Bucknell’s Fall Concert performance is today, Friday, Nov. 15th, at 7 p.m. in Gerhard Fieldhouse, featuring artists Jay Sean and NLE Choppa. Scheduling these artists was serendipitous, though the concert committee—led by advisor Dean Conrad—worked hard all semester to identify an artist that students would love to have on campus.
Brent Papson, Director of Campus Activities and Student Media, recalls the process the Concert Committee went through to settle on an unshakeable performance plan: “Originally, they were thinking about the spring semester,” but the artists’ schedule worked out for a fall-semester Bucknell appearance. “A routing opportunity,” wherein the artists happened to be in the area for a different performance at a nearby college and had an extra opening in their schedule, “popped up for this weekend!”
Riley Bazaar ’25, a member of the Concert Committee, created a survey earlier this semester to “get a better idea” of artists that “students would like to bring to campus,” in Papson’s words. “The committee was fortunate to be able to book the artist who received the most votes.” In Papson’s opinion, the performers who will be making an appearance tonight “provide a good combination of a throwback artist and an up-and-coming artist” for students to see live.
Jay Sean is a British singer and songwriter best known for his R&B, rap and hip-hop records that topped international charts in the 2000s; he was a groundbreaking artist in the Bhangra-R&B fusion genre. After leaving his original label and founding his own in 2006, Sean had several top-ten singles around the world. In the early 2010s, after signing with a new label, Sean debuted a single featuring Lil Wayne that made him the first South Asian solo artist to hold the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
NLE Choppa is a twenty-two-year-old rapper who also sustains a YouTube channel. His first chart-topping song, “Shotta Flow,” was released in 2019, and has been followed in the intervening years by five EPs and albums, the most recent of which, “Cottonwood 2,” earned him his highest-charting single to date. His career continues to pick up speed— NLE Choppa is known specifically for his unique energy when rapping and the expressive visuals that accompany a lot of the music he’s put out in video form on his YouTube.
While NLE Choppa has not performed on campus before, this will be Jay Sean’s third time here, also taking the Bucknell stage in 2010 and 2019.
Doors open at the Gerhard Fieldhouse for their performances at 6 p.m. Tickets are not being sold; students need only present their Bucknell student IDs at the door.
