ACBU decided to fight the two-week quarantine blues by putting on a virtual country concert featuring hit artists Chris Lane and Hunter Hayes on Jan. 28.
Each artist performed live for about one hour, with Hayes opening for Lane. Both played some of their most popular songs such as “Big, Big Plans” from Chris Lane and “Everybody’s Got Somebody But Me” from Hunter, and additionally spoke about the songs’ meaning and origin.
Typically, larger concerts occur later in the semester, but the coordinators took a different approach.
“Knowing that we were going into quarantine when we came back to campus, ACBU leadership wanted to kick off the semester on a high note, which is why we decided to have a larger music event,” said Morgan Dunham, junior public relations major and ACBU Vice President.
Bradley students were able to engage directly with Hayes and Lane by asking questions in the chat and requesting original songs or covers of songs produced by other artists.
“I loved how interactive the artists were and how eager they were to perform again,” Dunham said. “Hunter Hayes’ manager was reading the questions to him, and still picked fun ones, and it seemed like Chris Lane was responding to every comment and question in the chat that he could.”
The questions Bradley students asked the musicians ranged from funny, random things like, “Do you think the ocean is soup?” to serious subjects such as “Do you ever get so nervous you forget the words to your song?” Along with these questions came various declarations of love and affection for each artist, as well as asking about and wanting to see their dogs and family.
“I was really excited ACBU was bringing country artists to Bradley and I have been looking forward to a country concert since I was a freshman,” junior nursing major Emma Smith said. “It was a cool experience being able to ask them [Hayes and Lane] questions and have that personal connection.”
There were over 170 users at the event, not including those logged on with multiple people.
Dunham said she and the other coordinators were very satisfied with the event.
