Taylor Swift did not attend the iHeartRadio Music Awards on Monday where she was honored with the Tour of the Century award.

Instead the “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” singer filmed a thank you video and offered a taped tour performance of “Mirrorball“ on guitar from the surprise set of her first her Glendale, Arizona, concert stop.

The iHeartRadio Music Awards were held in Los Angeles on the two-year anniversary of Swift’s massively successful Eras Tour.

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“This tour was absolutely the most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life … and it really was the most gratifying thing I’ve ever done,” Swift said before thanking her fans. “It blows my mind, and I’m never gonna stop being grateful for it.”

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Comedian Nikki Glaser, who went to 22 Eras Tour shows, introduced the award.

“Thank god I saw it that many times because never in my childless, dog-lady life will I ever witness a live performance of that magnitude,” Glaser said. “We have 75 years left in the century, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, no one’s topping this.'”

The Chairman of “The Tortured Poets Department” was up for 10 nominations across nine awards. Four hours before the show, Swift won “Best Tour Tradition” for her surprise songs, unique to each concert night, and best lyrics for “Fortnight.”

Moments before doors opened, the show awarded her with “Favorite Tour Style” and best music video for “Fortnight.” And then as the red carpet was in full swing, she and her boyfriend Travis Kelce won for “Favorite Surprise Guest.” Kelce picked her up and carried her during the her third show in London.

Fans hoped for a red carpet fashion moment or a surprise announcement. The surprise ended up being her absence.

Her spectacular, sequin-filled concert tour grossed $2 billion in ticket sales. Swift danced her way through 149 sets in 22 countries and thanked her crew with munificent bonuses totaling $197 million.

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‘Another time and place, repeating history’

The “Change” singer has a decadelong relationship with the iHeartRadio Music Awards. Swift has won 19 awards and received 50 nominations. In 2023, she won the Innovator Award.

“I never, a single time, woke up in the morning and thought, ‘You know what I’m going to do today, I’m going to go innovate some stuff? Things need to be innovated, and I’m going to be the one that does it,'” Swift said in her acceptance speech. “But what I did do is try to do the best decision for me at the time, whether or not it had been successfully done before. And I think maybe that might have been the key.”

Lady Gaga is receiving the honor in Los Angeles this year.

“I think the coolest ideas or moves or choices are the new ones, the ones that set a new precedent,” Swift said.

Swift’s previous iHeartRadio awards

In 2023:

• Innovator Award
• Pop album of the year: “Midnights”
• Song of the year: “Anti-Hero”
• Best lyrics: “Anti-Hero”
• TikTok bop of the year: “Bejeweled”
• Favorite use of a sample: “Question…?”

In 2022:

• Best lyrics: “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)”

In 2021:

• Pop album of the year: “Folklore”

In 2020:

• Pop album of the year: “Lover”

In 2019:

• Tour of the year: Reputation Stadium Tour
• Best music video: “Delicate”

In 2018:

• Female artist of the year

In 2016:

• Female artist of the year
• Album of the year: “1989”
• Best tour: The 1989 World Tour
• Most meme-able moment

In 2015:

• Artist of the year
• Song of the year: “Shake It Off”
• Best lyrics: “Blank Space”

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