Taylor Swift has extended her own record as iHeartRadio’s most decorated artist of all time, walking away from Thursday night’s ceremony at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles with seven wins from nine nominations, bringing her total to 41 iHeartRadio Music Award wins.
Swift, who attended with fiance Travis Kelce, kicked off her winning streak by accepting best pop album of the year for The life of a showgirlpresented by Raye.
She used the moment to directly credit Kelce.
“I think this album feels very happy and confident and free because that’s how I’m going to feel every single day of my life, because of my fiancé who’s here tonight,” she said.
“Thank you iHeart and thanks to everyone who cared Ophelia’s fatebecause you made it the biggest hit of my career, which is crazy at this point.”
The night shifted gears when figure skater Alysa Liu presented her with six more awards at once, including artist of the year and album of the year.
Swift used the platform to deliver a message that clearly meant a lot to her, about creativity, patience and protecting your dreams from the internet.
“We live in this world where there is so much instant feedback, constantly,” she said.
“Everything you feed your mind it will internalize. Everything you feed the internet it will try to kill and I don’t want that for your dreams. So just thank you for allowing me to turn my hobby into a love, into a passion, into a dream, into a career.”
The show, hosted by Ludacris, also featured performances from Lainey Wilson, Breakthrough Artist of the Year Alex Warren, Kehlani, Raye and a joint set from TLC, Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue previewing their upcoming summer tour.
Ludacris ended the night with a string of his own hits.
