Taylor Swift reigned supreme at Sunday’s iHeartRadio Music Awards.
The pop megastar walked away (or was possibly chauffeured away) from the Shrine Auditorium with three new trophies to her name: Song of the Year (for “Shake It Off”;), Best Lyrics (for “Blank Space”;) and Artist of the Year (for being Taylor Swift). It wasn’t just collecting awards that kept Taylor busy last night. She also provided an instrumental assist during Madonna’s “Ghosttown”; number with a co-starring role on guitar.
Another big winner on Sunday was Justin Timberlake. The singer/actor received the iHeartRadio Innovator Award and used his acceptance speech to talk about the value of being different.
“Growing up in school, nobody called me close to an innovator. They called me different. They called me weird. They called me a couple other words I can’t say on TV,”; JT told the crowd and viewers at home. “If you’re a young person — like I used to be — and you’re at home and you’re being called weird or different, I’m here to tell you your critics do not count. Their words will fade. You won’t.”;
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Naturally, the evening was also packed with performances. Rihanna busted out her new single “Bitch Better Have My Money”; with a showing that included a helicopter as part of the presentation. Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas and Best New Artist victor Sam Smith were also among those gracing the stage last night.
The most talked about event of the evening was something far less joyous than a memorable speech or a star-powered musical number. Host Jamie Foxx was heavily criticized online for jokes he made about Bruce Jenner during the opening monologue.
“We have some groundbreaking performances here too, tonight,”; said Foxx. “We got Bruce Jenner, who will be here doing some musical performances. He’s doing a his-and-her duet all by himself.”;
Foxx’s comments were immediately called out as insensitive and transphobic on social media.