Azealia Banks, who stormed the charts with her hit single “212”, has announced on Instagram that she is changing her artistic name for Russia and all ex-Soviet territories to a Slavic version – “Azilka”. She noted that her English stage name looks too complicated for her taste when written in Russia, so she decided to keep it simple. For fans struggling to read the Cyrillic letters, she gave a hint as to how to pronounce it - "AH-ZeYL-Ka”.
Presenting her new alias, she posted a photo of herself with the new customised logo that reads “Azilka” in Russian.
As the rapper revealed, “Azilka” is what her boyfriend calls her. As she earlier told the Russian hip-hop broadcaster Studio 21, he was born and raised in Russia and still speaks with a thick accent. This year, she also headlined a music festival in Russia and featured in a fashion shoot for a Russian women's magazine, sharing the results on her social media.