Here’s what you missed at the iHeartRadio Summer Pool Party

It’s Monday, which means Saturday night’s iHeartRadio Summer Pool Party is long in the books. If you caught the stream on Yahoo Live!, like @adammusicrocks, whose exuberant tweet of “YES!!!!!” was one of many that scrolled across the screen in real-time, then you likely know that affirmation pretty much succinctly summed up the experience for most on hand. If you skipped the stream, well, the whole thing is slated to be rebroadcast on the CW on Thursday, June 11. Tune in then, or relive the party below with a half-dozen highlights and observations:

Could’ve Pooled Us

OK, so, first things first: was this a pool party or a party at the pool? Great question, one of semantics? Perhaps. If you’re keeping score at home, though, we’d say it was the latter. Good thing, then, that we opted to forgo the swim gear for this little shindig. Let’s just say we’re, ahem, “husky” to rock the trunks. Luckily, we didn’t need them, even though we thought we might. Somehow, we envisioned this being like a vintage version of MTV spring break, circa the Clinton era. As it turns out, although iHeart’s pool party was staged in the pool area, the pool itself had a sturdy deck installed over the top of it, making it feel more like a cocktail party, albeit a pristine produced one. At the pool.

A Hot Night with Kelly Clarkson

Speaking of the pool, we sure could’ve used it. It was a hundred degrees when Kelly Clarkson took the stage at 8 p.m. Clarkson’s from Lone Star State, so you’d think she’d be plenty used to it being hot, but even she was searing: “I’m from Texas,” she noted, “so this is horrible.” If she was wilting, you’d hardly know it. Clarkson was dependably fiesty as she ran through a short set that included her best known tunes, as well as her latest, “Invincible,” in which she sings about summoning strength in the midst of scrutiny (“Beat down on me, like a waterfall/’Cause I can take on so much more than I had ever dreamed”). Been a while since we’ve seen Clarkson, but let’s just say all the useless chatter recently about her appearance, yeah, it’s just that.

Meet the Cool Kids of Echosmith

If Echosmith isn’t a household name by this time next year, it’s certainly not for a lack of exposure. On the heels of appearances at Life Is Beautiful and Rock In Rio and an upcoming slot at Daytime Village at IHeartRadio’s Music Festival, the band’s stock continues to rise. And with its placement at Saturday’s pool party, between Shaggy and Chris Brown on the bill, the L.A. quartet is poised to explode, particularly with the clear endorsement of iHeartRadio igniting things. The outfit commemorated the moment, snapping a pic of the crowd, compelling everyone to look “as excited as possible about life” for the candid. This sort of seemed to be a theme for the evening. When DJ Envy from Power 105 in New York’s Breakfast Club introduced Nikki Minaj, he beckoned: “If you’re happy to be alive, scream.” No need to ask twice.

Short and Sweet

Maybe it was because the show was being captured live for rebroadcast, but whatever the case, the production for this party was on point and delivered with maximum expediency and efficiency, with each set running no more than thirty minutes or so. Shaggy’s set seemed most fitting for this format, as he dropped a mini-medley of his most well-known hits, “Boombastic,” “It Wasn’t Me,” and “Angel,” along with a new cut called “I Need Your Love,” that wowed the crowd and left them wanting more.

Tweet Nothings

OK, who do you think had one of the busiest and perhaps most challenging gigs of the night at this year’s iHeartRadio Summer Pool Party? Whoever was screening the live tweets at the show, that person gets our vote, hands down. It’s got to be a full time job ensuring that no trolls make it through to drop any f-bombs or any other curse words that could be squeezed into a 140-word character missive. The live tweets did make for some colorful moments, though, like when someone simply tweeted “YELLOW PANTS!!!” in reference to Chris Brown’s canary yellow pants during Breezy’s set.

Red-y for A Close Up?

So you know when you’re watching this sort of thing at home or seeing it in a magazine, and you see snapshots of the Red Carpet and it looks all glammed up? Yeah, come to find out, it’s not always exactly like you’d imagine. Pulling back the curtain a bit on this one, the Red Carpet was really just a small ballroom at Caesars with a crush of photographers standing on a platform, snapping pics as the pop stars as they were paraded through individually, pausing long enough to be immortalized beneath blazing beams of bright lighting rigs overhead.

Now Ear This

Finally, speaking of photogenic moments, the most photo-worthy moment of the night? Easy. Looking up and seeing headphones slapped on winged lion statues. Nice touch, iHeartRadio. We see what you did there.