After two days and dozens of legendary performances, the sixth annual iHeartRadio Music Festival hosted by Ryan Seacrest, host and producer of On Air with Ryan Seacrest, concluded Saturday evening at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with unforgettable performances by U2, Sting, Drake, Britney Spears, Sam Hunt, twenty one pilots, Billy Idol, Florida Georgia Line, OneRepublic, Sia, Cage the Elephant, Zedd, Tears for Fears, Ariana Grande, Pitbull, Usher and more, plus this year’s Macy’s iHeartRadio Rising Star winner, Los 5.
The iconic weekend-long concert event included the biggest names in music across all genres, on the main stage at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the evenings of September 23rd and September 24th, and at the iHeartRadio Music Festival Daytime Village on Saturday afternoon at the Las Vegas Village across from the Luxor Hotel and Casino, which featured performances by Sam Hunt, Panic! At The Disco, Alessia Cara, Troye Sivan, Hailee Steinfeld, Good Charlotte, Jeremih, Lissie, Cold War Kids, Daya, Cage The Elephant, The Chainsmokers, Bryson Tiller, DNCE and Tinashe.
Through a national text-to-win contest, hundreds of lucky winners from across the country were awarded exclusive VIP trips to the two-day concert event. For fans not in attendance, the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival broadcasted live on iHeartMedia radio stations across 150 markets. The CW Network also exclusively live streamed both nights of the festival via CWTV.com and The CW App, and will broadcast a two-night television special on Thursday, October 6th and Friday, October 7th from 8 pm – 10 pm EST/PST.
The iHeartRadio Music Festival was a dominant social media topic throughout the weekend. The official hashtag #iHeartFestival was the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter worldwide and trended in more than 85 markets in the United States. #iHeartFestival continues to trend worldwide with tweets and retweets from fans as well as artists and Festival presenters. In addition, #iHeartBritney trended No. 1 worldwide on Saturday night following the mega-star’s performance.
Highlights of the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival and Village:
– The 2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival featured one-of-a-kind surprise collaborations:
- Billy Idol and Miley Cyrus rocked the T-Mobile arena with an electrifying rendition of “Rebel Yell.”
- Florida Georgia Line had the ultimate #TBT by inviting the Backstreet Boys to the stage to sing “Everybody” which the crowd sang along word for word.
- Britney Spears had the entire arena on their feet as she strutted her way through the audience floor to the stage, kicking off her set with “Work B**ch” before performing a dance tribute to a Missy Eliott mashup. Britney ended her set with G-Eazy singing “Make Me” and “Me, Myself and I.”
- Zedd was joined by MAGIC!, Aloe Blacc and Hailee Steinfeld for multiple collaborations before playing drums for Ariana Grande while she sang their 2014 hit single, “Break Free.”
- Usher reunited with Lil Jon and Ludacris during his performance for “Lovers & Friends,” and “Yeah!”
– On Friday, Drake’s performance was lit with a pyro-frenzied performance of his hit singles. The show’s final act, U2 opened with “Desire” and had the audience reaching for the ceiling as $10,000,000,000 (ten-trillion) dollar bills rained down with Donald Trump on them alongside the phrase “Make America Hate Again,” printed on the other side was the number one and “but we’re not the same.”
– On Saturday, twenty one pilots soared to new heights during song, “Car Ride” as he climbed the rafters to perform above a sea of music lovers.
– The iHeartRadio Music Festival also welcomed celebrity presenters and guests from across the entertainment industry including Sean Penn, John Stamos, Taylor Lautner, David Spade, Lea Michele, Idina Menzel, Kathy Griffin, Hailee Steinfeld, Wilmer Valderrama, Jussie Smollett, Laurie Hernandez, Sabrina Carpenter, Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell from The Bachelor, Joelle Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers of The Bachelorette and more, plus iHeartRadio’s on-air talent, Ryan Seacrest, Big Boy, Bobby Bones, Elvis Duran, The Breakfast Club and Woody.
iHeartMedia and the Global Citizen Festival once again partnered to help channel the power of music to fight inequality, protect our planet and end extreme poverty by 2030. For the sixth consecutive year, iHeartMedia was named the official radio partner of the Global Citizen Festival. This year the two iconic events took place on the same weekend allowing for unique in-show collaborations including iHeartRadio Music Festival performer Sia’s performance being broadcast in Central Park live from Las Vegas, and a special crossover performance by Usher who performed on both Festival stages on the same night.
In the past five years the Festival has helped raise $1.7 million for a number of national charities, including the American Association of Cancer Research, Lupus Research Alliance, Ryan Seacrest Foundation, CureDuchenne, The Grammy Foundation, ALS/Augie’s Quest, The American Red Cross and many more. Additionally, the Festival plays host to a number of critically ill children and their families through its long-term partnership with the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Proud partners of this year’s event include: Garnier Fructis, Ideal Image, Jack Link’s Jerky, Macy’s, MasterCard, Mazda, MGM Resorts, Mondelēz International, the maker of OREO, RITZ, TRIDENT and SOUR PATCH KIDS, State Farm, StubHub, T-Mobile, Taco Bell, The CW Network, THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN starring Hailee Steinfeld, TWIX Brand, Ulta Beauty, and X Out, from the makers of Proactiv.
The iHeartRadio Music Festival, which debuted six years ago in celebration of the launch of the iHeartRadio digital service, has quickly become one of the most talked about music events of the year. The Festival is a live representation of the diverse music experience that fans find and enjoy through the iHeartRadio app, which is the No. 1 all-in-one digital audio service with over a billion downloads; it reached its first 20 million registered users faster than any digital service in Internet history and reached 90 million users faster than any other radio or digital music service and even faster than Facebook. At this year’s festival, iHeartRadio announced that it is reinventing live radio with the launch of two new subscription services – iHeartRadio Plus and iHeartRadio All Access, which are both set to debut in January 2017.
