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All the biggest names in music were at the 4th iHeartRadio Music Festival held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas at the weekend. Meghan Trainor was there, Lorde, Calvin Harris, Iggy Azalea, Nicki Minaj, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Paramore, One Direction, Coldplay and many more. Ryan Seacrest, the weekend’s host said: “You can’t believe they’re all in one arena, it just doesn’t happen.”

The iHeartRadio Music Festival is a two-day festival held each September (since 2011) by iHeartRadio. According to Billboard magazine, the main festival has “quickly established itself as a home to a who’s who of every major artist across virtually every format on radio.”

We’ve collected together some of our favourite performances – Click on the video titles to open them in Creation 5:

Taylor Swift performed an epic medley of her hit songs. She started her set with We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together before launching into 22, I Knew You Were Trouble, Love Story and finishing with Shake It Off — of course!

We loved her introduction to Shake it Off: “I think that you have things going on in your lives. You’ve got deadlines, you’ve got things stressing you out, you’ve got people saying things about you that aren’t true. You have frenemies, and liars, and dirty, dirty cheats. What do you do about all those things, well, you shake ‘em off, of course.”

Taylor Swift at the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2014

Calvin Harris was Saturday night’s headliner and he really got things going with a fantastic set and an amazing light show. Two of the songs he performed were his chart-topper Summer and his new song, Blame, sung by UK sou-singer John Newman. It was the first time they had performed the song live. 

Calvin Harris – Summer & Blame Live at the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2014

Meghan Trainor, introduced by actress Hilary Duff, performed a two-song set, including, of course, her current Nº1 hit All About That Bass. The 2-song set follows.

Meghan Trainor Title / All About That Bass iHeartRadio Music Festival 2014

Iggy Azalea gave a fantastic performance, wearing a pink, black and purple outfit, matching the black and white outfits of the sexy background dancers. DJ Whiz Kid lent a hand with background vocals to the songs – and Iggy rapped her heart out. Fancy that! Watch her entire set below.

Iggy Azalea at the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2014

Lorde was introduced to the stage by Chicago P.D. actress Sophia Bush and she gave a rocking performance! The night before, she performed at the Music Midtown Festival in Atlanta.

Lorde at the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2014

Ed Sheeran’s set was yet another highlight during an entire night of highlights. The best part being special guest Macklemore joining Sheeran onstage during a performance of The Heist. They also sang Same Love together. Sheeran went on to perform a mix of Loyal (Chris Brown) and a couple of songs by Blackstreet, Don’t and No Diggity. Of course, he sang The A Team and Sing. Check out the entire set below!

Ed Sheeran at the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2014

Nicki Minaj goes well with the bright lights of Vegas and her magnetic stage presence was impossible to ignore. She had quite a challenge following on from Taylor Swift and Coldplay but with an Ariana Grande cameo for Bang Bang, plenty of booty-popping on Super Bass and Anaconda, and an amazing a cappella version of her Flawless (Remix) Minaj got people talking hours after her performance..

Nicki Minaj at the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2014

To view more videos, visit the iHeart Radio website.

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SHOWTIME! We continue our series of ‘In Performance at the White House’ – a series of concerts created to showcase the rich fabric of American culture in the exclusive setting of the nation’s most famous home. To see last weeks post, Paul McCartney (Gerswhin Prize for Popular Song), click here.

A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement

“In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement” is a PBS music special taped in the East Room of the White House. President and Mrs. Obama hosted the concert in honor of Black History Month. Artists include Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, John Mellencamp, Smokey Robinson, Seal, the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Howard University Choir. Morgan Freeman and Queen Latifah were the emcees.

The evening featured songs from the Civil Rights Movement as well as readings from famous Civil Rights speeches and writings. “The songs of the Civil Rights Movement capture the spirit of that critical period so memorably. To honor these songs at the White House and in a broadcast during Black History Month is a testament to that historic period in the American story, one that continues to change our lives,” commented Jacquie Jones, executive director of the National Black Programming Consortium.

Download these shows and add them to your music library

This is part of a 10-week series that we are running on our blog, with the music videos conveniently separated into individual performances so that you can save and download your favourite artists, or the whole show if you prefer. Creation 5’s YouTube feature lets you download videos so you can watch offline when you’re travelling and enjoy great music on-the-go. Don’t forget that you can download Creation 5’s YouTube In-app purchase absolutely FREE, which normally costs €4.49 ($4.99), as we currently have a promotion running in celebration of hitting 500,000 downloads on the App Store!

01 President Obama Introductory Speech
02 Yolanda Adams – Change is Going to Come
03 Yolanda Adams – How Great Thou Art
04 John Mellencamp – Keep Your Eyes on The Prize
05 Joan Baez – We Shall Overcome
06 Natalie Cole – What’s Going On
07 Smokey Robinson & Jennifer Hudson – People Get Ready
08 Jennifer Hudson – Someday We’ll All Be Free
09 The Freedom Singers – Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round
10 Bob Dylan – The Times They Are A-Changin’
11 Smokey Robinson – Abraham, Martin and John
12 The Blind Boys of Alabama – I’m Free at Last

President Obama Introductory Speech

Yolanda Adams – Change is Going to Come

Yolanda Adams – How Great Thou Art

John Mellencamp – Keep Your Eyes on The Prize

Joan Baez – We Shall Overcome

Natalie Cole – What’s Going On

Smokey Robinson & Jennifer Hudson – People Get Ready

Jennifer Hudson – Someday We’ll All Be Free

The Freedom Singers – Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round

Bob Dylan – The Times They Are A-Changin’

Smokey Robinson – Abraham, Martin and John

The Blind Boys of Alabama – I’m Free at Last

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This summer The Official Charts Company revealed which were the most-streamed tracks of all time in the UK. Pompeii by Bastille won the golden prize after having received a total of 26.6 million streams in two years, jogging past Daft Punk’s Get Lucky (on 24.5 million streams) and flying past Passenger’s Let Her Go in third place, with 21.7 million streams.

To watch a video in Creation 5, just tap the video title.

1 – Pompeii – Bastille (26.6 million)

The fact that Pompeii has had over 26 million streams is amazing,” said Bastille frontman Dan Smith. “We’re really, really happy. When we made Pompeii we never even saw ourselves as a band that would be even remotely mainstream or anything like that. We thought, hopefully, some people will like the song; maybe we’ll sell enough albums to be able to make a second album and not be jobless so soon after we quit our jobs in the first place.”

“Everything that’s happened with Pompeii has completely blown our minds and the fact that we’re still doing this as a job, the fact we get to travel round the world and go to different countries off the back of the album is insane and we just feel really lucky and glad that people stream too because streaming is important.”

2 – Get Lucky – Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams (24.5 million)

Cranking up the volume, this magical electro tune always gets the party started and never fails to get you in the mood to get up and dance. Co-Written by French house music duo Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams and Nile Rogers, the song won Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 56th Grammy Awards. Since it’s release in 2013 up until June 2014, the song had reached 24.5 million streams in the UK. This “formidable” and “old school disco-jam”, as stated by Will Hermes (Rolling Stone), is a true gem in the electronic music world, and a delightful breath of fresh air.

3 – Let Her Go – Passenger (21.7 million)

Let Her Go, released in June 2012 by British singer-songwriter Passenger, is the second single from his third album, All The Little Lights. After a Dutch fan e-mailed Passenger asking him to introduce the song to some Dutch radio stations because he thought it would become a big hit in the Netherlands, the song began trending and found huge commercial success with the Dutch public. After its initial success, the song soon reached Nº1 in the Charts worldwide, including Nº2 in the UK Singles Chart and Nº5 on Billboard Hot 100. Passenger’s first international success racked up a total of 21.7 million streams, sold over 1 million digital copies in the UK and over 4 million in the US as of July 2014. The song was also nominated for British Single of the Year at the 2014 BRIT Awards.

“Suddenly, whether you like it or not, you’ve got this massive song and your whole life changes,” said the British singer-songwriter.

4 – Wake Me Up – Avicii (21.4 million)

A “fun experiment” is how Swedish DJ Avicii refers to this track. He and soulful American singer-songwriter, Aloe Blacc, wrote the lyrics in a couple of hours and released what was to become 2013’s summer anthem. Released in June 2013, Wake Me Up sold over 1 million copies by October of that year, in the UK alone and, by June 2014, had reached 21.4 million streams.

5 – Happy – Pharrell Williams (20.7 million)

Happy is the world famous (non-Grammy Award-winning) soundtrack to the sequel of the popular animated movie Despicable Me. [How did Let It Go from the Disney animated film Frozen outshine Pharrell’s top class track Happy? – Who knows!]. The song has sold over 1.3 million copies in the UK and, by June 2014, reached a total of 20.7 million streams.

Not only is Pharrell’s neo-soul, feel-good, cheerful and uplifting song incredibly catchy, he’s the first to have released a 24-hour music video, a concept that became a world event and created a viral-chain of home-made music videos around the globe.

6 – Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke/TI/Pharrell Williams (20.7 million)

Between May 2013 and June 2014, Blurred Lines had sold 1.54 million copies, reached 20.7 million streams and was nominated for two Grammys at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The single was written and completed by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams in the space of an hour.

Inspired by Marvin Gaye’s Got To Give It Up, the similarities in “feel” and “sound” between the two songs led to a series of lawsuits and counter-suits between Sony/ATV and Marvin Gaye’s estate, regarding copyright infringement allegations. Finally, the two parties arrived at an undisclosed settlement.

The song’s controversial subject matter and music video nudity content was designed to attract attention and make the video go viral. Thrilled with the success of his song, Mr Thicke said: “I’m so honoured, the success of “Blurred Lines” is a dream come true”. The growing success of Blurred Lines is an amazing achievement for Thicke, who had never had a radio hit before the release.

7 – Rather Be – Clean Bandit ft. Jess Glynne (19.9 million)

Rather Be is one of 2014 summer soundtracks, release by the smashing electronic instrumental group Clean Bandit and featuring Jess Glynne. Released in January 2014 as the fourth single on their debut studio album New Eyes, the deep-house/synth-pop track, Rather Be, had reached 19.9 million streams in just six months. The song debuted at Nº1 on the UK Singles Chart and became the fastest-selling single of 2014, selling over 1 million copies since its release.

8 – Radioactive – Imagine Dragons (19.7 million)

Radioactive is the opening track on Imagine Dragon’s debut album Night Vision. It received great acclaim from critics who referred to it as the “highlight” of the album. After appearing on various commercials and trailers, the song gradually peaked at Nº3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart and became the American rock band’s first top 10 hit. The song also broke the record for slowest ascension to top 5 in chart history and holds the record for most weeks ruling Billboard Hot 100 – 87 weeks! Radioactive was nominated for Record of The Year at the 2014 Grammy Awards and took home the prize for Best Rock Performance. The song was the third best-selling single of 2013 and reached a total stream of 19.7 million by June 2014.

9 – Counting Stars – One Republic (19.7 million)

Counting Stars featured on One Republic’s third studio album Native (2013). It became one of the band’s most successful singles, reaching Nº1 in Canada and the UK, Nº2 in the US and within the top 10 in 20 countries. By June 2014, the track had reached 19.7 million streams in the UK alone.

10 – Can’t Hold Us – Macklemore/Ryan Lewis/Dalton (17.2 million)

American hip-hop duo, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, released Can’t Hold Us as the third single on their debut album The Heist (2012). The song got to Nº1 on Billboard Hot 100 and became their second Nº1 hit single in the US. Lewis Corner of Digital Spy praised the song’s “infectious, soul-soaked piano line and beats more vibrant than Rio de Janeiro’s finest carnival floats”, granting it four stars out of five. The single received 17.2 million streams in the UK by June 2014.

The Official Charts Company’s drew their data from the on-demand audio streaming services that include Spotify, Deezer, Napster, O2 Tracks, Sony’s Music Unlimited, Xbox Music and Rara, all of which are members of the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), co-owners of the Official Charts Company along with record labels association the BPI.

We’ve compiled these videos into a playlist – click here to play them in Creation 5!

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