<ring Concert Committee has selected Los Angeles-based rapper Aminé to headline this year’s Spring Concert, which will be held on Saturday, May 19. The committee announced its headliner selection at the Cave’s Battle of the Bands concert on Friday, April 20.
This year, CSA allocated $120,000 for Spring Concert, a $5,000 increase from last year, and a $20,000 increase from two years ago. Typically, half of the budget will go to artist fees and hospitality, while the rest goes to production and equipment, security and non-music entertainment, such as food, snow cones, lawn games, photo booths and fireworks.
Steve Toure ’18, a CSA Class of 2018 Representative and Spring Concert Committee member, is proud of this year’s announcement process. “It was absolutely awesome,” said Toure. “We played the video and everyone was so stoked to find out that Aminé would be headlining.”
The committee began their search for this year’s headliner in the fall. According to committee co-chair Trixie Dao ’18, the committee started its process by reviewing student interest surveys to determine the genre and feel of the artist for which they would search.
“Following this, we spend a lot of time brainstorming artists, and we reach out to the booking managers of a bunch of different artists. In order to book an artist, we need to check for their availability, their booking fees, and to see if the artist is even interested in coming to Carleton,” said Dao.
Next, the committee creates a list of potential headliners, and evaluates each artist.
“We spend a lot of time listening to music and we spend a lot of time watching videos of the artist performing live. We also talk a lot about what kind of energy and performance we want at the event, and discuss whether or not the artist would be a good performer for the Carleton Community,” added Dao.
“Aminé was the perfect fit,” said Toure.
“We thought he would be super appealing for a Carleton audience,” added co-chair Sylvie Graubard ’18. “He’s big enough that a lot of students have heard of him, but even for those unfamiliar with his music it’s really approachable, catchy and fun. Amine’s music is joyful and that’s something we wanted people to feel at Spring Concert.”
Aminé is the son of Ethiopian immigrants. He was born Adam Aminé Daniel in Portland, Oregon in 1994. Aminé rose to fame in 2016 through his three-time platinum single “Caroline.” Aminé released his debut album, Good for You, in July 2017. His second-most popular song on Spotify, “Heebiejeebies,” features Kehlani, who performed at Spring Concert in 2016.
