Azalea sizzles with J-Lo at AMAs
Iggy Azalea didn't dominate the American Music Awards, but with a bumping, grinding and booty-shaking duet on stage with Jennifer Lopez the Australian rapper guaranteed plenty of controversy.
Azalea entered the awards show with six nominations - more than any other artist - and ended the night with two wins in hip-hop/rap categories.
"This is the first award I have ever won in my entire life," Azalea told the audience inside Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre while picking up her first prize, favourite rap/hip-hop album, for her hit The New Classic.
British boy band One Direction sneaked in and nabbed the artist of the year award away from Azalea and Katy Perry took single of the year with Dark Horse.
Azalea, the 24-year-old from the NSW north coast town of Mullumbimby, was not disappointed, revelling in her wins over veterans Eminem and Drake.
With her chart-topping success over the past year, Azalea has been in high demand with the world's elite artists and the latest collaborator is Lopez on their raunchy single Booty.
Executives at the US TV broadcaster of the ceremony, Disney-owned network ABC, were reportedly nervous about the performance and they will likely be receiving plenty of complaints from viewers.
Barely dressed and pulling off provocative moves likely gleaned from a strip club, Azalea and Lopez began Booty with the message on large screens: "Warning. Prepare Audience For Full Impact".
Azalea's success has generated detractors, including rival rappers who have questioned her credentials.
"This really validates I'm on the right path," Azalea said when collecting the favourite rap/hip-hop artist award.
Azalea looked back to her roots in Australia, and the long, difficult path she has walked to dominate charts in the US and across the world in 2014.
"It means so much to me that it's for best hip-hop album because that's what inspired me to move to America and pursue my dream," Azalea said.
"It helped me as a teenager to escape and to get through my life and better times.
"It means so much that I can stand here against Eminem and Drake and come out with this."
Sydney pop/punk band 5 Seconds of Summer inflicted one of the losses on Azalea, claiming the new artist of the year award.
Just like Azalea, the teenagers - who began building a global following on YouTube and scored their big break when UK boy band One Direction invited them to be a support act - were stunned at claiming their first major international award.
"We were super unnatural at it because it was our first acceptance of anything, but it is amazing," drummer Ashton Irwin, standing alongside his bandmates, told reporters backstage.
"It is really inspirational for us that we can do stuff like this.
"Being from Sydney and winning an American Music Award is the coolest thing ever for us."
Kiwi songstress Lorde, who took her mother Sonja to the ceremony as her date, has scooped up plenty of trophies at awards shows the past 12 months, but she failed to score a win despite four nominations.
