The Great Escape Tour was the scheduled second headlining concert tour by Australian recording artist Iggy Azalea in support of her debut album, The New Classic (2014), its reissue, Reclassified (2014) and then-upcoming second studio album. The tour was scheduled to visit twenty-one cities across North America over the span of two months, beginning on 18 September 2015 in San Diego, California and concluding on 27 October 2015 in Glendale, Arizona. It was announced on 29 May 2015 that the entire tour was cancelled due to low sales, with a new tour to be announced with her then-upcoming, later cancelled album in 2016. It was the first of Azalea's tours to be cancelled, with her 2018 Bad Girls Tour also later cancelled.
Background
On 10 December 2014, when reflecting on the year she has had and the struggles she faced in the years before, Azalea announced plans of an arena tour and a second studio album via her Twitter account. The same day, Azalea revealed the title of the tour and the concept behind it, which is Azalea picturing herself as "a musical escape artist for people." Azalea also revealed that the name of the tour goes along with the title of her upcoming second studio album, which will also be promoted on the tour.
On 15 December 2014, the North American leg of the tour was officially announced. Presented by AEG, the first leg of tour, which was set to commence on 14 April 2015 in Fresno, California, and was scheduled to visit twenty-four cities across North America during the spring of 2015 before ending on 24 May 2015 in Austin, Texas. Also revealed in the North American leg announcement was that Nick Jonas and Tinashe would be the special guests supporting Azalea on the first leg of the tour promoting their latest individual efforts, Nick Jonas (2014) and Aquarius (2014). Azalea's disc jockey, DJ Wizz Kidd, would also support Azalea throughout the tour.
Beginning on 15 December 2014, pre-sale tickets were available to all American Express cardholders through 18 December 2014. The public on-sale followed immediately after with tickets becoming available on 19 December 2014. Platinum and VIP Packages also became available for purchase on AEG's website, in which the packages included premium seating and exclusive autographed merchandise.
In an interview with GQ, Azalea began to reveal details about the tour's stage, visuals, and concept. When speaking about her main focus of the tour, Azalea stated "I want everything to be right—everything, from the tour book to what someone wears. Even the right faces for the dancers, and their attitude. Everything is equally important." While discussing stage layout, Azalea revealed that she's "trying to work on the initial stage design" and that she's "making a stage that [she can] engage with many people in an arena that big." She also noted that she was working with Jamie King, who has also worked with Madonna on her Confessions Tour (2006), which Azalea has stated is a major influence for the tour. Other influences for the tour that she's mentioned include the films Xanadu (1980) and Fantasia (1940). In regards to the visuals, Azalea has stated that the tour will include "color blocking—loud, just obnoxious-type visual things", that she also characterized as "Trippy, cool, [and] colorful." Azalea also commented on the nature of the show by saying "The traditional hip-hop arena show is more focused on a DJ. I don't think it has as many props and spectacles as perhaps a pop show, which is also what I would say my show is visually like." Overall, Azalea has stated her desire for the show is "not to be too wacky" and to be "a great experience [in which fans feel] really immersed in the whole thing."
"The whole point was to make no compromises, but nothing's changed in terms of my creative vision," Azalea told the Associated Press on 18 March 2015, backstage at a show for Samsung Galaxy during SXSW. "It's very kind of like Patrick Nagel, powerful 80s androgynous women vibe." Azalea admitted not wanting to wait until September to launch the tour, "but because the arenas are so far in advanced booked, it was kind of their next slot." She also mentioned taking advantage of the free time to finish recording her second album, "I didn't anticipate having any time to completely finish it, but now that I have kind of the time, I'd love to have an album at the end of 2015."