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This blog post was contributed by Max Willens, ZIO's Music Channel Assistant.

British rapper Speech Debelle's fairytale autumn just got considerably darker.

Just one month after shocking the British music press by winning the 2009 Mercury Prize, the 26 year old U.K. rapper and singer has been forced to cancel her U.S. tour due to visa issues.

According to Debelle's agent, "Visa laws have just recently changed," and the changes will cost Debelle all of her upcoming CMJ gigs, as well as a pair of dates in Los Angeles.

Debelle's recent successes aside, the news is not especially surprising. The U.S. government has a long and indecorous history of denying artist visas, even to artists widely celebrated within its borders. Amy Winehouse, whose major label debut went platinum, was forced to perform at the 2008 Grammys via satellite after her application was rejected in late 2007 (her application was later granted, but too late for a U.S. performance).

The cancellation is sure to cause a great deal of heartburn at Debelle's label, Big Dada. The British hip-hop imprint is undoubtedly aware of how difficult it is to break U.K. hip hop artists in the United States; Dizzee Rascal, a former Mercury Prize winner himself as well as a platinum-selling success in his home country, has failed to secure U.S. distribution for his past two albums. Debelle's CMJ dates represented her best chance to establish a beachhead in the American market this year.