AJR starts 2023 off strong with two IHeartRadio award nominations and new music

Coming off arguably their most successful year as a group in 2022, alt/rock trio AJR is already off to a fast start in 2023. In addition to finishing up the score to Broadway musical Harold and the Purple Crayon, adding the final touches on their fifth studio album, and planning a tour to go along with their album, the group nabbed not one but two IHeartRadio award nominations.

If you cannot wait for the brothers to release their own content to get your AJR fix; the group will be featured in a song on Quinn XCII’s latest album The People’s Champ — due out on January 27, 2023 — the song is titled “Too Late”, this feels like a collaboration that has been in the works for a long time considering both artists were set to tour together in the summer of 2020. However, the Covid-19 pandemic ultimately canceled the entire tour and it was never rescheduled.

AJR’s nominations include Best Duo/Group and TikTok Bop of the Year for their hit song World’s Smallest Violin. The song was the 11th tack on the band’s 2021 album OK Orchestra. Moreover, in addition to its popularity on TikTok, it was also a fan favorite on other short-form video sites such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. Currently, World’s Smallest Violin is the group’s most popular song on Spotify and is rapidly approaching 200 million streams on the platform.

Tough Competition for AJR

For this year’s IHeartRadio Music awards 67 artists are nominated for more than one award including AJR and 10 categories will be determined by the fans. The fan-voted categories will be powered through IHeartRadio.com and social media.

AJR is nominated for one regular award (Best Duo/Group of the Year) and one fan-voted award (TikTok Bop of the Year) there are 11 other noms in the TikTok Bop category, let’s examine the competition below:

• “About Damn Time” – Lizzo
• “As It Was” – Harry Styles
• “Bad Habit” – Steve Lacy
• “Bejeweled” – Taylor Swift
• “Big Energy” – Latto
• “CUFF IT” – Beyonce
• “Evolver” – Anitta
• “Just Wanna Rock” – Lil Uzi Vert
• “Made You Look” – Meghan Trainor
• “Super Freaky Girl” – Nicki Minaj
• “Unholy” – Sam Smith and Kim Petras
• “World’s Smallest Violin” – AJR

Because this award is voted on by the artist’s fan army and not based solely on the most popular TikTok song, Taylor Swift will likely walk away with the honors in this category.

The 2023 IHeartRadio Music Awards are set to take place on March 27, 2023, at 8:00 PM EST. Tune in or set those DVRs to see if AJR or any of your favorite artists take home any hardware.