An Inside Scoop on the Yonas Winter Concert

This year, in place of the usual winter formal, SAC is sponsoring a winter concert. Manny Mack will be opening the performance, followed by the main artist of the night, Yonas. The concert will be on Saturday, February 27th, 10pm-2am in the 1962 room in Crozier-Williams.

Yonas is a hip-hop artist from New York City, best known for his EP “Going Places.” The album was released this past summer and reached number 22 on the top hip-hop album charts. He has also gained a lot of traction through remixes of popular songs, including “Take me to Church” by Hozier and “Sorry” by Justin Bieber.  Yonas has performed with several big names in the industry, including Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Timeflies, The White Panda, and Logic. Furthermore, his song, “Fall Back” was featured in “The Place Beyond the Pines,” a film starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper.

The Yonas winter concert is part of “The CONNcert Experience,” a series of concerts sponsored by SAC. Past concerts include KapSlap, Super MashBros, Skizzy Mars, Two Friends, Viceroy, and most recently, X Ambassadors. Jeff Celinker, creator of “The CONNcert Experience,” said, “The CONNcert Experience was created to bring internationally-known acts to Conn throughout the year, so that there is not just one Floralia concert. For the amount of resources we have, we are really proud of the acts we have brought in.” Yonas is particularly exciting, because he brings a genre of music to Conn that has not yet been highlighted. Celniker explained, “In my opinion, it is extremely important that we are bringing a black artist who is apart of the hip-hop culture, because Connecticut College as a whole needs to be exposed to different types of music.” Yonas is certainly not the typical EDM or indie rock artist that has been brought to Conn in the past several years. To echo Celniker, this exposure is important, and particularly relevant for young, college students. Efforts were also put in to finding an artist who not only will give a high-quality performance, but also puts forth a positive message. “You may not have heard of him, just like you may not have heard of X Ambassadors last spring, but X Ambassadors just performed at the Prudential Center in New Jersey, which holds close to 20,000 people. We believe that Yonas could follow the same path,” said Celinker.  

To preview music by Yonas before the concert, visit: http://yonasmusic.com

(Tickets will be sold in Cro and Harris for $10 throughout the week, as well as at the door for $15)