Taylor Swift, Adele, Justin Bieber, Drake and Fetty Wap were some of the big winners at Sunday’s iHeartRadio Music Awards, while rock legends U2 were honored for their gigantic musical legacy and their work on behalf of various social causes.
Swift’s “1989” won the award for album of the year, and Swift also won for female artist of the year and best tour.
Adele’s “Hello” won song of the year.
Maroon 5 won the award for best duo/group of the year. Drake won hip-hop artist of the year and hip-hop song of the year for “Hotline Bling,” while Luke Bryan won country artist of the year.
Bieber was named male artist of the year, and Fetty Wap was chosen best new artist.
The awards were presented at the Forum and televised on TBS, TNT and truTV. The show featured live performances from Bieber, Meghan Trainor, Fetty Wap, Chris Brown, ZAYN, Demi Lovato, Iggy Azalea and more.
U2’s members — Bono, Dave “The Edge” Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. — are marking their 40th year playing together, a span that has seen the group win nearly two dozen Grammy Awards and consistently sell out stadiums and arenas around the globe.
“We want to dedicate this award to artists around the world who are innovating in very difficult circumstances,” Bono said on stage while accepting the award. ,”As strange (as is it is) to say, there are places around the world where making music is a crime, where you can go to jail for expressing an opinion, where you can get a punch in the face for disagreeing with some politician somewhere.”
The singer and provocateur then snuck in an apparent dig at GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump “That could never happen here, could it?”
iHeart Radio is an Internet music platform founded in 2008. The awards show began in 2014.
The complete list of this year’s winners can be found at www.news.iheart.com/features/iheartradio-music-awards- 15/articles/15/104650/2016-iheartradio-music-awards-winners-14561927/.
—City News Service