Swift, Bieber take spotlight at iHeart Music Awards

The iHeartRadio Music Awards assembled an impressive array of big-name acts for its third edition Sunday at the Forum in Inglewood, California, with Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Adele among the evening's big winners.

The show kicked off with a dynamic performance by Jason Derulo, who danced around fans and the stage to a mashup of this year's most popular hits.

Shortly after, Justin Bieber took the stage, or rather took place among the audience, with an acoustic version of “Love Yourself” and the moved into a full out version of “Company”.

Fetty Wap and his dirt bike squad appeared in a video intro that turned into the “Trap Queen” singer's live solo performance of “Again” on stage.

Calvin Harris received the award for “Dance Artist of the Year” and thanked Diplo and Skrillex, saying what they do for music is “incredibly inspiring.” Skrillex and Diplo were both nominated as a unit in the “Dance Song of the Year” and Diplo was also nominated under Major Lazer for that same category. Diplo was then able to take the stage for his win for “Dance Song of the Year” with Justin Bieber and Skrillex for “Where R ü Now”.

Taylor Swift strikes a pose with Bono and The Edge.

Demi Lovato performed a stripped-down version of her song “Stone Cold” that relied on booming vocals and Brad Paisley's exceptional guitar skills.

Justin Timberlake presented the inaugural Best Tour award to Taylor Swift, hilariously mispronouncing her name before honouring her by calling her a “touring sensation” who's won “250 awards to date.”

“In Sydney, Taylor brought together 76,000 fans,” he said. “Taylor chooses to knock down walls and invites everyone to be in her #squad,” he added, listing her impressive list of 48 tour guests, including Julia Roberts and Kobe Bryant.

Chris Brown sang “Liquor,” “Back to Sleep” and “Wrist” from his new album “Royalty” in a dynamic performance that was perfectly in sync with the night's trend of active showcases that traveled from one area of the arena to the other.

Another video tribute went to U2, who picked up the Innovator Award. Bono and The Edge accepted the award on behalf of the band. “We are still in our high school band, how did that happen?” said The Edge. “Innovation is something about searching out the future before it's arrived,” said Bono. “Edge is actually from the future,” he joked, while the Edge said that “rock 'n roll is the future.”

 “We want to dedicate this award to artists around the world who are innovating in difficult circumstances,” said Bono.

Other performers of the night were Zayn, The Weeknd, Meghan Trainor, DNCE and video appearances by Maroon 5 and Pitbull from Houston. Iggy Azalea capped off the night by performing her new single “Team.”

The night's biggest winner was Taylor Swift, who took home four awards, including Album of the Year. She thanked iHeartRadio for playing all the songs off of her album “1989.” Swift was followed closely by Justin Bieber with three awards. Adele, meanwhile, took one of the biggest awards of the night, Song of the Year, with her record-shattering “Hello”.