Courtesy of Christopher Polk/Variety
In a pop landscape that seems to reinvent itself every few months, Taylor Swift remains a constant. She enters the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards as the year’s most-nominated artist with nine nominations, once again proving her unmatched ability to understand the current musical landscape.
Swift is nominated for Artist of the Year for the third consecutive year, having won the category in each of the last two. This year’s competition reads include a variety of artists, many of whom have charted on Billboard in the past year. The lineup entails Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Morgan Wallen, Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae, Benson Boone, Jelly Roll, and Chris Brown.
The Song of the Year category offers an especially clear snapshot of what defined the past year in hits. Boone returns after last year’s win with “Beautiful Things,” now nominated for “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else.” Swift is in the running with “The Fate of Ophelia,” while SZA and Lamar appear with their collaboration “luther.” The rest of the field, Doechii, Shaboozey, Carpenter, Wallen, Leon Thomas, Alex Warren, and Myles Smith, rounds out a list that feels both eclectic and unmistakably tuned to mass appeal.
As always, the iHeartRadio Music Awards function less as a critics’ prize than as a reflection of scale, honoring the most-played artists and songs across radio and streaming. This year’s new categories, including Favorite TikTok Dance, Favorite Debut Album, and Favorite K-pop Collab, further highlight how closely pop success is now tied to platform culture and their corresponding fan bases.
Swift is followed closely by Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter, and Alex Warren with eight nominations each. The ceremony airs March 26 from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, offering a celebration not just of the year’s biggest stars, but of the songs that defined everyday listening in 2025.
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