Public Enemy, Kelly Clarkson in wide-ranging iHeartRadio lineup

Las Vegas Review-Journal

1 year ago

Flavor Flav, left, and Chuck D. perform "Rebel Without a Pause" at the 65th annual Gr ... — Flavor Flav, left, and Chuck D. perform "Rebel Without a Pause" at the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters perform during the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)

FILE – Kelly Clarkson performs during a tribute to Icon award winner Pink at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on Monday, March 27, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Clarkson has responded, Saturday, May 13, to a Rolling Stone report accusing her daytime talk show of being a toxic workplace. She addressed the allegations after 11 current and former employees complained about being overworked and underpaid on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in which they also called “traumatizing to their mental health” in the magazine’s Friday report. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

Chuck D, left, and Flavor Flav perform "Rebel Without a Pause" at the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

The iHeartRadio Music festival covers all genres. This strategy includes the Flavor Flav genre, Foo Fighters genre, Kelly Clarkson genre, Miguel genre and Tim McGraw genre.

Those acts, and more, many more, are lined up for the show as it returns to T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 22-23. Flav and Chuck D, in the form of the legendary hip-hop act Public Enemy, are on the roster, along with Fall Out Boy, Kane Brown, Lil Wayne, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, TLC, Thirty Seconds to Mars and others.

Flav said in a phone chat Tuesday that he and Chuck D were eager to play in Vegas, Flav’s home town. The duo threw a charge into the Grammy Awards telecast in February in L.A.

“I don’t want to get hopes up too high, but I think our iHeart performance will be 10 times better than the Grammys,” Flav said. “This is the first time for me playing T-Mobile Arena, and I hope it won’t be the last.”

Flav said the recent performances with Chuck D could potentially lead to further work together. He did not elaborate, but offered, “Before the Grammys, we hadn’t performed together in about five years. But we’re more on the same page now.”

Clarkson opens her “Chemistry” residency at Bakkt Theater on July 28, running through Aug. 19.

Enduring entertainment broadcaster Ryan Seacrest, a genre unto himself, is back as host. The entire festival lends itself to unexpected collaborations.

“We’re particularly excited about this year’s lineup,” iHeartMedia Chief Programming Officer Tom Poleman said in the company announcement. “This is the only festival in the world with this range of genres — spanning all the styles you hear on our 860 stations and the iHeartRadio app. Each performer can sell out on their own, so it’s incredibly rare that you can see them all together on the same stage.”

The festival will broadcast live via iHeartMedia radio stations throughout the country, across more than 150 markets. For the first time, Hulu will serve as the official streaming destination of the iHeartRadio Music Festival.

Performances will be livestreamed exclusively to Hulu subscribers at no additional cost, and highlights will be available on-demand on Hulu in the weeks following the event. For more information on the livestream line-up, follow Hulu’s site and social channels.

“This is the most diverse festival in music and we are excited to once again host a ‘Best in Class’ group of superstar artists to perform on the same stage,” iHeartMedia President of Entertainment Enterprises John Sykes said in a statement. “And, for the first time in our 13-year history we are proud to partner with Hulu to bring this unforgettable live show to millions of fans across the country.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.