- Lainey Wilson performed during the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 26.
- She performed three of her hits, taking off her black cowboy hat after the first song.
- Lainey also honored her idol, Miley Cyrus, by presenting her Innovator Award.
Lainey Wilson showed off her music catalog — and the top of her head — with a medley of hits during her iHeartRadio Music Awards performance Thursday night (March 26).
She appeared in black and white as she opened a trio of song snippets with “Wildflowers and Wild Horses.” Then, the country star warmed to color as she ditched her signature cowboy hat for “Hang Tight Honey” and “Heart Like a Truck,” moving across the stage in a bell-bottomed, see-through set adorned with floral detailing and sheer black sleevelets.
It was her first time to perform on this particular awards show — an all-genre event which rewards the top-played artists and songs across iHeartRadio stations nationwide.
Lainey also had the honor of presenting pop star Miley Cyrus with one of the biggest awards of the night, the iHeartRadio Innovator Award. It was a full-circle moment for an artist who actually worked as a Hannah Montana impersonator for years while cultivating her own music career.
Calling Miley one of her biggest inspirations, Lainey told the crowd that, “Miley Cyrus is what happens when fearlessness meets evolution. She didn’t just grow up in front of the world: She redefined herself in front of it over and over and then over again …”
“… From breaking out of a box that people tried to put her in, to pushing boundaries in sound and style, in storytelling,” she continued. “She keeps taking risks that most artists would not dare to take… (and that) move culture forward. Miley reminds us that artistry is not about staying comfortable. It is about staying honest. That is what you call innovation, folks. And that is Miley Cyrus.”
It’s been a very Hannah Montana week for the “Can’t Sit Still” singer. On Monday (March 23), Lainey attended the premiere of the Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special in Los Angeles, a one-off episode reviving Miley’s early-2000s Disney Channel character.
Lainey feels she owes a lot to Miley. In a 2024 chat with Robin Roberts, she told the story of a teacher who asked her to portray the Hannah Montana character for her child’s birthday party. She obliged, but jokes that she “took it too far.”
“I had the wig. I had the portable sound system. And I would open up for myself. … I would be like, ‘Hey y’all, I’m Lainey Wilson, blah, blah, blah,’” she recalled (quote via iHeart). “I’d sing a few songs that I wrote, and then I’d go backstage or wherever the backstage area was — that might mean somebody’s bedroom at somebody’s house — and throw on my Hannah Montana getup and get out there, and put on like a 15-song concert. I mean, I would do 3-year-old birthday parties one day and I’d be playing [at a] nursing home the next day. So I had to learn, how you speak to 3-year-olds is not how you speak to the elderly. You know, like you have to learn your audience. And it taught me a lot.”
Also at Thursday’s iHeartRadio Music Awards, Lainey posed with Taylor Swift, who was another hot topic of the night, as it was a rare appearance and she brought along her fiancé, Travis Kelce. Lainey is a bride-to-be, too: She’s engaged to marry her longtime boyfriend Devlin “Duck” Hodges, presumably later this year.
Amanda Hensel Jermstad is a skilled writer based in Austin, Texas. She spent 14 years as Editor-in-Chief of Taste of Country, where she led coverage of the artists, stories and trends shaping country music. With a career deeply rooted in the genre, Amanda has built a reputation for sharp editorial insight and authentic storytelling. Outside of work, she’s a proud mom of three.
