outfit that won’t show so much skin & do it again for you guys later. 🩷🙏🏽🎀 love 🫵🏽.”

Meanwhile, several other stars have put their own take on the trend. Dancing With the Stars professional Witney Carson posted a TikTok of her balancing one foot on the coveted Mirrorball Trophy, while Jenna Bush Hager stood on one foot on top of a stack of her beloved books in her own video.

Other stars who have done the Nicki Minaj stiletto trend include Ciara, Luann de Lesseps, Willie Geist, Christina Kirkman, Gina Kirschenheiter, Brooke Burke, Shawn Johnson, Alan Bersten, Kristy Sarah and more.

Is the Nicki Minaj stiletto trend dangerous?

While many people have stuck to posting videos of themselves successfully completing the trend, other users have shared videos of them falling off the objects or getting hurt.

In early August, mom influencer Mariana Vasiuc went viral when she posted a video of herself trying to balance on baby formula on top of a saucepan in the corner of her kitchen island while wearing a pair of heels. While she initially seemed steady holding someone’s hand, as soon as the person let go, she immediately jolted backwards and fell off the island.

The influencer posted the video of her falling and revealed that she had broken her spine as a result of the fall. She captioned the clip, in Russian, “I decided to start blogging, the first content shooting – and here I am leaving the doctor diagnosed with ‘Th9 compression bending uncomplicated fracture of the body.’ “

In addition to possible injuries, some people have also expressed concern about how people are executing the challenge. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Mikayla Matthews faced backlash after she posted a video of her doing the trend while holding her 2-week-old daughter Lottie on one side and a handful of diapers in her other hand, blind-folded.

Read the original article on People