Beyoncé Will Receive Innovator Award at 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards 

Beyoncé pictured during her Glastonbury headline set, June 26, 2011. (Getty Images)
Beyoncé pictured during her Glastonbury headline set, June 26, 2011. (Getty Images)
TT

Beyoncé Will Receive Innovator Award at 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards 

Beyoncé pictured during her Glastonbury headline set, June 26, 2011. (Getty Images)
Beyoncé pictured during her Glastonbury headline set, June 26, 2011. (Getty Images)

Days after Beyoncé releases her highly anticipated eighth studio album, she’ll make an appearance at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards to receive its innovator award.

Beyoncé will appear at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles to accept the honor during the April 1 ceremony hosted by Ludacris. She’s being recognized for her pioneering career: for decades of creative risks and influencing pop culture on a mass scale, as well as last year’s groundbreaking Renaissance World Tour.

Ludacris will also perform, joining a previously announced lineup of Justin Timberlake, Green Day, TLC, Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson, and Tate McRae.

Cher will be presented with the iHeartRadio icon award.

Beyoncé's upcoming “Act ll: Cowboy Carter” is the follow-up to 2022’s acclaimed “Act I: Renaissance.”

Last month, the superstar singer became the first Black woman to top Billboard’s country music chart after the uptempo country stomp “Texas Hold ’Em” reached No. 1 on the country airplay chart.

This year, Beyoncé scored five iHeartRadio Music Awards nominations, including R&B artist of the year, R&B song of the year (for “Cuff It,”) favorite tour style, best fan army and a new category, favorite on screen, for “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.”

Taylor Swift leads the nominations with nine, followed closely by Jelly Roll, SZA, and 21 Savage with eight. Behind them is Olivia Rodrigo, who received seven.

Fans can vote in several categories including best lyrics, best music video, best fan army, social star award, favorite tour photographer, TikTok bop of the year, favorite tour style and two new fields: favorite on screen and favorite debut album.

The show will air live on Fox stations beginning at 8 p.m. EDT. It will also air on iHeartRadio stations across the US and the app.



UK Blues Legend John Mayall Dead at 90 

English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)
English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)
TT

UK Blues Legend John Mayall Dead at 90 

English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)
English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)

John Mayall, the British blues pioneer whose 1960s music collective the Bluesbreakers helped usher in a fertile period of rock and brought guitarists like Eric Clapton to prominence, has died at 90, his family said Tuesday.

Mayall, a singer and multi-instrumentalist who was dubbed "the godfather of British blues," and whose open-door arrangement saw some of the greats in the genre hone their craft with him and his band, "passed away peacefully in his California home" on Monday, according to a statement posted on his Facebook page.

It did not state a cause of death.

"Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world's greatest road warriors," it said. "John Mayall gave us 90 years of tireless efforts to educate, inspire and entertain."

Mayall's influence on 1960s rock and beyond is enormous. Members of the Bluesbreakers eventually went on to join or form groups including Cream, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones and many more.

At age 30, Mayall moved to London from northern England in 1963. Sensing revolution in the air, he gave up his profession as a graphic designer to embrace a career in blues, the musical style born in Black America.

He teamed up with a series of young guitarists including Clapton, Peter Green, later of Fleetwood Mac, and Mick Taylor who helped form the Rolling Stones.

In the Bluesbreakers' debut album in 1966, "Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton," John Mayall enthralled music aficionados with a melding of soulful rock and gutsy, guitar-driven American blues featuring covers of tunes by Robert Johnson, Otis Rush and Ray Charles.

The blues music he was playing in British venues was "a novelty for white England," he told AFP in 1997.

That album was a hit, catapulting Clapton to stardom and bringing a wave of popularity to a more raw and personal blues music.

Mayall moved to California in 1968 and toured America extensively in 1972.

He recorded a number of landmark albums in the 1960s including "Crusade," "A Hard Road," and "Blues From Laurel Canyon." Dozens more followed in the 1970s and up to his latest, "The Sun Is Shining Down," in 2022.

Mayall was awarded an OBE, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in 2005.