Tanya’s Take On: The iHeartRadio Music Festival
By: Tanya Rad
You guys know me by now…so you know that our iHeartRadio Music Festival is like my Super Bowl, my Olympics, my World Cup!
Needless to say, I look forward to it every single year because it’s pretty much the most epic music festival there is! And I’m not just saying that because I work for the company—I truly believe that. I’d say a good 85% of the artists I am absolutely in love with right now were at our festival: Demi Lovato, Shawn Mendes, James Bay, Hailee Steinfeld, Nick Jonas, The Weekend—you name it, they were there!
It was hard to narrow it down for this post, but here are my top five moments from the weekend:
1. Meeting Batman
As you all know, Demi Lovato has a new angel in her life...his name is Batman, and he is just the sweetest thing! Demi brought Batman around with her everywhere on Friday night, so I got to have some quality cuddle time with B-Man in Demi’s dressing room.
2. Hailee Steinfeld
Hailee Steinfeld sang an acoustic version of “Stitches” with Shawn Mendes and the crowd (me included) freaking loved it! But this wasn’t necessarily the highlight…I got to watch Hailee perform her hit single “Love Myself” live, and even though it was only her second time performing the song on stage, she did so, so good! I was singing along, I was crying, I was throwing my hands in the air—I just loved every single minute of it!
3. Meeting My New Favorite Band
If you guys are following me, you know I have a new favorite band…DNCE. They are made up of four pretty awesome humans: JinJoo Lee, Cole Whittle, Jack Lawless, and Joe Jonas! I got to spend some quality time with the band, and they are just so fun! To me they sound like a Maroon 5—and I freaking love Maroon 5, so clearly I was an instant fan of this group. If you haven’t heard their single “Cake by the Ocean,” I suggest you go listen to it now!
4. Hanging Out with Taylor Lautner
One of my job duties at the festival is handling specific celebrities: making sure they make their stage appearance time, helping them navigate through the crowd, taking them through press and live broadcasts, etc. Well, this year I was lucky to get to work with Taylor Lautner! I can’t even begin to tell you how cool that guy is! Not only is he so sweet, he is a giant music lover, just like me, his friends are extra rad and down-to-earth, and he’s just such a lovely man to be around! I really lucked out with him this year.
Sidenote: I have to admit I was not prepared for the amount of attention that guy gets…Taylor is quite a “hot” commodity, and the fact that he’s so humble about it is the best part!
5. Quality Time with Demi
Let’s be honest. I just love everything about this woman! I got to spend some quality time with her and her girlfriends in her dressing room after I rocked out to her performance. The conversation there was basically me telling her how amazing she did onstage and how much I am obsessed with her new single “Confident.” Then we took the most epic girl squad photo ever!
Editor’s Note: The iHeartRadio Music Festival will return to The CW Network as an exclusive two-night special on September 29 and 30 from 8:00-10:00 p.m.