Mars, Timberlake shine

Photo: The Canadian Press

The 2017 iHeartRadio Music Awards started with Justin Timberlake speaking about inclusion and dedicating his award to children who feel different, and ended with a rousing performance by Bruno Mars that included crowd participation from Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett, Ty Dolla $ign, Heidi Klum and more.

Timberlake won the night's first award, song of the year, for "Can't Stop This Feeling!" – his massive No.1 hit that was nominated for an Academy Award last month.

"I wrote this song because I wanted it to be about inclusion, about being together. And so I guess I want to take this opportunity and speak to young people right now 'cause there's a lot of you looking at me, if you are black or you are brown or you are gay or you're a lesbian or you are trans, or maybe you're just a sissy singing boy from Tennessee, anyone that is treating you unkindly, it's only because they are afraid or have been taught to be afraid of how important you are," Timberlake, who is from Memphis, said to the crowd at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

"Because being different means you make the difference," added Timberlake, who ended his speech with an expletive that was bleeped.

"Can't Stop This Feeling!" appeared on the "Trolls" soundtrack and was nominated for the best original song Oscar.

Mars, who earned the Innovator Award and closed the show, started his performance with his past hit, "Treasure," and later sang his newest hit, the groovy "That's What I Like." It featured his signature, slick dance moves and all-star band.

"Innovator is a very heavy word. ...It's a little ironic for me because I genuinely feel like I'm just getting started," Mars, 31, said onstage, sporting a black suit and sunglasses. "So buckle up. I don't know where we're going yet but we're going. Keep up y'all."

Other A-list stars were part of the awards show, too: Ed Sheeran started solo and strummed his guitar during "Shape of You" — currently No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — and later walked to another stage to perform "Castle on the Hill" with a full band. Sheeran won best lyrics for co-writing Justin Bieber's "Love Yourself."

"We started this song on the back of a tour bus," Sheeran said onstage next to co-writer Benny Blanco (Bieber, who didn't attend, also co-wrote the song).

The Chainsmokers, who won best new artist during the live telecast, performed "Paris" and "Something Just Like This" with Chris Martin, who ran into the crowd during the performance. The EDM duo, who won a Grammy last month, also won dance song of the year for their ubiquitous hit "Closer," featuring pop singer Halsey.

"It's been a really, really tough year, but I hope that somehow this song made the summer a little bit better for you guys despite everything that's been going on," Halsey said onstage.