Australian rapper Iggy Azalea has seen her first U.S. tour hobbled because of backstage turmoil that also has increasingly disconnected the Grammy-nominated artist from her fans on social media.
A source with knowledge of the tour told
The Wrap that Azalea has declined to participate in media events to promote the tour and has become "disengaged" with her tour's core team. Azalea and tour producer AEG Live representatives have been mum on the tour controversy.
Def Jam Recording told
Billboard magazine Tuesday that Azalea's "The Great Escape Tour" was being moved from this spring to the fall to "to accommodate for creative team availability and tour productions, it was determined that the tour will not be ready this spring."
"It's important to Iggy that she delivers the show she envisaged to share with her fans and that requires more time in development," Def Jam told Billboard. Def Jam also announced that Nick Jonas and up and coming R&B artist Tinashe won't be the rapper's opening acts as originally scheduled.
Azalea talked in February's
GQ magazine about wanting control of the tour because she wanted to make a strong impression since it was her first arena tour.
"I want everything to be right – everything, from the tour book to what someone wears," Azalea told GQ. "Even the right faces for the dancers, and their attitude. Everything is equally important. At the moment, I'm just trying to work on the initial stage design and making a stage that I feel like can engage with many people in an arena that big. So I'm doing something maybe not very traditional, and I'm working on that. Then tour posters."
Billboard reported that Azalea's tour is now slated to begin Sept. 18 in San Diego and scheduled to move on to Fresno, Oakland and Los Angeles, before moving from the Golden State to stops in Denver, Minneapolis, Rosemont, Illinois; Auburn Hills, Michigan; Washington, D.C.; Boston, Toronto, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Newark, New Jersey; Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Houston, Austin and Dallas.
The tour will wrap up on Oct. 27 in Glendale, Arizona.
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