The Hampton Script

Selena Roberts | Staff Writer

As the awards season drew to a close, the iHeartRadio Music Awards named the best of the best music artists in the industry. The annual awards show was televised March 11 from California. The star-studded event gathered artists of all genres to celebrate the best songs of the year.

Social media star and famous producer DJ Khaled and model Hailey Baldwin were the evening’s hosts.

Cardi B opened the show with a medley of her biggest hits, including “Bodak Yellow,” “Bartier Cardi,” and her verses in “Motorsport,” “No Limit” and “Finesse Remix.”

As always, Cardi B hit the stage with tons of energy that kept the crowd enthused.

One performer stood out among the rest, however. Eminem’s performance turned heads as he discussed issues in regards to the NRA. Some lines from the verse were, “Sometimes I don’t know what this world has come to. It’s blowing up. The whole country is going nuts. And the NRA is in our way. They’re responsible for this whole production.” He ended it by claiming that the NRA loves their guns more than our children. With recent acts advocating for gun control, this performance hit close to home.

The iconic rock and roll band Bon Jovi as presented with the first iHeartRadio Icon award from Olympic snoboarder Shaun White for their work in the music industry. The band performed their biggest hits, including “It’s My Life” and “You Give Love a Bad Name” before they received their award.

Some of the biggest winners of the night were Cardi B, Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars. Cardi won  Best New Artist and Best New Hip Hop Artist. Her acceptance speech was one of the highlights of the evening. She told the audience, “I want to thank my fans, Bardi Gang, because even when I’m wrong, they be like, ‘She’s still right!’ And I want to thank my haters, too, because they be downloading my stuff so they can hear it and talk crap about it, but it benefits me!”

She also announced that her long-awaited album will be released in April.

Sheeran won song of the year for his hit “Shape of You” beating out “Despacito,” “Wild Thoughts” and “That’s What I Like.” Bruno Mars won for R&B song of the year and R&B artist of the year.

N.E.R.D closed out the show with an energetic performance of “Lemon.”