Rihanna, Justin Timberlake lead first iHeartRadio award nominations
Rihanna, Justin Timberlake and Imagine Dragons lead the nominations for the inaugural iHeartRadio Music Awards.
Rihanna leads the pack with seven nods across five categories, including artist of the year, song of the year and best collaboration -- she competes against herself in the latter two with her Mikky Ekko-assisted ballad “Stay” going up against “The Monster,” her duet with Eminem.
Timberlake scored five nominations, including artist of the year, and like Rihanna he is nominated twice in the collaboration category for two singles with Jay Z (comeback single “Suit & Tie” and Jay’s “Holy Grail”).
Despite a breakout year that yielded them a bounty of Grammys, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are up for only two honors.
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The Seattle hip-hop duo landed in the artist of the year race and will compete for new artist alongside Florida Georgia Line, Icona Pop, Lorde, Passenger and Imagine Dragons, which scored four nods.
Other categories include honors for top songs by genre (country, hip-hop/R&B, EDM, alternative rock), best lyrics -- the only time “Wrecking Ball,” “I Love It” and “Same Love” will ever be mentioned in the same breath -- and best fan army, a category that surprisingly doesn’t feature Justin Bieber or One Direction’s rabid fan bases.
Even more shocking? That this fan-voted award show doesn’t feature Bieber or One Direction in the running for anything.
Last month, Clear Channel Media and Entertainment announced that it had gotten into the overcrowded awards business. The radio conglomerate teamed with NBC for the three-hour, fan-voted show, which will set up at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Clear Channel has yet to announce performers, but it promises the telecast will “showcase this year’s biggest artists and songs and feature live performances, never-before-done duets and collaborations, celebrity guest appearances and live award presentations.”
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Nominations were based on results from the newly minted iHeartRadio Chart, which pulled listener feedback and performance data, digital streaming data from the iHeartRadio platform (including custom station creations) and tags from Shazam and BigChampagne. The data were compiled by Mediabase from the last 12 months.
The iHeartRadio Music Awards are scheduled to air May 1 on NBC at 8 p.m. Pacific time.
Full list of nominations below:
Artist of the year:
Imagine Dragons
Justin Timberlake
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Maroon 5
Rihanna
Song of the year:
“Hold On We’re Going Home” -- Drake ft. Majid Jordan
“Mirrors” -- Justin Timberlake
“Radioactive” -- Imagine Dragons
“Stay” -- Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko
“The Monster” -- Eminem ft. Rihanna
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Collaboration:
“Holy Grail” -- Jay Z ft. Justin Timberlake
“Stay” -- Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko
“Suit & Tie” -- Justin Timberlake ft. Jay Z
“The Monster” -- Eminem ft. Rihanna
“Timber” -- Pitbull ft. Kesha
New artist:
Florida Georgia Line
Icona Pop
Imagine Dragons
Lorde
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Passenger
Country song of the year:
“Boys ‘Round Here” -- Blake Shelton
“Highway Don’t Care” -- Tim McGraw with Taylor Swift
“It Goes Like This” -- Thomas Rhett
“Mine Would Be You” -- Blake Shelton
“That’s My Kind of Night” -- Luke Bryan
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Hip-hop/R&B song of the year:
“Blurred Lines” -- Robin Thicke ft. T.I. & Pharrell
“Hold on We’re Going Home” -- Drake ft. Majid Jordan
“Holy Grail” -- Jay Z ft. Justin Timberlake
“Pour It Up” -- Rihanna
“Started From The Bottom” -- Drake
EDM song of the year:
“Get Lucky” -- Daft Punk ft. Pharrell
“Stay the Night” -- Zedd ft. Hayley Williams
“Summertime Sadness” -- Lana Del Rey ft. Cedric Gervais
“Sweet Nothing” -- Calvin Harris ft. Florence Welch
“Wake Me Up” -- Avicii
Alternative rock song of the year:
“Demons” -- Imagine Dragons
“Do I Wanna Know?” -- Arctic Monkeys
“Pompeii” -- Bastille
“Royals” -- Lorde
“Safe and Sound” -- Capital Cities
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Lyrics:
“Wake Me Up” -- Avicii (Vocals by Aloe Blacc)
“I Love It (ft. Charli XCX)” -- Icona Pop
“Say Something” -- A Great Big World
“Same Love” -- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
“Wrecking Ball” -- Miley Cyrus
Fan army:
Arianators -- Ariana Grande
Little Monsters -- Lady Gaga
Lovatics -- Demi Lovato
Mahomies -- Austin Mahone
Rihanna Navy -- Rihanna
Swifties -- Taylor Swift
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