30 Facts You Need To Know About Our 2021 iHeartRadio Music Festival Lineup | iHeart (2024)

September 13, 2021

Photo: Wes and Alex/Wes and Alex/Pooneh Ghana

Eilish originally recorded her debut song, “Ocean Eyes” for her dance teacher, who wanted to use it to choreograph a routine.

Photo: Getty Images for iHeartRadio

Billie attempted acting before she became a well-known singer-songwriter. While she disliked the audition process, she enjoyed her time providing background vocals for movies like 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid', 'Ramona and Beezus', and even 'X-Men'.

Photo: Wes and Alex for iHeartRadio

Despite the fact that 'Live At Budokan' is their best-selling album, the band prefers studio recordings to live albums. According to 'Rolling Stone,' bassist Tom Petersson says, "I just think studio albums are better because that's where all the thought went."

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The band released three albums within 15 months after signing with Epic Records in 1976. The albums underperformed in the States, but topped the charts in Japan. To their surprise, thousands of screaming fans greeted the band at the airport when they came to Tokyo to perform in 1978.

Photo: Getty Images

They were previously known as Pectoralz, then changed their name to Starfish in 1997 before finally settling on the name Coldplay.

Photo: Getty Images

Their song “Shiver” was recorded in just one take.

Photo: Getty Images for iHeartRadio

Years ago, the singer went four days without sleep...on a dare!

Photo: Getty Images

People are often surprised to learn that Darius Rucker sings about his favorite football team in the Hootie & The Blowfish song, "Only Wanna Be With You." When he sings the line, “And the Dolphins made me cry” he wasn’t talking about the ocean animals, he was actually referring to the Miami Dolphins.

Photo: Getty Images

Dua's song "Homesick" was co-written by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who also contributed vocals to the track.

Photo: Pixie Levinson

She moved back to London by herself at 15 to pursue her singing dreams.

Photo: Getty Images

They met when they were both studying at Belmont University. Their first performance was at Nashville’s 12th And Porter.

Photo: Getty Images for iHeartRadio

The upcoming Nashville country musical 'May We All' will feature two original songs written by Florida Georgia Line and debut exclusively during the production.

Photo: Pooneh Ghana for iHeartRadio

We know that FINNEAS is a singer, songwriter, and producer, but did you know he's got acting chops too? In the final season of "Glee," he played Alistair. In three years, he auditioned for "Glee" five times, each time for a new character.

Photo: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio

The Grammy-winning producer likes to mix every day sounds into their songs. He revealed that Billie Eilish's song "bury a friend" includes sounds of Billie having her teeth drilled at the dentist.

Photo: Getty Images

When J. Cole was just starting his rap career in NYC, he often struggled to pay rent. His landlord, Muhammad, allowed him to stay despite the fact that he had fallen behind on payments. Cole paid Muhammad back in full after signing with Roc Nation years later.

Photo: Getty Images

Every one of J. Cole's albums have gone platinum or greater.

Photo: Getty Images

Despite the fact that "Don't Stop Believin'" has become the band's hallmark song, Journey saw bigger chart success with "Open Arms" and "Who's Crying Now" at the time of their release.

Photo: Getty Images

The band’s first manager, Herbie Herbert, had originally named the group Golden Gate Rhythm Section.

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

While artists such as Lorde and Frank Ocean inspired Khalid's music, he says that his mother is his biggest influence.

Photo: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio

Kylie Jenner played his song “Location” to her millions of Snapchat followers on the day of Khalid’s high school graduation. Talk about a great graduation gift! "It was around senior prom and I hadn't released anything on SoundCloud in a longtime, but on my graduation day Kylie Jenner played the record on her Snapchat which was insane because the record, it's almost like it skyrocketed," the singer recounted in an interview.

Photo: Wes and Alex for iHeartRadio

The 25-year-old rapper’s album 'My Turn' lead 2020’s most streamed lists.

Photo: Getty Images

Lil Baby has collaborated with some of hip hop's biggest superstars, including Drake, who gave Lil Baby his first top 10 success with "Yes, Indeed," DaBaby, and Future.

Photo: Wes and Alex for iHeartRadio

Early in his career, Nelly was famous for always wearing a Band-Aid on his face. He started wearing it to hide a minor injury and continued to wear it after it became linked with his style in remembrance of friend and musical partner City Spud, who was serving a 10-year prison sentence at the time.

Photo: Getty Images

Nelly is the fourth best-selling rap artist in American music history, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Photo: Getty Images

Sam Hunt was the first country musician to have all of his debut studio album's singles reach the top 40 on the hot 100 chart.

Photo: Joseph Llanes for iHeartRadio

Sam co-wrote Kenny Chesney's "Come Over" that appeared on his 2012 album, Welcome to the Fishbowl. Chesney's "What I Need to Do" was, coincidentally, the first song Sam Hunt learned to play on guitar.

Photo: Getty Images

The plans for Weezer's 'OK Human' album began with a rock instrumentation accompanied by an orchestra. When the band decided to go on the 'Hella Mega Tour' in 2020, they chose to change 'OK Human''s to a heavier one to better suit the tour. Following the cancellation of the tour, the band decided to return to their original orchestral direction.

Photo: Wes and Alex for iHeartRadio

The band insisted that "Undone (The Sweater Song)" not be a video about sweaters. They received more than 25 video treatments involving sweaters, despite the goal.

Photo: Getty Images

He intended to follow in his father's footsteps and become a realtor before becoming a country artist. His father was the one who finally persuaded him to try his hand at singing. Eventually, Walker agreed, and he called his fiancee to ask if she wanted to relocate to Nashville.

Photo: Getty Images

His hit song, "You Broke Up With Me" actually isn't about a romance gone sour. Hayes wrote the song for the "fair weather friends" from his experiences on losing out on his first record deal.

Photo: Getty Images