Every September, popular “Top 40” artists from varying genres gather in Las Vegas at MGM Grand Garden Arena for the iHeartRadio Music Festival to perform their top hits. The festival. created in 2011, lasts for two days.
In 2013, the festival added a separate event called the Village, where those who won tickets to the main event could attend the performances at the Village as well. The main event showed performances by the popular and established artists, while this event showcased upcoming and new artists who weren’t as popular.
This year the new and upcoming artists performing at the Village included Iggy (who also performed on the main stage), 5 Seconds of Summer, Neon Trees, and Magic!.
This year the event was held Friday, September 19 and Saturday, September 20 and was hosted by Ryan Seacrest.
The lineup for this year’s festival included, Taylor Swift, Usher featuring Chris Brown, the Zac Brown Band, Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, and others who would perform on the opening night. On Saturday, the lineup included Iggy, Ed Sheeran, Lorde, One Direction, Train, and others.
Taylor Swift opened iHeartRadio Music Festival Friday night wearing a sparkly, bubble gum pink outfit. She performed her new single “Shake it Off,” along with other Top 40 hits such as “Love Story and more recently, “I Knew You Were Trouble.”
The music ranged in genre, with Coldplay performing their classics “Viva La Vida” and “Clocks,” and Nicki Minaj performing one of her Top 40 hits, “Superbass.”
Ariana Grande, a former Nickelodeon star, wore a cat-eared headband and her usual thigh high boots and performed her hit, “Problem” among others.
Performances got more creative and even a little wild as the festival went on Friday night. Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy crowd surfed in a raft, and Jason Derulo showed up to perform an unannounced set. Motley Crue did a rendition of “Girls, Girls, Girls” that included Motorcycles, fire, and pole dancing.
Even after all of that, the surprises and wild performances didn’t stop. Usher closed the show Friday night, and he had a few tricks up his sleeve as well. Usher brought out surprise guest, Chris Brown and they sang Chris Brown’s new single, “New Flame” which features Usher. The single comes off his newly released album, “X.” Usher and Chris Brown had a dance off once they were done singing where Usher proceeded to take off his shoes and light them on fire.
Saturday night the festivities continued. One Direction opened the last night of the festival with a twenty minute set that ended with their hit, “Best Song Ever.”
Ed Sheeran performed his single, “Don’t” from his new album, also called “X.” Sheeran also introduced Macklemore and Ryan Lewis onto the stage where they then did a duet of “Same Love” with Sheeran singing and Macklemore rapping.
Iggy also made an appearance on the main stage at iHeartRadio Music Festival. She also performed at the “Village” earlier in the day. Iggy performed fan favorites like “Black Widow” and “Fancy.”
iHeartRadio comes around every September, so look for the lineups and see if your favorite artists will be performing next September!
Keeley Gould is a third-year student majoring in English and minoring in journalism. She can be reached at KG787739@wcupa.edu.