Iggy Azalea matched a Beatles chart feat with her first two hits
In 2014 Iggy Azalea held the top two spots on the Billboard Hot 100 at once, with her own Fancy at number one and her guest turn on Ariana Grande's Problem at number two. Only the Beatles had done that with debut entries before, and she had arrived from rural Australia at fifteen.
Born Amethyst Amelia Kelly in Sydney on 7 June 1990, she grew up in Mullumbimby in a mud-brick house her father, a painter and comic artist, built by hand on 5 hectares of land. Her mother cleaned holiday homes and hotels. She began rapping at 14 and briefly formed a girl group modelled on TLC, then disbanded it because the others were not serious enough for her. Miserable at school apart from art class, she left, saved money cleaning alongside her mother, and in 2006 flew to the United States, telling her parents it was a holiday. She stayed.
In America she earned a GED and lived on visa waivers for six years, flying back to Australia every three months, and worked illegally until she was granted an O visa in February 2013. She became a permanent resident in 2018. Music videos posted to YouTube in 2011 drew attention, as did her self-released mixtape Ignorant Art, and she signed with T.I.'s label Grand Hustle.
Her debut album, The New Classic, came out in 2014 and later topped Billboard's R&B and hip-hop albums chart, a first for a female rapper from outside the United States. Fancy, featuring Charli XCX, earned a Record of the Year nomination at the 2015 Grammys, and Black Widow with Rita Ora also went top ten.
The follow-up, Digital Distortion, was scrapped amid label disputes and personal troubles. After a spell at Island Records she began releasing music herself, including In My Defense in 2019 and The End of an Era in 2021. She announced her retirement from music in 2024. Her tally includes two American Music Awards, three Billboard Music Awards and four Grammy nominations, and her YouTube channel with collaborators has passed 7 billion views.
Source: Iggy Azalea
