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Iggy Azalea travelled to the United States in 2006, shortly before she turned 16. She told her parents she was going "on a holiday" with a friend, but eventually decided to stay and shortly afterwards told them she was not coming back home. Learn 50 interesting things about the singer.
1. Amethyst Amelia Kelly better known by her stage name Iggy Azalea, is an Australian rapper, songwriter, and model.
2. Born in Sydney and raised in Mullumbimby, Azalea moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a career in hip hop music, residing in the southern part of the country.
3. Iggy Azalea earned public recognition after releasing YouTube music videos for her controversial songs "Pu$y" and "Two Times".
4. Iggy Azalea signed a recording contract with T.I.'s record label Grand Hustle in 2012, gaining attention from her debut mixtape Ignorant Art.
5. Her debut studio album, The New Classic (2014), peaked among the top five of several charts worldwide and received generally mixed reviews.
6. The album spawned five singles, "Work", "Bounce", "Change Your Life", "Fancy" and "Black Widow".
7. "Fancy" was a hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with Azalea becoming only the fourth solo female rapper ever to top the Hot 100.
8. Additionally, with Azalea featured on Ariana Grande's single "Problem", peaking at number two on the Hot 100 behind her own single "Fancy", Azalea joined The Beatles as the only acts to rank at numbers one and two simultaneously with their first two Hot 100 hits.
9. Additionally, Azalea went on to pass Lil' Kim as the female rapper with the longest-leading number one single on the Billboard Hot 100.
10. Amethyst Amelia Kelly was born in Sydney.
11. Her family relocated to Mullumbimby, New South Wales when she was still an infant.
12. The family lived in a house that her father built by hand from mud-bricks, surrounded by 5 hectares (12 acres) of land.
13. Her father, Brendan Kelly, was a painter and comic artist, while her mother, Tanya, cleaned holiday houses and hotels.
14. Iggy Azalea has said that she has some Aboriginal (Indigenous Australian) ancestry: "My family came to Australia on the First Fleet. My family's been in that country for a long time, over 100 years. If your family's lived in Australia for a long time, everyone has a little bit of [Aborigine blood]. I know my family does because we have an eye condition that only Aboriginal people have."
15. Iggy Azalea has said that her father "made her look at [art] as a teenager", which has always influenced her life and work.
16. Iggy Azalea began rapping at age 14.
17. Before embarking on a solo career, Azalea formed a group with two other girls from her neighbourhood: "I was like, I could be the rapper. This could be like TLC. I'll be Left Eye."
18. Iggy Azalea eventually decided to disband the group because the other girls weren't taking it seriously: "I take everything I do serious [sic]. I'm too competitive."
19. In pursuit of her desire to move to America, Azalea dropped out of high school.
20. Iggy Azalea worked and saved the money she earned by cleaning hotel rooms and holiday houses with her mother.
21. Iggy Azalea claims to have hated school, which, apart from art class, only made her miserable.
22. Iggy Azalea also said she had no friends and was teased for her homemade outfits.
23. Iggy Azalea travelled to the United States in 2006, shortly before she turned 16.
24. Iggy Azalea told her parents she was going "on a holiday" with a friend, but eventually decided to stay and shortly afterwards told them she was not coming back home: "I was drawn to America because I felt like an outsider in my own country, I was in love with hip hop, and America is the birthplace of that, so I figured the closer I was to the music, the happier I'd be. I was right."
25. After her arrival, she obtained her GED and resided in the U.S. on a visa waiver for six years, leaving the country every three months to renew it.
26. When she first arrived in the United States, she stayed in Miami, Florida, and afterwards lived briefly in Houston, Texas.
27. She settled for a few years in Atlanta, Georgia, working with a member of the Dungeon Family named Backbone.
28. Iggy Azalea took her stage name from the name of her childhood dog, Iggy, and the street she grew up on, Azalea Street, where her family lives to this day.
29. She said people would laugh at her because "they thought my raps sucked."
30. Meanwhile, she'd met someone from Interscope Records who kept encouraging her to move to Los Angeles, and so in the summer of 2010, she decided to do so. She was briefly managed by Interscope.
31. On 27 September 2011, Azalea released her first full-length project, a mixtape titled Ignorant Art, saying she made it "with the intent to make people question and redefine old ideals".
32. Her song "Pu$y", was included on the mixed tape and features guest appearances from YG, Joe Moses, Chevy Jones, and Problem.
33. In November 2011, she released a music video for her song "My World", directed by Alex/2tone. The video features a cameo appearance from character actor and former wrestler Tiny Lister, which earned her more attention due to its rising popularity online.
34. In December 2011, Azalea revealed she would release her debut studio album, entitled The New Classic, as soon as she signed a major record label deal: "Once that's sorted out and I establish an overall sound and direction for the album, I will be able to know what artists would make for a dynamic collaboration".
35. On 11 January 2012, Azalea released the music video for "The Last Song", her third video from Ignorant Art.
36. Iggy Azalea reached out to Southern rapper T.I., for the direction of her debut album.
37. T.I. was set to executive produce The New Classic, soon after a phone call the two had.
38. On 1 March 2012, T.I. announced he signed Azalea to Grand Hustle Records, along with rappers Chip and Trae tha Truth.
39. In January and February 2013, while working on her upcoming singles and The New Classic, which was announced to be released in the summer, Azalea was the opening act for Rita Ora's Radioactive Tour, in the United Kingdom.
40. On 15 April 2013, Vevo announced Azalea as its second LIFT artist of 2013 and that she would film live festival performances, fashion and style pieces and behind-the-scenes interviews as part of the eight-week-long campaign.
41. On 16 March 2013, it was announced that Azalea would perform in the beneficent concert "Chime for Change", scheduled to take place on 1 June in London, alongside Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and others.
42. On 23 April 2013, Azalea announced that she had signed a solo record deal with Island Def Jam.
43. On 10 December 2014, when reflecting on the year she's had and the struggles she faced in the years before, Azalea announced plans of an arena tour for the following year and a second studio album via her Twitter account. The same day, Azalea revealed the title of the tour, The Great Escape Tour, and the concept behind it, which is Azalea picturing herself as "a musical escape artist for people."
44. After at first resisting suggestions to try modeling, in 2012 Azalea signed with Wilhelmina Models International Inc., a model and celebrity agency in the fashion industry.
45. Also in 2012, Iggy Azalea was the face of Levi's "Go Forth" campaign.
46. Iggy Azalea also appeared in House of Holland's first eyewear collection campaign.
47. Iggy Azalea appeared in the seventh installment of The Fast and the Furious film series, Furious 7, released in 2015.
48. In October 2014, Azalea and her boyfriend Nick Young were announced as the new faces of Forever 21's 2014 holiday campaign.
49. In April 2015, she signed on to be the 100th birthday ambassador of Australian underwear and clothing company Bonds.
50. Although Azalea is Australian, she raps with a Southern American accent.
Source: Wikipedia.org
