iHeartRadio Music Awards 2024: Beyonce channels new Cowboy Carter album with countrified Versace leather suit as she’s presented Innovator Award by Stevie Wonder

The 42-year-old singer–songwriter was presented with the honorary prize by another living legend, Stevie Wonder, 73, at the eleventh-annual ceremony.

The hitmaker was being honored in the wake of her record-breaking release of her album Cowboy Carter, a sequel of sorts to her chart-topping Renaissance and her first album to feature several country-styled songs.

Beyoncé channeled her recent country influences with her striking black leather Western-style suit from Versace, which she complemented with a gold-adorned cowboy hat.

The awards show, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Monday evening, honors the artists and songs who were most played on iHeartRadio stations and the app.

Beyoncé had all eyes on her as she strutted on stage at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards on Monday to receive the coveted Innovator Award

The 42-year-old singer–songwriter was presented with the honorary prize by another living legend, Stevie Wonder, 73, at the eleventh-annual ceremony

Beyoncé stunned in a countrified black leather suit from Versace, along with a matching cowboy hat to celebrate her new country-inflected album Cowboy Carter

She was dressed in a busty black leather top decorated with gold medallions featuring Versace’s Medusa logo.

The top was cinched around her trim waist with multiple thick belts, and she wore a complementary set of black leather pants with intricate designs in beads and studs running up the side of her legs.

Beyoncé stood tall in a pair of pointy black cowboy boots, and the long, wavy blond locks that she has recently been wearing to promote her album flowed out from under her gold-adorned black hat.

As he introduced Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder sang her praises while listing some of her earlier iconic accomplishments, including her 2013 self-titled visual album, her 2016 album Lemonade — which was accompanied by a feature-length film of the same name — and her 2022 chart-topper Renaissance, along with a collaborative LP with her husband Jay-Z, a Lion King soundtrack and two acclaimed concert films.

Beyoncé looked over the moon as she walked up to the iconic singer–songwriter for a hug, before she whispered something into his ear while the crowd roared.

As she turned to the microphone, she told Wonder: ‘I love you’ and ‘I honor you.’

‘I want to thank you for making a way for all of us,’ she told him, adding, ‘Whenever anyone asks me if there’s anything I can listen to for the rest of my life, It’s always you.’

She also shared that Wonder had recently helped her out on her Cowboy Carter album by playing the harmonica on her rewritten cover of Dolly Parton’s country classic Jolene.

‘Tonight, you call me an innovator, and for that I’m very grateful,’ she continued as she addressed the audience and the awards body and described her creative process.

‘Innovation starts with a dream. But then you have to execute that dream, and that road can be very bumpy,’ she explained. ‘Being an innovator is seeing what everyone believes is impossible. Being an innovator often means being criticized, which often will test your mental strength.’

Beyoncé also urged ‘all the record labels, every radio station, every award show’ to be more willing to share innovative music from artists, rather than focusing on safe, middle-of-the-road music.

The hitmaker was being honored in the wake of her record-breaking release of Cowboy Carter, a sequel of sorts to her chart-topping Renaissance and her first album to feature several country-styled songs

Beyoncé looked over the moon as she walked up to the iconic singer–songwriter for a hug, before she whispered something into his ear while the crowd roared

‘I want to thank you for making a way for all of us,’ she told him, adding, ‘Whenever anyone asks me if there’s anything I can listen to for the rest of my life, It’s always you’

She also shared that Wonder had recently helped her out on her Cowboy Carter album by playing the harmonica on her rewritten cover of Dolly Parton’s country classic Jolene