It’s time to roll out to this year’s iHeartRadio Music Awards — and leading the charge is this year’s host and recipient of the highly coveted Landmark Award, Ludacris.

The Atlanta native is no stranger to the hosting gig. He hosted the Billboard Music Awards for back to back years in 2016 and 17. And two years ago, Luda took on the emcee role for the iHeartRadio Music Awards where he delivered a joyous opening monologue, honored fellow musical legends, cracked jokes at his own expense and also performed a medley of his own biggest hits. With this experience already under his belt, hosting the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards is a return to form for him.

With Luda at the helm, this year’s ceremony is looking to be as exciting as ever. Alongside the rapper’s Landmark Award, iHeartRadio has announced several other major honors that are to be presented. Miley Cyrus, hot off the heels of last week’s Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special, will receive the Innovator Award, given out to an artist with global musical and cultural impact. Best New Artist Grammy nominee and chart topper Alex Warren will get the award for Breakthrough Artist. Grammy-winning singer-songer writer John Mellencamp will be bestowed with the Icon Award. Though it is not yet known what awards she may receive, Taylor Swift, who is nominated in a whopping nine categories, is set to make a special appearance, marking the first time she’s attended the event since 2023.

The awards categories aren’t the stacked lineup at this year’s iHeartRadio Music Awards. 90s hiphop and RnB legends Salt-N-Pepa, TLC and En Vogue will all hit the stage together for the first time — a perfect kickoff to their recently-announced It’s Iconic tour. Vocal powerhouse Raye, whose second studio album This Music May Contain Hope drops the day after the ceremony, will also perform. The Landmark himself, Ludacris will take a break from hosting to put on his performer hat, as he shows off just why he’s receiving the major award this year.

Ahead of Thursday’s (March 26) ceremony, Billboard caught up with Ludacris to chat all things iHeartRadio Music Awards, why he’s looking forward to hosting, and what he thinks of some of this year’s performers and awardees.

You hosted the iHeartRadio Music Awards in 2024 — what are you most excited for with hosting again?

Just it being live, because anything can happen. Not all award shows are live, and I just love that element. It brings a whole new excitement to it. You just never know what can happen — anything can happen.

Do you have any ideas or plans for crazy surprises that people should look out for it?

There are a bunch of those types of crazy surprises. I can’t give them away, because then it wouldn’t be a surprise, but there are definitely some really good things. I know there’s not a surprise with Taylor Swift making an appearance. She hasn’t done that in a long time, so just that alone is going to get a lot of people excited. She has nine nominations, so she’s making a special appearance.

There are a lot of awards being given out — how do you keep up your energy and keep the audience excited throughout the night as a host?

I got a team of individuals around me that help me stay sane and keep me on point. I can’t do it all myself. I always make sure that I give love to the team that’s around me. Having the experience of doing it before is also something that comforts me, and I feel like we’re going to make it even better, and are trying to top last time.

Major congratulations on receiving the Landmark Award this year! What does it mean to you to receive this honor?

It means the world, because as artists, when we first put music out, you never know exactly how long it’s going to have impact. So when you can be in the industry for over two decades and look back at it, these are the type of awards that bring joy to your heart. You’re able to reflect on the impact, the amount of time and relevancy that your songs have made in the culture. So I’m extremely excited.

Alex Warren is receiving the breakthrough artist award. As a veteran of the industry, do you have any advice for him as a young artist reaching new levels of success?

Try not to take anything personal. Just keep going in the industry, that’s what I would say. Just keep your passion in the music, and don’t let the behind-the-scenes mess up your your [ability] to stay focused on the music.

You’re also performing this year! Without giving too much away, do you have anything special planned for it?

Something new. Absolutely something new and something classic, [we’re molding] those together.

Outside of your own, are there any performances at this year’s awards that your particularly excited about?

Man, I can’t wait to see TLC — you know, the hometown, that’s Atlanta, Georgia, right there. And Salt-N-Pepa, they are a pioneer female rap group. I love seeing pioneers be able to come back. For those who may not have been around when Salt-N-Pepa started, they’re able to witness their history and people that have paved the way for all of these current female artists. So those are the ones I’m most excited about.

Miley Cyrus is receiving this year’s innovator award. What do you think makes her an innovator?

It’s not easy to transition from child star into super stardom and have this type of role for so long. You see a lot of people that started in the children’s space, and it’s not as easy to transcend all of those years, still keep a level head and continue to grow as an artist. So I just want to salute her for just being consistent in elevation as a star and as a person that’s passionate about all that she does, it definitely shows.

Do you have any final words of encouragement you want to share with any of the nominees ahead of the ceremony?

Man, good luck. That’s all I would say.

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.

This week: Afroman turns a headline-capturing legal victory into newfound streaming popularity, while Nothing But Thieves gets a huge look from an Amazon Prime superhero show and 3OH!3 benefits from an animated dance challenge.

Afroman Turns Legal Victory into Streaming Triumphs, Led by “Lemon Pound Cake”

“Because I Got High” rapper Afroman found himself back in the zeitgeist after winning a jury verdict last week (Mar. 18). The jurors sided with the Cali rapper in a lawsuit filed by seven Ohio cops, who claimed the MC defamed them by releasing music videos mocking them after a failed, guns-drawn raid on his home in 2022. Naturally, the quirky lawsuit caught the public’s attention, as did Afroman’s testimony that the music videos fell with his First Amendment rights — a hot-button topic across the States right now. As a result, the rapper’s catalog exploded over 500% in streaming activity in the week following the jury’s decision, according to Luminate.

During the week of his the four-day period leading up to his trial (Mar. 13-16), Afroman’s discography earned 1.12 million official on-demand U.S. streams and just over 100 U.S. digital downloads. In the four-day period following the verdict (Mar. 20-23), those figures jumped 511% to 6.8 million official streams, and 2,113% to over 2,500 paid digital downloads. The buzziest track is “Lemon Pound Cake,” in which Afroman jeers at one deputy for apparently eyeing a cake on his counter. That song jumped 9,353% to 2.12 million official on-demand U.S. streams following the verdict (Mar. 20-23), and leapt a whopping 126,300% to over 1,200 U.S. digital downloads.

The streaming love isn’t exclusive to Afroman’s raid-related joints. His signature hit, the Grammy-nominated “High,” earned over 600,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on the Friday following the verdict (Mar. 20), up 133%.

Lemon Pound Cake, the album that compiles Afroman’s police disses, has already hit No. 8 on Billboard‘s Comedy Albums chart (dated Mar. 28), and bigger gains could very well be in store. — KYLE DENIS

‘Invincible’ Season Premiere Revives Decade-Old Nothing But Thieves Single

English alt-rock band Nothing But Thieves has never totally crossed over on the Billboard charts, but it’s been a fixture on various rock charts for a decade now, since the release of its 2015 self-titled debut album. That set generated multiple hits on the Rock & Alternative Songs chart, and also led to a Billboard Hot 100 hit in 2024 when country superstar Morgan Wallen put his spin on the Nothing But Thieves deep cut “Graveyard Whistling.” But now, it’s one of the less-known singles on the debut that’s getting its moment in the spotlight: “If I Die Tonight.”

The power ballad, which never reached a Billboard airplay, sales or streaming chart during its initial mid-2010s release, got its biggest look yet this month with its inclusion in the latest season of Amazon Prime’s hit animated superhero series Invincible. In the season four premiere, “If I Die Tonight” plays over an opening montage showing the fallout from the previous season’s finale — and plays for over three minutes, giving viewers plenty of opportunity to make it one of the most Shazamed songs in the country the past week.

Plenty of those viewers went on to check out the song on DSPs, as well. After totaling under 17,000 streams during the first four days of the previous tracking week (Mar. 13-16), that number was up to 345,000 for the same period this week (Mar. 20-23) — a gain of 1,942%, according to early data provided by Luminate. It could lead to a big moment for Nothing But Thieves, and to even bigger musical moments on Invincible, now that it’s been confirmed as one of the more valuable shows for synch placements in 2026. – AU

Animation-Inspired Dance Trend Revives 3OH!3’s “Richman”

On Feb. 4, user @/hymnuslop shared an original animation featuring two My Little Pony-inspired characters dancing to Denver electro-pop duo 3OH!3’s “Richman,” setting into motion a streaming resurgence for the 18-year-old deep cut. The clip finds one character lip-syncing in the foreground while the other dances in the background — and the trend has now transferred to real people. 

User @/janabananathings was the human to kick the trend into high gear with her March 2 post, which has since garnered nearly four million views and over 540,000 likes. The accompanying sound, which originates from user @/hymnuslop’s clip, boasts over 52,000 TikTok posts. The official 3OH!3 TikTok account got in on the fun, sharing several clips of the EDM duo performing the song throughout the years. 

The week user @/janabananathings shared her video (Feb. 27-Mar. 5), “Richman” logged 429,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, up 193% from the week prior. The following week (Mar. 6-12), which accounts for a full week of the trend truly taking off, that figure leapt a further 133% to a little over one million official on-demand U.S. streams. Continuing its ascent, “Richman” jumped another 44% to 1.44 million official streams the next week (March 13-19). 

Over the past four weeks, “Richman” has exploded over 1,800% in streaming activity, bringing 3OH!3 back into the center of the pop conversation — with a song that was never even an official single. — K.D.

FKA Twigs is reigniting her legal battle with Shia LaBeouf, claiming the actor is trying to silence her by enforcing a non-disclosure agreement that she says is illegal.

Her new accusations come less than a year after the Grammy-winning singer (Tahliah Barnett) and LaBeouf reached a settlement to resolve her long-running sexual battery lawsuit, in which she accused him of “relentless abuse” while they dated in the late 2010s.

According to a new lawsuit submitted in court Wednesday (March 25), that settlement included an NDA — and in December, LaBeouf filed an arbitration case claiming the singer had violated it by giving press statements that she did not “feel safe” and wanted to “help survivors.”

Represented by prominent litigator Mathew Rosengart, Barnett’s new lawsuit claims that NDA is illegal under California state law and that LaBeouf’s efforts to enforce it are “frivolous” and “preposterous.”

“Shia LaBeouf has tried to control Tahliah Barnett for the better part of a decade,” Rosengart writes in the lawsuit, reviewed on the court’s website by Billboard. “LaBeouf’s campaign of intimidation and abuse of the legal system denigrates not just Ms. Barnett but every other survivor of sexual abuse in this state.”

An attorney for LaBeouf did not immediately return a request for comment.

The new case comes shortly after LaBeouf was arrested twice in New Orleans last month over alleged violent altercations; the star was charged with several misdemeanor counts and released on bond.

Barnett’s lawsuit is premised on the STAND Act, a 2019 California statute passed in the wake of the #MeToo movement that banned the use of non-disclosure agreements to cover up sexual assault, discrimination and sexual harassment cases.

Her lawyers say the deal she signed with LaBeouf last year clearly violates that law, since it not only prohibits her from discussing her own allegations of sexual abuse against LaBeouf, but also from even discussing the issue of abuse in a general sense.

“She files this action to right a wrong, and also on behalf of other women [who] are the victims of sexual and domestic violence who do not have the resources to speak out and defend themselves from predators,” Rosengart writes. “She seeks to ensure that survivors … are not bullied or silenced like she was by agreements that violate California law.”

LaBeouf’s alleged efforts to enforce the contract started after Barnett gave a statement to The Hollywood Reporter in October, in response to being asked if she felt safe after settling with LaBeouf. “No, I wouldn’t say I feel safe,” she said, before adding that she supports abuse victim advocacy groups and wants to “help survivors in any way that I can.”

After giving that “benign and unoffensive statement,” Barnett says, LaBeouf’s lawyers then filed a “secret arbitration” case against her in December, alleging that she had violated the NDA. The arbitration case, filed by prominent celebrity litigator Shawn Holley, allegedly demanded “exorbitant monies” from the singer for the supposed breach.

Barnett then retained Rosengart — a former federal prosecutor known as an aggressive advocate — who argued the case was void under the STAND Act. LaBeouf’s lawyers allegedly responded by arguing that law did not apply because her abuse case against the actor had alleged only battery, not assault.

“LaBeouf’s preposterous argument should offend every citizen of California,” Barnett’s lawyers write in this week’s lawsuit.

Following more back-and-forth between the lawyers — and after LaBeouf’s criminal troubles in Louisiana — the actor allegedly agreed to drop the arbitration case earlier this month. But Barnett and Rosengart say they need a judge to declare the NDA void so that LaBeouf cannot wield it over the singer in the future.

“Ms. Barnett must be freed from the above-referenced unlawful restrictions,” Rosengart writes. “This lawsuit will determine whether a celebrity abuser’s fame and money can override the important rights enacted by the legislature.”