Wyclef to perform Fling concert

Grammy Award-winning artist Wyclef Jean will perform at the Spring Fling concert on April 16, Social Planning and Events Committee concert directors announced last night.

Students generally said they are excited about the selection and are looking forward to the event. The concert selection process is carried out by SPEC but is influenced by student feedback, according to event organizers.

"From the beginning, Wyclef was one of the top choices on the list that people wanted to hear -- because he crosses so many genres, he really has a wide appeal," said Engineering senior Jared Miller, who is co-director of SPEC Concerts.

Praising this year's selection, Wharton senior Zahra Abdulali said she had not been to any of the previous Spring Fling concerts because most of the guests did not appeal to her.

"Being senior year, I am leaning more towards going, but [for] Wyclef, I would totally be there, senior year or not," Abdulali said, adding, "I definitely think a lot of students could relate to him."

While noting that Wyclef was more popular several years ago, College senior Brian Rogers said he plans to go to the concert.

"That's pretty cool, actually. I have [listened to his music] in the past, but I haven't recently, but I still think it's cool that it's Wyclef. For a Wyclef concert, $20 is more than reasonable," Rogers said.

Yet some students were less enthusiastic about the selection, citing different music preferences.

College junior Kristi Hackett said that she wished that the groups selected for Spring Fling were more well rounded. "I don't really listen to that kind of music. I think there was one band at Spring Fling that I wanted to see last year. I feel like a lot of the music is rap, and I like alternative."

Concert directors said, however, that the process is designed to include as much student feedback as possible.

"We take suggestions from the Penn community throughout the year, but especially at the end of the fall semester. In addition to taking suggestions by e-mail and phone, we hold our large meeting at the end of the semester," Miller said. "Suggestions are welcomed, and it also helps us to determine what genre Penn students are interested in."

"The list that we generated was over 100 names long, and we really investigated all of the submissions that we got at the meeting and that people e-mailed and called us about. Once we had the availability and the pricing information for the artist from the talent agency, we [began] to remove artists from our list," Miller added.

Other concert organizers also emphasized the thorough nature of the selection process.

"Any band you say was definitely on the list," said College junior and SPEC Concerts Co-Director Ashley Wolff.

"During the open meeting, a lot of people thought that hip hop artists would go along with the atmosphere of Fling being a party time [and] a lot of people were arguing that rock would appeal to a wider audience," said Wharton senior and SPEC Concerts Co-Director Erica Lock.

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