It is not the first time the American rapper Azealia Banks has had a difficult time during a tour Downunder.
Rapper Azealia Banks’ controversial Australian tour has finally come to an end – but the star has given one parting spray, dubbing Australians “broke and racist” and labelling the promoters who organised the tour “pubic lice”.
The New York-based 212 rapper’s Australian and New Zealand tour has been plagued by scandal, with last-minute show cancellations, social media outbursts and wildly varied sets.
Her Australian touring commitments are now over – and with the star having vowed never to visit the nation’s shores again, she’s left Aussie with a stinging Tripadvisor review.
“So this will be my last time touring Australia,” Banks wrote via her Cheapxousa Instagram account today. “Y’all white people down here are broke and racist LMAO.”
She also singled out joint tour promoters Bizarro and Point Productions, who she claimed are “now trying to cite all these stupid things as reasons not to pay me a dime”.
“I flew all the way across the world to go home empty-handed. Sweet. I will not be back,” she wrote.
News.com.au has contacted both Bizarro and Point Productions for comment.
Banks also once more called out Australia’s exchange rate compared to US currency, writing: “$1 AUD = .61 USD.” She had previously labelled the Australian dollar a “third-world currency”.
“Honestly, I’m not trying to rag on Australia even more than I have been, but this little 61 cents to the dollar ... I’d spend a lot more money trying to sue these Australian promoters for their little Australian pennies than I would if you just count it as charity,” Banks said on Instagram today.
“The ever-charitable, generous queen Azealia Banks. I’m not just a charity for f**kin’ Australia. I hope y’all enjoyed the shows. I had fun - I did, I enjoyed myself. (But) I’m not coming back down here.”
Problems with the Azealia Banks tour began with the first show, at Auckland’s Spark Arena, as fans who’d paid more than $90 for tickets fumed when her headlining set turned out to be just five songs long.
The next day, her planned Melbourne concert was postponed mere hours before the doors were due to open, with Banks slamming her promoters – who in turn blamed Visa issues for her last-minute inability to make it from New Zealand into Australia.
Fans were left upset when Banks insisted the date wouldn’t be rescheduled, telling them: “I have sh*t to do”.
In fact, the concert did get rescheduled, and went ahead on Sunday night – although Banks arrived onstage almost an hour late and played for just 37 minutes.
On Sunday December 11, Banks performed to a near-sellout crowd at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre and delivered what was definitively the show of the tour: Arriving onstage a mere half-hour behind schedule, she performed an hour-long, 15-song set, busting out all the cult classic hits she’s released over the past decade to a rapturous reception.
But a few days later, the wheels came off again, as Banks announced on the morning of her Brisbane show that it would not be going ahead.
The reason? Banks blamed the behaviour of crowds she’d played in the past, telling fans that last time she was in the city she’d been hit by a can while performing.
“I am a beautiful Black woman and I am not going to get in front of some audience of white people for them to be throwing sh*t at me,” she said.
It was unclear why Banks had left it to the morning of the concert to enact the Brisbane ban, given her last show in the city was back in 2013.
The promoters and the venue assured fans the show would, indeed, be going ahead – before finally confirming it was cancelled just a couple of hours before doors were due to open.
As ticketholders complained on social media, Banks let it be known the feeling was mutual – calling this her Australian farewell tour, because the country makes her “utterly miserable”.
It’s not the first time Banks has had a difficult time during an Australian tour. She slammed Aussie crowds after performing at Byron Bay’s Splendour in the Grass back in 2015.
“In all actuality, you guys are terrible crowds to play for,” she tweeted at the time.
“You’re violent and belligerent and I simply will not put my safety at risk. I would’ve walked off stage had someone thrown something.”
And headlining the Listen Out Festival in 2013, she cut short several sets due to crowd behaviour – performing for just 90 seconds at the Melbourne date.