Dua Lipa’s ‘Levitating’ was crowned Song of the Year at the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Awards.
The annual ceremony took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Tuesday night (22.03.22) and while the 26-year-old pop superstar took home the biggest honour of the night, Olivia Rodrigo, Foo Fighters and Silk Sonic were among the most awarded artists.
Olivia was crowned Best New Pop Artist and Female Artist of the Year, while ‘good 4 u’ was voted as the TikTok Bop of the Year.
Camila Cabello also won Best Cover Song for her rendition of ‘good 4 u’.
Foo Fighters took home a stack of prizes, including Rock Artist of the Year, Rock Song of the Year for ‘Waiting on a War’, and Rock Album of the Year for ‘Medicine at Midnight’.
Accepting their Rock Artist of the Year prize, frontman Dave Grohl said via video: “Thank you so much for voting us Best Rock Artist of the Year, iHeartRadio thank you very much. We’d like to thank all our friends and family that we work with. Most of all, the fans and audience that like our music.”
Silk Sonic – Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak – were named Best Duo of the Year and also took home R B Song of the Year for ‘Leave The Door Open’ and R B Album of the Year for ‘An Evening With Silk Sonic’.
Lil Nas X was crowned Male Artist of the Year, and gave an inspiring speech about it being “OK to be delusional when you’re chasing your dreams”.
The 22-year-old megastar – who publicly came out as gay in June 2019 – said: “I wouldn’t be where I am right now, in my life and my career, if I weren’t delusional. Believing I could drop out of school and become an international success within a year. It’s delusional!
“Believing that I could come out of the closet in the height of my career … to think that I could do that would be delusional!”
Justin Bieber and The Kid LAROI scooped two prizes for ‘Stay’, which was named Best Collaboration and also nabbed the iHeartRadio Chart Ruler Award.
Elsewhere, Machine Gun Kelly won Alternative Artist of the Year, 2021 ‘Eurovision’ winners Maneskin made Best New Alternative Artist, and Billie Eilish’s ‘Happier Than Ever’ scooped Alternative Album of the Year.
Jennifer Lopez was this year’s iHeartRadio Icon Award recipient and Megan Thee Stallion was honoured with the Trailblazer Award.
The star-studded bash was hosted by LL Cool J and saw performances from the likes of Megan, John Legend, Charlie Puth and Maneskin.
An abridged list of the winners:
Song of the year: ‘Levitating’ – Dua Lipa
Female artist of the year: Olivia Rodrigo
Male artist of the year: Lil Nas X
Best duo/group of the year: Silk Sonic
Best collaboration: ‘Stay’ – The Kid LAROI Justin Bieber
Best new pop artist: Olivia Rodrigo
Alternative artist of the year: Machine Gun Kelly
Best new alternative artist: Maneskin
Alternative song of the year: ‘Monsters’ – All Time Low featuring blackbear
Alternative Album of the Year: ‘Happier Than Ever’ – Billie Eilish
Rock artist of the year: Foo Fighters
Best new rock artist: Mammoth WVH
Rock Song of the Year: ‘Waiting on a War’ – Foo Fighters
Rock Album of the Year: ‘Medicine at Midnight’ – Foo Fighters
Country artist of the year: Luke Combs
Best new country artist: Lainey Wilson
Country song of the year: ‘If I Didn’t Love You’ – Jason Aldean Carrie Underwood
Dance artist of the year: David Guetta
Hip-Hop artist of the year: Drake
Hip-Hop Song of the Year: ‘What You Know Bout Love’ – Pop Smoke
Hip-Hop Album of the Year: ‘The Off-Season’ – J. Cole
R B Artist of the Year: Jazmine Sullivan
Best new R B artist: Giveon
R B Song of the Year: ‘Leave The Door Open’ – Silk Sonic
R B Album of the Year: ‘An Evening With Silk Sonic’, Silk Sonic
Latin Pop/Reggaeton Artist of the Year: Bad Bunny
Best new Latin artist: Grupo Firme
Latin Pop/Reggaeton Album of the Year: Karol G
Producer of the Year: Finneas
Songwriter of the Year: Omer Fedi
iHeartRadio Trailblazer Award: Megan Thee Stallion
iHeartRadio Chart Ruler Award: ‘Stay’ – The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber
Best fan army (socially voted category): #BTSARMY – BTS
Best music video (socially voted category): ‘Butter’ – BTS
Best Lyrics (socially voted category): ‘All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)’ – Taylor Swift
TikTok Bop of the Year (socially voted category): ‘good 4 u’ – Olivia Rodrigo
Best Comeback Album (socially voted category: ’30’ – Adele