Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Concert review:

At iHeart festival, the hits keep coming

2022 iHeartRadio Music Festival

John Locher / AP

Morgan Wallen, right, performs with Diplo on the first night of the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Festival, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, at T-Mobile Arena. The two performed their mashup “Heartless,” for the first time together live.

Say this about the annual iHeartRadio Music Festival: The artists taking the T-Mobile Arena stage aren’t afforded the time to ease into their biggest radio hits, so they jump right into them, one after another.

T-Mobile Arena hosts 2022 iHeartRadio Music Festival

Pitbull performs Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, at the iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena. Launch slideshow »

And there’s probably no other live event anywhere that packs in so many different genres of music, from rap to country to pop to rock ’n’ roll to soul to dance/electronic and beyond.

This year’s festival, the 12th annual, was staged over two nights, Friday and Saturday, for live audiences in T-Mobile, a nationwide streaming audience via the CW network’s app and CWTV.com and on iHeartRadio stations in 150 markets across the United States. The CW network will air the festival on consecutive nights Oct. 7 and 8.

Each of the artists performed a set of just under 25 minutes, beginning Friday with Pit Bull. Backed by a troupe of six dancers, “Mr. Worldwide” energized the crowd with seven hits ranging from “Don’t Stop the Party” to “Fireball” to “Give Me Everything.” Donning his signature sunglasses, the Miami native joked with his audience that “Vegas is Sin City: What happens here stays here; I’m from the Magic City: What happens in Miami never happens.” Fresh off the back end of a Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood, Pitbull returns this weekend to MGM Grand Garden Arena as a headliner at The Event, a fundraiser for the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation.

Next up was English singer-songwriter Sam Smith, whose set opened with the 2014 hit “Stay With Me.”After renditions of “I’m Not the Only One” and “How Do You Sleep,” Smith was joined onstage by German singer-songwriter Kim Petras for the live debut of their collaboration, “Unholy.”

Ageless showman Lionel Richie followed Smith with a spirited set of yesterday’s hits, including “Dancing On the Ceiling,” “Hello,” and “All Night Long (All Night).” Richie, 73, paid homage to his “friends” dating to his days with the Commodores and those “from almost a third generation later.” He’ll resume a residency at Wynn Las Vegas’ Encore Theater with shows sprinkled on six dates from Oct. 12 to Oct. 22.

Indie rockers the Black Keys were next with a seven-song set that included “Lo/Hi” and “Gold on the Ceiling,” capped by their 2011 hit “Lonely Boy.”

Pat Benatar and husband Neil Giraldo followed and began with a cover of the Rattling Sabres’ “All Fired Up,” then settled in with Benatar’s 1980s hits “Promises in the Dark” and “Battlefield” before ending with a medley that combined her “Heartbreaker” with Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”

Iconic dance/hip-hop/rap group the Black Eyed Peas captivated the audience next with a set that included songs ranging from “Let’s Get It Started” to “Mamacita” to “I Gotta Feeling.” The group also performed their recently released “Don’t You Worry,” on which they collaborated with Shakira and David Guetta.

Country sensation Morgan Wallen was next and drew perhaps the loudest ovations of the night. He opened the set playing the piano on a soulful “Sand in My Boots,” then followed it up with “More Than My Hometown,” “Still Goin Down,” “You Proof,” and “Wasted on You” before ending with the foot-stomping “Whiskey Glasses.”

American DJ Diplo ended with night spinning three hits, “Pepas,” “On My Mind” and “Don’t Forget My Love,” before he was joined onstage by Wallen for “Heartless,” their smash 2020 dance/pop/country collaboration — the first time they’ve performed the hit together in concert.

Saturday night brought a completely different lineup but the same number of hits. A hooded Avril Lavigne, the pop-punk queen, kicked off the evening with a five-song set that began with “Girlfriend,” her 2007 hit, and ended with the ever-popular “Sk8r Boi.”

Folk/alternative/indie rocker Marcus Mumford, appearing solo minus “and Sons,” was up next. A wizard on the guitar, Mumford was the lone exception of the festival who skipped his hits in favor of performing five songs from his newly released “Self-Titled” album, including “Prior Warning,” “Grace,” and “Dangerous Games.”

Good ol’ boy Luke Combs brought the crowd to its feet next with a bevy of his No. 1 country hits, including “Hurricane,” “Forever After All,” and “Lovin’ On You.” He finished his set with the raucous “Beer Never Broke My Heart,” which the audience joined in a spirited sing-along and ended with Combs launching his half-drank red Solo cup of beer over the audience in front of the stage.

One of the oddest segues of the festival came next when Luke Combs gave way to iconic rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, whose performance included “Bad Boy for Life” and “I Need a Girl.” The set included two onstage guests, fellow rapper Bryson Till and Diddy’s son, King Combs. But the highlight was when Diddy paid tribute to his late ex-wife Kim Porter and deceased rapper and former collaborator Biggie Smalls with the 1997 hit “I’ll Be Missing You.”

County-pop crossover singer Maren Morris followed with a solid half-hour that began with “Circles Around This Town” and included “I Can’t Love You Anymore” (with a special cameo by her husband, singer-songwriter Ryan Hurd) and “Bones.” She finished with her 2016 debut single, “My Church.” She'll also appear as a headliner at The Event for the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation

Next up was hip-hop great LL Cool J for a high-energy set (perhaps second only during the festival to Pitbull). He performed nine songs, including “Rock the Bells,” “Jack the Ripper” and “I’m Bad,” before finishing with his hit, “Mama Said Knock You Out.”

His set led the next artist, Halsey, to gush, “LL Cool J was crazy! I was like: I’ve gotta go on after that?” But they held their own with hits like “Nightmare,” “You Should Be Sad,” and “Bad At Love,” before ending with their chart-topping “Without Me.”

The night — and the festival — ended with irrepressible Megan Thee Stallion, who with an ensemble of talented dancers strutted and twerked her way through a set that had the audience standing throughout. The dozen songs she performed included “Freak Nasty,” “Anxiety,” “WAP” — her collaboration with Cardi B, “Body” and her 2020 No. 1 hit, “Savage.”

All told, organizers pulled off the festival in near-seamless fashion, making fast work of the stage changes between acts and offering an eclectic musical mix of hits both nights.