Britney Spears And Iggy Azalea Drop To No. 45 On Billboard Hot 100
Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea have proven once again that putting two pop divas on a record doesn’t guarantee success. Britney should have learned from her 2003 flop with Madonna, “Me Against the Music.”
Despite the release of a high-profile video and a well-received performance at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, Britney and Iggy’s “Pretty Girls” takes another plunge this week from No. 39 to No. 45. The song peaked at No. 29 — at least that’s higher than the No. 35 position of Britney’s duet with Madonna. The news comes as a disaster to Britney Spears, who was supposed to use “Pretty Girls” to launch her new album.
The news can’t come at a worse time for Iggy Azalea, who just had to cancel her upcoming tour. On Thursday morning, Billboard reported on the alleged real reasons for the tour cancellation.
“As Azalea outlined to Seventeen, replacing original openers Nick Jonas and Tinashe after re-scheduling a planned spring arena run proved to be a major hurtle for the fall dates… Because of that, AEG Live never put its full marketing support behind the tour, the company’s senior VP Debra Rathwell tells Billboard.”
Rathwell indicates that since they were not able to fill the support slots on the tour in the fall due to other artists already working, they had not advertised or promoted the shows since last winter. However, multiple sources told Billboard that certain dates were only 20 percent sold. Rathwell denies there was a reason to move the shows into smaller venues.
The most important thing to take from this is that Iggy Azalea couldn’t fill up the venues by herself, so AEG depended too much on supporting acts. The low ticket sales rumors definitely have legs, but AEG and Iggy’s PR team are trying to soften things up. Billboard also quoted Rothwell complimenting Azalea.
“Iggy is a star and a great performer. I’ve met her and spent some time with her and she is a really smart, interesting young woman. As I’ve already said, AEG LIVE is committed to her and will be working with her on her new tour.”
Meanwhile, Britney Spears is continuing on with her Las Vegas residency by playing very small shows (and charging a lot for tickets) each night. Spears’ residency has been considered a great success, despite the flatlining of her record sales. Britney could certainly teach Azalea a thing or two about surviving a multimedia backlash. However, like Spears, Iggy Azalea will survive.
[Photo Credit: Lainey Gossip]
