Iggy Azalea: The real reason why I cancelled my Great Escape tour

The Australian rapper, who has just got engaged to basketball star Nick Young, said she wants to have a rest so she can plan a new direction for the stage shows.

Iggy had originally lined up a series of North American arena dates in April, but in March, she postponed them until September, before calling them off for a second time last month.

She told Australia’s Seventeen magazine: “I’ve had a different creative change of heart. I want to start totally anew, and if I stayed on my tour, that would mean I wouldn’t even be able to start working on that until after Christmas.

The 24-year-old star continued: “On top of that, mentally, to be honest with you, I just feel I deserve a break. I’ve been going non-stop for the past two years, nearly every single day. I’m not in a bad place.

“I think sometimes when you say you need a mental break, people are like, ‘A mental break? Be sure you don’t have a breakdown because you’re sad’. No, not necessarily. It’s very emotionally draining to be on all the time and going all the time, planning all the time. It’s a lot, and it’s tough.”

The Fancy singer said: “I need a break from everything to just enjoy what I worked so hard for, and I don’t really feel like I’ve had a chance to do that. I need a break to figure out what I want my sound to progress to, and I need a break to figure out how I want my visuals to progress…

“It just seemed like it was so many things pointing me in the direction of not doing [the tour], that I finally thought, when enough things come your way, you can’t ignore the signs. It’s not easy to decide that the best thing to do is cancel a tour, but that’s the best thing for me.

“I don’t want to disappoint fans. I feel really bad. It was a tough decision to make, but it was the best thing,” she added.

Iggy is working on the follow-up to her 2014 debut album The New Classic, with her wedding plans on the horizon.