University Park welcomed Gucci Mane and the Weeknd for the “Starboy: Legend of the Fall 2017 World Tour.

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On September 6, the audience at University Park welcomed hip hop artists Gucci Mane and headliner the Weeknd to the Bryce Jordan Center. The performance began at 7:30 p.m. with NAV, a fairly unknown artist, to a relatively empty arena. As he was on stage, more and more students filtered in to see the more popular and highly-awaited performers.

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Though Gucci Mane began performing at 8:30 p.m. to a receptive crowd, the most anticipated performer, The Weeknd came on stage to an enthusiastic reception.  The crowd went wild as he appeared out of the ground surrounded by a holographic light. His performance was spectacularly well timed:  the lighting of the stage went perfectly with every song and was able to ignite the crowd to no end. He played many fan favorites, including “Often”, “Earned it”, “Angel”, and “Wicked Games”.  Importantly, true fans of the Weeknd celebrated an older song, “The Morning”.  

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However fans were most enthusiastic when the Weeknd came back for an unexpected encore. While everyone started to leave the stadium, he returned to perform “I Feel It Coming”.  When that finished, he played another of his more popular hits, “The Hills”.

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Niki Miki, a Mechanical Engineering junior said: “The Weeknd concert was one of the biggest highlights in college for me. He sang some of my favorite songs like ‘Often’ and ‘Party monster’. But one of my favorite moments was when he sang ‘Angel’ and the whole audience got their phones and waved their flashlight. I was really close to the stage so I looked around and saw all of those flashlights--it was really nice!”

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Henry McIlvaine, a Mechanical Science Engineering junior said, “I felt awestruck by the excellent vocals and vibrant movements of the live versions of all of the Weeknds most loved songs: ‘Can’t Feel My Face’, ‘Starboy’ and ‘The Hills’.”  I was very pleased that he didn’t just play songs from Starboy and that he expanded amongst his other albums. Unfortunately he didn’t play long enough. He was on stage for roughly 2 hours, which I consider short for a performance.”

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All in all The Weeknd made up for his short performance with his stage appeal and song choices as well as the encores. If you don’t already listen to his music, a high-energy performance like this might convince you.