Young Forever

Album: Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • After paying tribute to Jay-Z on "HOV Lane," Minaj borrows the title of a Jigga song for this track. The heart-shaped pop ballad about a crush is the pinkiest part of the Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded album. Its beat comes courtesy of hitmaker Dr Luke, the man behind many of Britney Spears and Katy Perry's hits. Originally, the album was scheduled to be released on Valentine's Day, so we suspect that this prom-night tune was initially earmarked to be released as its lead single.
  • The song was co-written by songwriter Kelly Sheehan, who is signed to Dr. Luke's production company. Minaj had already chosen the beat so all that was left for Sheehan to do was provide the lyrics and melodies. "I just started doing melodies on the hook and coming up with some general ideas," she told MTV News. "We played it for Nicki and she loved it. Then me and Nicki ended up going in the room and wrote the record together. All the ideas were pretty much done on-the-spot. Pretty fresh."
  • Sheehan witnessed Minaj's dedication and enthusiasm firsthand. "She's kind of like a kid in the studio. She's so excited and so passionate," she said, "We were bouncing ideas back and forth constantly for awhile. We had three other concepts before landing on 'Young Forever.' When we finally hit that one, we were like, 'This is it!' The song just sort of wrote itself after that."

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