Mike Posner to headline 'Uproar' concert

Mike Posner and Nick Grant will headline this year’s spring concert on April 27 at 8:00 p.m., the Muhlenberg Activities Council (MAC) announced.

Posner is a Grammy nominated singer-songwriter originally from Detroit, Michigan. Some of his most popular songs include “Cooler Than Me,” “Please Don’t Go,” and “I Took a Pill in Ibiza,” the latter of which was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2017 Grammy Awards. Posner has also co-wrote songs for a variety of musicians, including Maroon 5, Wiz Khalifa and Pharrell Williams.

Nick Grant, a hip-hop artist, will open for Posner. Grant, who hails from Walterboro, South Carolina, has been co-signed by famous artists such as Nas, Andre 3000 and Talib Kweli. His solo career began in 2015.

Posner likely ranks as the most popular musician to come to Muhlenberg in recent memory — performers of the last few semesters have included Kris Allen, Jeremih, Jesse McCartney, Smash Mouth and Ben Folds.

After initially teasing Uproar on Saturday, the announcement was made official in a video posted by MAC on Monday afternoon. Posner and Grant will perform in Memorial Hall, which may imply the expectation of a larger crowd: the last three MAC-sponsored concerts (Kris Allen, Jeremih and Smash Mouth) were held in the relatively intimate Event Space in Seegers Union.

The selection process began at the beginning of the Spring 2017 semester. In general, for smaller concerts and events, MAC works in committees and reaches out to artists directly. For larger scale events, including Posner and the other musicians listed before, the executive board determines a list of musicians who are within the set price range and have performance availability.

Posner was one of the top three choices by the MAC executive board for this semester. From there, the MAC general membership ranks their top three and the executive board makes an offer from there, said Alexis Sirkin, President of MAC.

Students wishing to get involved in this process are encouraged to do so, with the understanding that certain artists just are not feasible for Muhlenberg.

“We do work under a specific budget and there are some factors that are out of our control,” said Sirkin, “so while we love to gain as much input as possible we just ask that everyone is understanding in that we have some restrictions.” Additionally, the name of the concert is new for this year, and will continue to represent concerts moving forward. MAC is following a trend of ‘branding’ concerts, which is popular on other college campuses.

“We wanted to begin creating an entire experience rather than just have the concert be about the artist itself,” said Sirkin. “Hopefully as years go on, the brand and logo will stay the same and rather than the concert just being about the performer it will be more about the event itself and the students going to the event.”

Certainly, only time will tell if that goal is achieved, but it appears as if MAC’s first choice for “Uproar” will have the crowd feeling on “Top of the World.”

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons