The Student Union Board (SUB) announced Tuesday that the artist GoldLink will perform at Friday’s spring concert with MadeinTYO! as the opening act.
The SUB concert will return to the Stepan Center, after last semester’s concert featuring Quinn XCII was moved to Legend’s. The fall concert was relocated to accommodate for athletics, which was using the center at the time of the concert.
Junior and lead programmer of concerts Bethany Boggess said the return to the Stepan Center will allow more students to attend the show.
“The Fall Concert featuring Quinn XCII was held at Legends, which has a capacity of 629,” she said in an email. “The Spring Concert will be at Stepan Center, and there are 2,000 tickets available. We reached capacity at Legends pretty quickly in the fall, so the larger venue will allow us to accommodate more students.”
According to the SUB website, GoldLink’s single “Crew” reached the 45th spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and he was nominated for Best New Hip-Hop Artist at the iHeartRadio Music Awards. He will tour a number of sites, both domestically and internationally, including stops in Hungary, Spain, Croatia and Canada, amongst other places.
MadeinTYO! is known for his music video, accompanying his song “Uber Everywhere,” which garnered more than 57 million views, according to the SUB website. He is from Atlanta, home to several other hip-hop artists.
In bringing these artists to campus, and introducing more affordable tickets, SUB aimed to make the event more inclusive, Boggess said.
“We were incredibly intentional in our selection of the artists for this year’s concert,” she said. “Last semester, a member of the student body prompted SUB Concerts to evaluate its track record of inclusivity and representation. Not only were we able to contract artists with diverse backgrounds and sounds, but we were able to offer tickets for only $5 to hopefully allow more students to attend.”
Leading up to the announcement, SUB used a Spotify playlist to keep students guessing about which artist would perform at the show.
“The best part of planning the concert was planning and maintaining the Spotify playlist as a means to announce the artists,” Boggess said. “We started with 30 artists on a Spotify playlist called ‘Who’s Coming to Stepan?’ and gradually removed artists until only GoldLink and [MadeinTYO!] remained. It definitely built up a lot of anticipation and kept students interested and talking about the concert before it was announced.”
Boggess said she encourages all hip-hop fans to attend the event.
“Tickets are on sale now in the LaFortune Box Office for only $5 until 11 p.m. on Thursday night,” she said. “On Friday, you can buy tickets at the door of the show for $10. If you like hip-hop at all, you should give these artists a shot — you won’t be disappointed.”
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