The Great Escape Tour

The Great Escape Tour is the second headlining concert tour by Australian recording artist Iggy Azalea in support of her debut album, The New Classic (2014), and its reissue, Reclassified (2014). The tour is scheduled to visit twenty-one cities across North America over the span of two months, beginning on 18 September 2015 in San Diego, California and concluding on 27 October 2015 in Glendale, Arizona.

Background

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 and a second studio album via her Twitter account. The same day, Azalea revealed the title of the tour and the concept behind it, which is Azalea picturing herself as "a musical escape artist for people." Azalea also revealed that the name of the tour goes along with the title of her upcoming second studio album, which will also be promoted on the tour.^[1]

On 15 December 2014, the North American leg of the tour was officially announced. Presented by AEG, the first leg of tour, which was set to commence on 14 April 2015 in Fresno, California, and was scheduled to visit twenty-four cities across North America during the spring of 2015 before ending on 24 May 2015 in Austin, Texas. Also revealed in the North American leg announcement was that Nick Jonas and Tinashe would be the special guests supporting Azalea on the first leg of the tour promoting their latest individual efforts, Nick Jonas (2014) and Aquarius (2014). Azalea's disc jockey, DJ Wizz Kidd, would also support Azalea throughout the tour.^[2]

Beginning on 15 December 2014, pre-sale tickets were available to all American Express cardholders through 18 December 2014. The public on-sale followed immediately after with tickets becoming available December 19, 2014. Platinum and VIP Packages also became available for purchase on AEG's website, in which the packages included premium seating and exclusive autographed merchandise.^[3]

In an interview with GQ, Azalea began to reveal details about the tour's stage, visuals, and concept. When speaking about her main focus of the tour, Azalea stated "I want everything to be right—everything, from the tour book to what someone wears. Even the right faces for the dancers, and their attitude. Everything is equally important." While discussing stage layout, Azalea revealed that she's "trying to work on the initial stage design" and that she's "making a stage that [she can] engage with many people in an arena that big." She also noted that she was working with Jamie King, who has also worked with Madonna on her Confessions Tour (2006), which Azalea has stated is a major influence for the tour. Other influences for the tour that she's mentioned include the films Xanadu (1980) and Fantasia (1940). In regards to the visuals, Azalea has stated that the tour will include "color blocking—loud, just obnoxious-type visual things", that she also characterized as "Trippy, cool, [and] colorful." Azalea also commented on the nature of the show by saying "The traditional hip-hop arena show is more focused on a DJ. I don't think it has as many props and spectacles as perhaps a pop show, which is also what I would say my show is visually like." Overall, Azalea has stated her desire for the show is "not to be too wacky" and to be "a great experience [in which fans feel] really immersed in the whole thing."^[4]

In late January 2015, Azalea stated that she has begun preparations for the tour. When speaking of the tour, Azalea told Billboard, “I’m kind of just getting in to auditioning dancers and putting together the band and that sort of thing, so I’m not really in the fun stage yet of designing it but I’m really excited.” She continued on to elaborate by saying, “I’m in the hiring stage, so after that I’ll get to do the fun stuff, the costumes and set design and transitions and all those fun things are going to start happening next month.”^[5] When attending the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2015, Jonas praised Azalea and also commented on the tour and praised Azalea by saying “Iggy has had an amazing year and is such an incredible performer. Between her, myself and Tinashe, who is also on the tour, we are just going to bring a great show to fans every night and a celebration of what I feel has been a breakthrough year for all of us.”^[6]

On 10 March 2015, it was announced the tour was being rescheduled "due to tour production delays," according to a statement from Def Jam Recordings. After reports surfaced that the tour was to be cancelled due to lack of promotion and conflict between her and management, Def Jam announced the decision "to accommodate for creative team availability and tour productions, it was determined that the tour will not be ready this spring." They continued, "It's important to Iggy that she delivers the show she envisaged to share with her fans and that requires more time in development." The spring tour was rescheduled to the fall, kicking off on September 18 in San Diego, California. A rep for Azalea also added that "there's no truth to the rumor that there's any conflict between her and her management."^[7] The press release issued by by AEG Live also noted tickets for dates on the tour would be valid for the new dates in the fall, with the exception of the Baltimore, Las Vegas and Sacramento shows being canceled altogether, also indicating that the opening acts for the spring tour, Nick Jonas and Tinashe, would be replaced.^[8] Shortly after the announcement, a message was also posted from Azalea's official Twitter account: "The tour getting pushed back only means that it'll be way more amazing than it would've been in April. Good things take time."^[9]

On 11 March 2015, during an interview with 97.1 AMP Radio, Azalea talked about gearing up for her first headlining arena tour once again and addressed the postponement. "It’s my first arena tour so it’s a big undertaking. And I’m doing a lot of the creative direction. Which I do for everything. So it’s tough when it’s your first time working on an arena situation. Getting together production... we’re doing a custom stage and a custom build. When you’re building a stage and things like that it takes you do it about 6 months in advance. My tour would have been April, we have not started building. So to get this stage built in time I would be making a lot of sacrifices and cuts and changes. Compromises would have had to be made to get this thing done in time. And so I really considered what I wanted to do. Keep and honor these dates for my fans but have not the show that I envisioned and promised them? Or a lesser version of it without maybe not so many people jumping out of the ceilings and flying all over the place? Or do I want to move it and have the absolute best show, the show I envisioned. Obviously I chose to move it. I don’t want to have an average tour with a normal stage. I want people to come and really feel they got their money worth. I hope people can still come. We’re honoring everyone’s tickets," she said. "Nowadays with record sales the way it is, it’s our bread and butter. I don’t want to have one arena tour that people were like 'it was alright but I don’t want to go back' that’s not the standard I’m trying to set. I want to raise the bar. I want to do something different. Especially for a rap show and figuring out how to put it in a pop arena. That’s tough. I think I’m really on to a good thing. It’s definitely not in shambles, it's kind of the opposite. It’s like how to figure out how to fly and glow in the dark and be under water at the same time," Azalea added.^[10]

"The whole point was to make no compromises, but nothing's changed in terms of my creative vision," Azalea told the Associated Press on March 18, 2014, backstage at a show for Samsung Galaxy during SXSW. "It's very kind of like Patrick Nagel, powerful 80s androgynous women vibe." Azalea admitted not wanting to wait until September to launch the tour, "but because the arenas are so far in advanced booked, it was kind of their next slot." She also mentioned taking advantage of the free time to finish recording her second album, "I didn't anticipate having any time to completely finish it, but now that I have kind of the time, I'd love to have an album at the end of 2015."^[11]

On 29 March 2015, Azalea told Billboard at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, the tour was now under the creative guidance of a new production designer, Baz Halpin, who'd been seasoning the show with a post-apocalyptic vibe, "It's going to be maybe a bit like Blade Runner, full of dark and '80s ridiculous fare but not in a cliché way," also revealing she had parted ways with former tour producer AEG Live over creative differences earlier that month. "It's been great working with a new person who really understands my vision," Azalea said of Halpin, who had also fashioned the set for her performance of "Trouble" with Jennifer Hudson both at the iHeartRadio Awards and Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards on the previous day. "It's taken some of the workload off me that he's able to understand what I'm trying to achieve instead of battling it, or it being lost in translation," Azalea continued. "Some things just work. With Baz, I really don't have to say it; he's thinking what I'm thinking, and it's great. I'm super-excited about the tour," she said.^[12]

During an interview with News.com.au on 25 April 2015, it was announced Azalea had signed on to be the 100th birthday ambassador of Australian underwear and clothing company Bonds, and revealed plans of an Australian leg for the tour, while talking about her song with Britney Spears, "Pretty Girls," and explaining she took the decision to postpone the American leg to September as she raced to finalise staging and costuming details and started to worry that she didn’t have enough time to pull off a world-class production. "I didn't want to make creative compromises just to get it done on time," she said, "I knew if I shifted it to later in the year I could have the exact show I wanted, this great song with Britney and time to finish my album. We got to work late on the creative stuff for the tour even as tickets were selling and I want to make sure I deliver the show I promised my fans. Buying that time gives me the opportunity to consider adding Australia to the tour because I now already have to make a journey there."^[13]

Commercial performance

After the tickets for the tour became available to the public for purchase on December 19, 2014, Forbes reported positive news for ticket sales on the primary and secondary markets. On 7 January 2015, a list compiled by TiqIQ revealed that tickets for Azalea's tour were ranked fourteenth for most expensive concert tickets of the year as of that month. On the secondary market, the average ticket price for Azalea's tour totals in about $167, therefore making the tickets some of the most expensive tickets available on the secondary market. Ticket prices for the tour managed to top artists such as the Foo Fighters, but paled in comparison to artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Maroon 5, and Taylor Swift.^[14]

Shows

Cancelled shows

References

External links

• Iggy Azalea official website