How America’s biggest music stars rule the charts without being U.S. citizens

By Tolulope Oke

You’ve been streaming them, singing along, maybe even calling them American, but here’s the thing,  some of the biggest stars running the U.S. charts aren’t Americans at all. They pull the crowds, sell out arenas, and dominate the headlines, yet their passports tell a different story. And if you thought “making it” in U.S. music meant being American, think again.

Take Nicki Minaj, the Trinidadian-born queen of rap whose story keeps resurfacing in headlines. Onika Tanya Maraj came from Port of Spain to Queens as a kid, and the world watched her turn into one of the most influential rappers ever.

Decades in the US, she has paid millions in taxes, served different hit songs, and she still isn’t a US citizen. In 2024, she made it clear that she’s a Trinidad and Tobago national living legally as a permanent resident.

Fast forward to January 28, 2026, Nicki posts a photo of what she calls a Trump “Gold Card”, a fast-track program to US residency and citizenship if you drop $1 million into the US Treasury (plus $15,000 in fees).

She captioned it “Welp…” and later added she’s “finalizing that citizenship paperwork as we speak as per MY wonderful, gracious, charming President.” What does this mean? Nicki is officially in the process of becoming a US citizen, but she hasn’t crossed the finish line yet.

Her saga is a masterclass in how celebrity and immigration work out, and it has everyone talking about the messy, money-heavy pathways to legal status in the US.

Nicki isn’t the only one flipping assumptions.

21 Savage who was born in London, built a career in Atlanta without clear legal status. His 2019 ICE detainment revealed the truth that he is a British citizen who entered the US as a child. After the public uproar, he secured permanent residency in 2023 still a foreigner,  and still dominating the hip-hop scene.

And let’s not forget the Canadians.

Justin Bieber, born in Ontario, Canada, is a pop powerhouse. Despite living in the US for years under long-term residency and visa arrangements, he remains a Canadian citizen.

Reports suggested he once considered American citizenship, but he’s never made it a priority.

Then there’s The Weeknd, Toronto’s own Abel Tesfaye, whose hits like Blinding Lights and Starboy have defined a decade of pop and R&B. He too lives and works in the US without naturalizing.

Even Drake, whose career is synonymous with the “Canadian invasion” of US charts, complicates the narrative. Born to a Canadian mother and an American father, Drake technically holds dual citizenship, but the world mostly knows him as Canada’s global export.

What all this shows is clear, America’s music scene was never really running on citizenship. And, residency and citizenship aren’t the same. Permanent residents and long-term visa holders can work, live, and pay taxes in the US, but they can’t vote, hold certain government jobs, or claim full legal privileges reserved for citizens. Citizenship takes years, background checks, and bureaucratic hoops, but in the world of music, the charts don’t care.