To the surprise of absolutely no one, Taylor Swift won artist of the year at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards, which were presented on Monday (April 1) at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. (Here’s the full list of winners.) Swift previously won the award in 2015. In 2016 and 2018, Swift won female artist of the year, before the iHearts moved to gender-neutral categories for good last year.
Swift, who accepted her awards with a video message, won a total of six awards on the night, matching her haul from last year, when she set a new record for the most wins in one night by a female artist. Drake is the overall single-night leader. He won seven awards in 2017.
Swift’s five other awards are pop artist of the year, tour of the year for The Eras Tour and in three socially-voted categories — favorite tour style, best lyrics for “Is It Over Now?” and TikTok bop of the year for “Cruel Summer.” These six awards extend her lead as the artist with the most iHeartRadio Awards. She now has 25.
This is Swift’s fourth win for best lyrics. She had previously won for “Anti-Hero,” “All Too Well” and “Blank Space.” Many regard Swift as the premier songwriter of her generation. She has amassed seven Grammy nominations for song of the year, more than anyone else in history (though oddly she has yet to win in that category).
SZA and Peso Pluma each won four awards on the night, sweeping all available awards in their home genres, R&B and Regional Mexican, respectively. Jelly Roll, Morgan Wallen, Karol G and Jung Kook each won two awards.
Since Swift’s wins were so expected, here’s a closer look at seven other artists who set records at the 2024 iHearts.
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SZA
SZA won three awards in the R&B field – artist of the year, album of the year for SOS and song of the year for “Snooze.” Her fourth win was in the all-genre song of the year category for “Kill Bill.”
This is the third year in a row that a female solo artist has won song of the year. Dua Lipa won it in 2022 for “Levitating.” Swift won last year for “Anti-Hero.” In an odd twist, “Kill Bill” beat Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” in this category, yet “Flowers” beat “Kill Bill” for pop song of the year. (Maybe it’s not so odd. The voters may be saying that “Kill Bill” is a great, hard-to-categorize record, but “Flowers” is an unbeatable pure pop smash.)
“Kill Bill” and “Flowers” also competed for record of the year at the Grammys, with Cyrus’ smash winning there. Only two of the iHeart winners for song of the year have also won the Grammy for record of the year – Adele’s “Hello” and Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts.”
This is the second year in a row that SZA has won R&B artist of the year. She’s the second artist to win twice in the category, following H.E.R., the winner in 2020 and 2021. It’s also the second year in a row that SZA has won R&B song of the year. She won last year for “I Hate U.” SZA and Chris Brown are the only artists to win two years in a row in the category.
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Peso Pluma
Peso Pluma swept all four awards in the Regional Mexican field – artist of the year, best new artist, album of the year for Genésis and song of the year for “Ella Baila Sola,” a collab with Eslabon Armado.
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Drake
The superstar won hip-hop artist of the year for a record sixth time. He previously won in 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2023. No other artist has won in the category more than once.
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Foo Fighters
The veteran band won won rock artist of the year for a record third time. The band previously won in 2016 and 2022. Disturbed is the only other repeat winner in that category. They won in 2017 and 2020.
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Victoria Monét
The writer-turned-artist, who won the Grammy for best new artist on Feb. 4, won best new R&B artist. And in a sign of how competitive that Grammy race was, four of the artists who lost to Monét at the Grammys won here in other categories. Jelly Roll won best new artist in both pop and country; Noah Kahan won best new artist in rock/alternative; Ice Spice won best new artist in hip-hop; and Gracie Abrams won the socially-voted social star award.
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Karol G
The Colombian superstar won two awards in the Latin Pop/Urban field – artist of the year and album of the year for Mañana Será Bonito. She is the first woman to win in either category. Mañana Será Bonito previously made history as the first all-Spanish album by a female artist to top the Billboard 200 and the first album by a female artist to win the Grammy for Best Música Urbana Album.
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BTS’s fans and solo stars
BTS’ Army won favorite fan army for the seventh consecutive year. And three members of that supergroup, which is currently on hiatus to allow its seven members to fulfill South Korea’s mandatory military commitments, won in other categories. Jung Kook won two awards – K-pop artist of the year and best music video for “Seven,” featuring Latto. V won favorite debut album for Layover. And J-Hope won favorite onscreen for j-hope/IN THE BOX.
BTS had won best music video the last four consecutive years, for “Boy With Luv” (featuring Halsey), “Dynamite,” “Butter” and “Yet to Come (The Most Beautiful Moment).” This gives Jung Kook a piece of this award for five years running.
