Jelly Roll Wins Big At iHeartRadio Music Awards
on Apr 01, 2024
Jelly Roll is already a big winner at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards!
Jelly Roll was among the most nominated artists at Monday night’s iHeartRadio Music Awards with 8 nods across three genres (country, pop, and rock). The first-time nominee earned two awards early in the night: Best New Artist (Pop) and Best New Artist (Country).
Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, accepted both awards and delivered an enthusiastic acceptance speech, saying, “My mama always told me I had a face for radio, baby.”
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Jelly Roll then recalled his childhood and reminisced about singing along with the radio with his siblings, and shared his gratefulness and surprise over winning the new artist awards.
“I remember being in the back seat of the car with my brothers. I had three older brothers and an older sister. All we did was ride around and listen to the radio and we sung every single word. I never would have dreamed I would be one of the voices coming through your radio and to be the best new country artist to represent country music and the best new pop artist! You don’t know what this means to a kid like me,” the singer told the crowd. “I was thinking about it. What does it mean when a guy like me gets the opportunity to be the new pop artist of the year at iHeartRadio’s awards? It means that God will always use the least likely messenger with the biggest message every single time. You can take it to the bank, baby.”
Jelly Roll’s award wins came moments after he performed on stage with Lainey Wilson.
In addition to being one of the most nominated artists of the night, Jelly Roll also had the opportunity to perform during the all-genre awards ceremony. Lainy Wilson joined Jelly Roll to perform their 2023 hit, “Save Me.”
“Save Me” was first released in 2020 as a single from Jelly Roll’s album Self Medicated. A remix that included Lainey Wilson was released in 2023 as the second single from Jelly’s album Whitsitt Chapel.
The pair have performed the song live previously, including at the 2023 Academy of Country Music Awards and during American Idol‘s Season 21 finale.
Watch a clip of Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson‘s performance below.
