MUMBAI: With her new music video, Grammy Award nominee Nicki Minaj has broken the viewership records on VEVO. Minaj's provocative video, which premiered on VEVO at midnight Thursday, 21 August, tallied 19.6 million video plays in 24 hours, besting the 19.3 million streams Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' generated on the first day of its release in September 2013.

The almost five-minute long video, 'Anaconda' is packed with gratuitous moments of Minaj and her background dancers gyrating to a track that samples Sir Mix-A-Lot's 'Baby Got Back.' Hip-hop heartthrob Drake makes a cameo in the video, receiving a special dance from Minaj.

In the United States, the song debuted at number three on the Digital Songs chart selling 141,000 digital downloads in its first week. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song debuted at number 19, marking Minaj's 51st Hot 100 hit and subsequently breaking out of a tie with Michael Jackson for overall career Hot 100 entries.

The cover art for 'Anaconda' went viral on the web after being revealed. On various digital music stores, the cover is censored with a Parental Advisory label over her butt cheeks. In 2012, the song was originally recorded by five-time Grammy Award-winning musician Missy Elliott, however due to undisclosed reasons Elliott shelved the track and was then re-recorded by Minaj.

According to TMZ, a six feet long snake, believed to be an anaconda, bit a female dancer during a MTV Video Music Award run-through for this Sunday's event. Nicki Minaj was on stage performing her hit, when a female dancer was bit by the reptile in front of everyone. The dancer has now been taken to the hospital where she's being treated. Anacondas are non-venomous snakes but often transmit bacteria that can lead to serious infections. The snake was removed from the stage in a container.

Keywords: Radioandmusic.com, music news, Nicki Minaj, Anaconda, VEVO, Missy Elliott, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Baby Got Back, TMZ, MTV VMA