Mariah the Scientist performed at the Undergraduate Student Government’s fall concert Saturday night, becoming the first female artist to headline the concert since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brian Johnson, USG’s director of programming and a senior public health major, said he wanted to see more diverse performers headline the concerts.

“I’m big on representation, and since I’ve been here, which is fall of 2020, I haven’t really seen any female headliners since the pandemic,” Johnson said.

Students like Tamya Sims, a sophomore fashion merchandising major, said she was glad to see USG expand their concerts to include artists of different genres like Mariah, who is an R&B performer.

“I think it’s important that we have different types of people like R&B, rap like all types of things,” Sims said.

Others like Elise Townsend, a freshman entrepreneurship major, said she was not a big fan of Mariah because she enjoys listening to music that makes her dance.

“I love R&B, but I think we need hip-hop, too,” Townsend said. “R&B is, like, sad, but I want to be jumping up and down with the people.” 

DJ Smillz, the university’s in-house DJ, opened for Mariah. He was able to get the crowd jumping up and down with his set that he said he created when he was heartbroken.

After DJ Smillz’s set finished, Mariah made her way to the stage, where she interacted with fans. As she sang, she accepted a fan letter and sweatshirt. Later on, she made her way to the pit to interact with fans during her song “Thanks 4 Nothing.”

Giving fans the opportunity to interact with their favorite artist is what motivated Johnson to make the concert tickets free. 

“We got a lot of feedback from the student body that twenty dollar tickets was a little pricey for a lot of students,” Johnson said. “Of course understanding that, we decided that we wanted also all students to be able to get as much of the experience as possible so we decided to make the concert free.”

When the tickets became free, students who bought tickets for $20 prior were refunded. Johnson said he plans to make up for the cost of the concert with future events.

“We’re planning to do other events that makeup for the cost of it, which hasn’t been super bad,” Johnson said. “At the end of the day, our main priority was that all of our students were able to attend the event without having to worry about paying for the ticket.”

Myla Bridges, a freshman nursing major, said the concert becoming free made her more eager to attend.

With the ticket price change, Johnson said, USG experienced an increase in ticket sales Friday.

“Yesterday, we sold out more than half of the capacity — the capacity is 950 — so we already passed 500 at the time,” Johnson said.

Mariah appeared happy to interact with the increased number of fans as they encouraged her to take off her sunglasses during the performance. 

“You look so nice now that I see you,” Mariah the Scientist said.

Atira Wong, director of communication and marketing and senior communication studies major, credited Johnson for the success of the event.

“The planning was all Brian —  he deserves the most credit,” Wong said,  “[I’m] so proud of him.”

Johnson credited others for the concert’s success.

“I would just like to shout out USG’s programming committee for all their hard work in helping make this event possible,” Johnson said. “Shout out to all of the faculty and staff throughout the university that has helped and a huge shout out to the USG board in general.”

Adriana Gasiewski is a staff reporter. Contact her at [email protected].