Amethyst Amelia Kelly (born June 7, 1990), better known as Iggy Azalea, is an Australian rapper. She went from Australia to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a career in music. Azalea rose to prominence after releasing music videos for her songs “Pussy” and “Two Times” on YouTube, both of which went viral. Ignorant Art (2011), Azalea’s debut mixtape, was released shortly after, and she then got a recording contract with American rapper T.I.’s Grand Hustle label.
Azalea followed up her debut album with a flurry of tracks to generate interest for her upcoming second album, Digital Distortion. Unfortunately, a series of disagreements with her label, as well as personal difficulties, led to the project’s cancellation. As a result, Azalea changed labels and released the EP Survive the Summer (2018) on Island Records. Subsequent squabbles led to Azalea going independent and launching her own label, Bad Dreams, through a distribution contract with Empire. In My Defense, her second album was published in 2019, followed by another EP, Wicked Lips, that same year, and a third studio album, The End of an Age, in 2021.
Azalea has won two American Music Awards, three Billboard Music Awards, an MTV Video Music Award, a People’s Choice Award, and four Teen Choice Awards, and has been nominated for four Grammy Awards. Azalea’s official YouTube channel has 3.4 billion views, and 15 of her music videos have over 100 million views on Vevo.