By Eliot Schiaparelli
Through right swipes on Tinder, Fordham students secured a concert from Charli XCX and Juice WRLD on April 10. While the legitimate rules of the competition had been unclear, Tinder confirmed the details, time and location in an email on April 22.
The concert will be held at 6 p.m. on April 24 at the New York Expo Center. Students who RSVPed through an in-app advertisement will be let in on a first-come-first-served basis, and a stand-by line will be available for students who did not RSVP. Students cannot bring any guests, and they must have their Fordham ID and proof of enrollment in Tinder U to get into the concert.
The New York Expo Center is roughly 20 minutes from Fordham’s Rose Hill campus. An UberX to the location costs about $18. On its website, the center advertises large event spaces for festivals.
“The New York Expo Center boasts an amazing 10-acre venue space located directly on the East River Waterfront. Featuring 90,000 sq feet interior space with a 60,000 sq foot main event space, the New York Expo Center is a perfect place to host any large scale event, festival or concert,” the website reads.
Juice WRLD is famous for his song, “Lucid Dreams,” which debuted at number 74 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts at the beginning of the summer in 2018. It peaked at number two on the Billboard charts.
Olivia Quartell, FCRH ’21, said she did not participate in the competition but downloaded the app to go to the concert.
“I’m not big into rap music, but over the summer my friend who I used to drive around with everywhere only listened to Juice WRLD, and then I really started to like it,” she said. “So I feel like it’s a really cool opportunity cause it’s the one rapper that I like. It might be a disaster but it’ll be a really good story either way.”
Charli XCX first became famous for the song “Boom Clap” from “The Fault in Our Stars” soundtrack. Her more recent hits include “Boys,” which came out in 2017, and “1999” from 2018.
Sarah Kowaleski, FCRH ’21, said she is going just to see Charli XCX.
“I’ve had a Spotify playlist for Charli XCX and Juice WRLD since we won,” she said. “I’m so excited to go that I got a cute purple tank top to wear that’s very Charli XCX vibes.”
The bracket style competition started with roughly 1,200 eligible schools in mid-March. While Tinder was unable to share the exact number of swipes that won the competition, it was obvious that Fordham students made an effort.
“We’re unable to share the exact number of right swipes, but we’re impressed by the dedication of Fordham students and excited to see all the new connections made on Tinder over the last month,” wrote Lauren Probyn, senior marketing director at Tinder in an email to The Ram.
The #SwipeOff competition was meant to promote Tinder’s Tinder U feature, which is a version of the app only available to college students.
Probyn said that the idea for the concert came about because college students are a core part of Tinder’s demographic.
“We know through our ongoing Tinder U program that a major passion point for college students is focused on music,” she said. “While ideating concepts that intersected their interests, we knew music was going to be front and center. The timing aligned perfectly for us to develop a bracket-style contest that would lean into existing rivalries and school spirit; thus, Swipe Off was created.”
Olivia Valkenburg, FCRH ’21, said she thinks the promotion is great publicity for the dating app.
“Every Fordham student is on it now, and that’s impressive. It’s one of the best marketing schemes I’ve ever seen,” she told The Ram last week.
Even students in relationships participated in the contest. Chris Lipuma, FCRH ’21, said even though he does not need the dating app, he participated.
“I’m in a committed healthy relationship but Juice Wrld is important enough that we both redownloaded Tinder just to get the concert,” he told The Ram last week.
