Listen Here
UF’s JordieRob is motivated for his musical future
By Sarah Stubbs
@sarahxstubbs
Last week’s Sept. 8 Jason Derulo concert brought out a crowd of 2,366 people to the University of Findlay’s Koehler Center. A little over half of the attendees were UF students, faculty, and staff.
According to Dave Emsweller, VP of student affairs, 1,358 attendees were UF people and 1,008 were outside community members.
The Koehler Center has a maximum capacity of 5,000 people and according to SGA president Forrest Miller, 3,000 ticket sales would have kept SGA within its budget. SGA fell just short of its goal.
Miller is pleased with how the event went, though.
“I have heard nothing but positive responses from students and am so pleased SGA was able to provide students with what they wanted,” Miller said.
Opening for Derulo was UF’s recent alum, JordieRob, as well as Grace, a new artist currently best known for her song in Suicide Squad, ‘You Don’t Own Me.’
Emweller said that the strong opening acts were a major factor in the concert’s overall success.
JordieRob told the Pulse that the SGA concert was the biggest crowd he’s ever performed in front of and he was pleasantly surprised with the crowd’s energy during his show, considering many may have never heard his music before that night.
Even though he’s working full time for the Browns right now, he’s spending a lot of his free time on a new project.
“I live in Cleveland and I live a block away from my best friend/producer so we’ve been putting in a lot of work to put a project before Thanksgiving, hopefully,” JordieRob said.
JordieRob said he’s trying to find his style and his sound right now. He’s working on branding himself through a new website and merchandise. He also said he’s going to try to pick up some shows around the Cleveland area in the near future.
Previous SGA concerts – Plain White T’s in 2014 and Ben Rector and Parachute in 2015 – did not feature local opening acts. This time around, though, SGA was able to have the best of both worlds: a locally-known, young talent and a well-established star.
“Bringing in a headliner like Jason Derulo, who has wide name/song recognition, put this concert at a different level the moment it was announced,” Emsweller said. “The stage, LCD wall, sound system, and lighting design were more advanced than any previous concert.”
Asked if SGA would be able to provide a show like last Thursday’s every year, Miller and Emsweller were both unsure.
“It would be nice to have a large concert each year, but the ability to do that will depend on the availability of funds and student interest,” Emsweller said.
Miller echoed Emsweller about funding. Since Jason Derulo was a much bigger name than the previous acts had been, the concert was more expensive.
“This type of large concert act however is costly, and is not something SGA could do on a regular basis without making major cuts to many of the traditional events and activities we normally fund,” Miller said. “Depending on the act, I could see SGA doing a concert like this every few years if it was something students wanted to see.”
