Iggy Azalea Defends Decision to Continue Show After Backup Dancer Suffers Seizure and Collapses

Iggy Azalea suffered a scary situation onstage Thursday when one of her backup dancers seized and collapsed, and the rapper received some heat for her decision to continue the performance after her dancer’s medical scare.

Azalea was performing her song “Black Widow” at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil when the dancer suffered a seizure in the middle of the song and collapsed.

In a video of the moment, the rapper can be seen bending concernedly over the dancer as her backing track played, with Azalea calling for a medic before performing “Black Widow,” though the music soon stopped and left the stadium in silence as the dancer was brought offstage.

After the show, Azalea used her Instagram Story to address the moment.

“Hey guys, just want to let everyone asking know my dancer is OKAY!” the rapper wrote. “The lights & heat caused her to have a seizure. She is backstage feeling much better.”

The 28-year-old continued with an update on her dancer’s decision and to explain her reasoning behind continuing with the performance.

“I thought she had just fallen/twisted her ankle,” she wrote. “And it may sound harsh but; you keep singing until music stops & ask for a medic which is what I did. We are all really shaken up by what happened & just thankful she is okay.”

She also asked fans to be respectful of her dancer and not to recirculate memes she had seen.

“I know it’s easy to make memes of someone ‘passed out’ but someone having a seizure isn’t funny, it’s really scary!” Azalea noted. “So I hope my fans do not repost some of the memes I’m seeing about my dancer.”

Azalea has not been without controversy and was most recently involved in an alleged altercation with rapper Bhad Bhabie, real name Danielle Bregoli, in which the 15-year-old allegedly threw a drink on Azalea at a party for Cardi B‘s recent Fashion Nova collaboration.

The incident stemmed from an argument on Twitter in which Azalea had joked about her friend attending Bregoli’s show, to which Bregoli replied, “U should come. Would be a good memory for u of what a sold out show looks like.”

Azalea also recently canceled her planned 21-city tour, her second tour cancellation in three years.

Photo Credit: Getty / Tara Ziemba