AceShowbiz -

After opening up to host Ellen DeGeneres about a "secret" boyfriend and her feud with fellow "American Idol" judge Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj belted out her newest single "Freedom" on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on Tuesday, January 15. "Freedom" is the latest offering from "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded - The Re-Up", the re-worked version of her sophomore album "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded" released in 2012.

Backed up by a full band, the usually outrageous pop star looked stylish in her skin-tight red dress accented by a golden bling around her neck as she opened her song number with a rap. Her performance of the song on "Ellen" is her best rendition of the track so far. However, the choice for the song on a show like "Ellen" is not too well received as it is said to be not one of Minaj's better hits, and even failed to make any waves in the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Nonetheless, Minaj's musical number was just an add-on to her appearance on the show, with the actual intent for guesting was to promote the return of "American Idol" to TV screens in a few days. DeGeneres grilled Minaj on her publicized feud with Carey on the show.

Minaj revealed that her stance against Carey was sort of a coping mechanism. "I just kind of overcompensated by being crazier," she said. "If you know somebody maybe doesn't like you, now you're going to really go in... it's like a defense mechanism, it's really that your feelings are hurt, and you can't believe, so you just compensate by being crazy."