Ice Spice apologises after five-minute set at Australian festival: “It takes a long time to look like a Barbie”

Ice Spice has reportedly apologised to fans following a controversial appearance at a festival in Australia last week.

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The gig came as one of the numerous festival appearances the rapper was set to make in Australia over the new year period. The run included three sets as part of the Wildlands Festival, held in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, and a performance at Beyond The Valley Festival in Victoria.

For the Wildlands festival appearance in Brisbane, the appearance came as a headline slot on New Year’s Eve and was expected to last between 10:30pm and 11pm. However, according to various reports, Ice Spice’s slot was 30 minutes late to the stage – meaning she began the show at 10:55pm and played for just five minutes.

During this time, she was only able to perform two songs in their entirety, ‘Deli’ and ‘Princess Diana’. She began to perform ‘In Ha Mood’ too, although her microphone was soon cut off due to the festival’s tight schedule.

Speaking to The Guardian, journalist and podcaster Brenton Larney recalled what happened at the performance, saying: “At 11.01pm – they gave her an extra minute – they cut the mic and you heard the collective sigh from the crowd. They’d been waiting for a while and they get two songs?”

Larney continued, recalling the response Ice Spice seemingly had towards the set being cut short: “It was just really disrespectful how she walked off, she was laughing, they tried to give her flowers for her birthday and she just shrugged them off.” He also claimed that it felt like the rapper “didn’t want to be there”.

After the ordeal, festival organisers addressed the situation on Instagram, taking to the comment section to explain why they shut off Ice Spice’s microphone. They wrote that this was to keep the rest of the festival running as scheduled, including a countdown to the new year with Chase & Status.

“We understand that Ice Spice’s delayed arrival caused some disappointment,” the comment read. “Managing a stacked festival means that we have to be extremely firm with set times. We had a strict curfew of 12:30 and need to ensure that the final act went on stage on time, so everyone could enjoy the New Year’s Eve countdown.”

Now, outlets including Billboard and local radio station Youth Jam have reported that Ice Spice has addressed the controversial Wildlands festival appearance for the first time.

She allegedly spoke out about the set while on stage over the weekend, performing her penultimate headline show in the country. Speaking at the gig in Perth on Saturday (January 4), the rapper apologised for the late appearance and put it down to birthday celebrations meaning it took longer than expected to get ready.

“I’m sorry guys, surely y’all can forgive me,” she reportedly told the crowd during the Perth show. “It was my birthday and it takes a long time to look like a Barbie.”

The latter part of the statement came as a nod to her Nicki Minaj collaboration track ‘Barbie World’, which she performed soon afterwards.

Ice Spice’s Australian tour dates – which celebrated the release of her ‘Y2K!’ album –wrapped up the following day (January 5) with a closing night in Adelaide.

Before the Australian leg, Ice Spice embarked on a number of UK and European 2024 tour dates. Her latest album, ‘Y2K‘, was described by NME as having “plenty of promise but some filler, too.”