<st year, Carleton College’s 34th annual Spring Concert at concluded with an unprecedented act: a live performance by T-Pain on college grounds! It was undoubtedly the highlight of the evening, and it begs the question: If T-Pain can come to Carleton, then what are the odds that other leading lights of contemporary music can, too?
T-Pain is a celebrated artist and his presence at Carleton was a lauded accomplishment, but why stop the quest of seeing the people who were cool during our middle school years perform live? Imagine if we could take that quest further and host other, equally talented performers (held dear to the hearts of many students) at Carleton!
T-Pain has a net worth of $35 million; Avril Lavigne is worth $45 million, and even though Avril Lavigne’s booking price is a bit more inflated than T-Pain’s, we could, as likely as not, convince her manager to bring down her price. Her current tour manager is David Ellison, who used to be Adam Lambert’s tour manager. Adam Lambert’s concerts have always been reasonably priced, so it’s safe to assume that we could talk David Ellison into a lower booking price.
Avril understands what it’s like to be a teen with dreams, like many of us at Carleton. She was introduced to the music business when she sang alongside Shania Twain after winning a radio show contest for this opportunity. Maybe we could convince her to give a Carleton student the honor of performing a duet at Spring Concert. Also, we could be one of the first live crowds to hear her newest song “Get Over Me” (which features Nick Carter! What a throwback!). To hear Avril sing new songs and classic jams like “Sk8r Boy” would be a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity, and seems too wondrous not to come to pass during one Spring Concert at Carleton.
Moreover, Avril Lavigne is an active philanthropist, and has numerous projects dedicated to raising money for charity foundations. In 2010, she opened her own charity, The Avril Lavigne Foundation, which supports “children and youth living with serious illnesses or disabilities,” according to the Foundation’s website. What if we use the Spring Concert to collect money for her foundation, which is currently “on pause”? If Avril Lavigne came, we could enjoy her music while simultaneously uplifting, and reviving, a noble cause!
In case that fails, however, the booking prices of Iggy Azalea, Imagine Dragons and Jason Derulo fall within a narrow range of the booking price of T-Pain, so those are feasible back-ups if Avril Lavigne refuses to grace us with her presence at Carleton.