By Helen Stevenson

Campus Activities Board (CAB) announced this year’s Spring Weekend concert lineup including headliners Sean Kingston and Whethan, as well as a performance from Bryce Vine.

Sean Kingston is a rapper and producer, known for his classic 2000s hits such as “Fire Burning” and “Beautiful Girls.” His fellow headliner Whethan, DJ and producer, is best known for his songs “Be Like You” and “When I’m Down.”
Bryce Vine will open the concert. The rapper is most recognizable by his 2017 single, “Drew Barrymore.”

Madeline Cialini, FCRH ’21, and Elizabeth Roberts, FCRH ’19, co-chairs of the CAB concert committee, said pop, hip-hop and rap have been the top genres in the Spring Weekend concert survey for the past few years. Based on the genres, they work with an agent to find relevant artists in the university’s price range to choose the best possible artists.

“As the concert committee, it is our job to represent the wants for the students,” they said in an email interview. “We spend months pushing for more diversity in the Spring Weekend performers.”

In order to push for more relevant performers for the Spring Weekend concert line-up, Cialini and Roberts said they met with representatives from the Office for Student Involvement (OSI) almost every week.

“This was definitely more than in the past, but it was worth it to get a musically diverse and exciting show,” they said.

As a result, they said they had started working on the 2019 Spring Weekend Concert in April 2018.

“We have had Sean Kingston headlining and Bryce Vine as the opening act since November of 2018,” they said.

According to Cialini and Roberts, when CAB president Kathryn Teaney, GSB ’19, made the decision to remove rapper Soulja Boy from the original concert lineup, they put in a proposal to have Whethan perform.

“We still wanted to put on a good show so we attempted to search for a replacement at the last minute,” they said. “Luckily, out of the handful artists left that were available we were able to put in a proposal for Whethan who now completes our lineup.”

However, despite the secretive nature of CAB’s Spring Weekend lineup, there were several leaks prior to the formal announcement. Sean Kingston posted a tour date on his verified Instagram account, and a representative for Bryce Vine confirmed his performance to The Observer.

Cialini and Roberts said they are unsure why there were so many leaked announcements this year, but they are hoping it is just a freak occurrence.

“We’re reviewing our lines of communication to see if we can avoid such an early leak in the future,” they said.