Concert: 3/5
Encore: 2/5
Australian rapper Iggy Azalea hit the stage Friday night to a sold-out crowd at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, Canada. Having only been a fan of her two main hits, “Fancy” and “Work”, I was more than willing to pay the relatively cheap $30 price tag for general admission. I also think that she will be one of the more popular performers of the summer, so I was excited to have been able to see her in a smaller, more intimate venue before she starts playing to sold out arenas and stadiums.
Her latest album, The New Classic, had been released only a few days before the concert, so I had purchased it anticipating that she would be performing many new tracks to promote the album. Though she did perform a few songs from it, I felt that she had focused more so on her hits and her past album rather than her new one. The effect that her old music had on the crowd, however, was a very positive one as most of the audience knew all the words to her songs.
The opening act consisted of a DJ who played largely top-40 rap and R&B hits. I was personally really into the song selection as it was exactly what I listen to on a regular basis. He played a mix of recent, 2000s, and 90s hits, which I thought worked really well for the crowd as it seemed the age group was between 18-25. Overall, he did an excellent job of hyping up the crowd before Iggy hit the stage, and the excitement was not lost as she started her concert almost immediately following the end of the DJ’s set.
The crowd went crazy when Iggy first hit the stage. Clad in a one-piece bodysuit that definitely showed off her well-known curves, I thought that she looked fabulous – and she definitely knew it. Throughout the set she performed a seductive combination of choreographed and improvised dance moves, adding to the overall sexy vibe that the entire set had. Following her intermission she emerged in a different outfit. This one, more revealing than the first, consisted of a two-piece hot pink bodysuit of sorts which showed off even more of her curves. She jumped right into one of her more well-known but controversial tracks, “Pu$$y”, which I thought was kind of funny as she was dressed even more scantily than before so it was pretty fitting.
Iggy Azalea performing at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto
Her stage design worked very well for the small venue and I didn’t feel that there was any wasted space. It resembled a 50’s-style Florida hotel front, with the backdrop having palm trees and “The New Classic” in a handwritten script on the top left. Think Hawaiian t-shirt in terms of its design. The hotel doors, which Iggy had initially emerged out of, were set underneath the title of the hotel, “Hotel Iggy”. The stage design combined with the backup dancers added greatly to the overall vibe of the concert, but I thought that the actual length of the concert really took away from the effort that was clearly put into the concert design.
Iggy’s set only lasted around one hour, which was the biggest issue I had with the actual concert. I was really surprised by the length as she had just released an album and could have used the extra time to perform some of the lesser-known songs from it. When the concert was finished I had just assumed that she would be coming out for an encore performance, but then the lights came on signifying its end and the rest of the audience seemed as confused as I had been.
Speaking of her encore performance, she only performed one song, “Work”. Following the end of her last song in the set she had gone offstage, but there wasn’t enough of a time gap between the main portion of her set and the encore part. I felt that it didn’t feel like an encore performance but merely a break in the set list itself. Though “Work” is my hands-down favourite track by the rapper and her performance was amazing, she should have at least done the usual 3-song encore set to at least make it seem like more of an encore performance. With the average concert being around an hour and a half for a headlining performance, she could have utilized the extra half an hour to end the concert on a better note instead of just seemingly cutting it short.
Overall, I was very pleased with her actual performance, but the shortness of the concert combined with the lack of new tracks made the concert seem very rushed and not as exciting as it could have been. I am hoping that she will eventually extend The New Classic tour so that she will return to the first few places on her tour and give a much lengthier performance with a more varied set list.
epic encore 
