What language is Tukoh Taka? Everything to know about Nicki Minaj's 2022 FIFA Fan Festival anthem

Nicki Minaj is a self-proclaimed queen of rap, not just in terms of her popularity or wealth but also in terms of collaborations. Minaj has had the most collaborations with both rappers and singers, in America as well as across the world.

One remarkable Nicki Minaj collaboration was released in 2022, when the Swalla rapper was featured in the 2022 FIFA Fan Festival anthem, alongside Maluma and Myriam Fares.

Dropped in November 2022, Tukoh Taka became the first trilingual song to be used as a festival anthem in the history of FIFA. Minaj rapped in both English and Spanish in the track, with Fares singing in Arabic and Maluma singing in Spanish.

The name of the track is also in Arabic, which translates to "knock-knock" in English. The reason behind these Arabic choices was rooted in the location of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which was hosted in Qatar.

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Myriam Fares called Nicki Minaj one of her "favorite international artists"

The music video for Nicki Minaj's Tukoh Taka was shot in picturesque desert locations, with the Only rapper appearing inside an empty, moving bus in a bejewel black corset dress and long, black hair as she started rapping. Maluma sang in front of an oversized soccer ball, while Myriam danced alongside other performers under the open sky in a desert.

Myriam Fares spoke about the experience of working on Tukoh Taka in a press release issued before the release of the song in November 2022. Billboard quoted Fares' statement that read:

"'Tukoh Taka', the song that I was honored to participate in its composition, arrangement, and choreography, made me more passionate about it, in addition to working alongside two of my favorite international artists, Nicki Minaj and Maluma. I truly wish that ‘Tukoh Taka’ will be transmitting the Eastern culture and Arabian music to the whole world."

The Arabic singer continued:

"I am so happy to be part of this FIFA World Cup anthem! I always dreamt of an opportunity like this. Representing Latin music on this global track alongside amazing artists that sing in English and Arabic, takes our culture to another level."

Following the release, Fares and Maluma were both present in Doha, Qatar, to open the FIFA Fan Festival by performing the track live for the first time.

While the Pink Friday rapper didn't join the duo for the performance, the reason behind her absence remains unknown to this date.

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Tukoh Taka is not the first Spanish song Nicki Minaj has featured in

Before Taka, Nicki Minaj worked on another Spanish song, this time in collaboration with Karol G, titled Tusa. It was a track about heartbreak and the struggles of trying to move on after a breakup. Released on November 7, 2019, the song was later included in the Spanish singer's third studio album, KG0516.

On December 3, 2019, an interview in Spanish was uploaded on Karol G's YouTube channel about the making of Tusa. She opened up about how the Side to Side rapper came to feature on her song, saying:

"I follow Nicki Minaj since long time ago. And in July of this year she started following me back on Instagram. For some time I saw that she like and commented on my posts. So I took the initiative to reach out to her to collaborate on a song. She loved the idea."

Soon after its release, Tusa peaked at 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and is also currently Minaj's most-streamed song on Spotify, with 1,540,681,628 streams on the platform at the moment.

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Nicki Minaj just wrapped up her fourth headlining world tour called the Pink Friday 2 World Tour on Friday, October 11, and will soon announce the release dates of her upcoming album, Pink Friday 3.