The Chainsmokers will perform on Saturday, April 9, and bring this year’s Dooley’s Week, themed “Dooleywood,” to a close, according to an official announcement made by Student Programming Council (SPC) in a YouTube video.
SPC reached an agreement with The Chainsmokers’ agency, Creative Arts Agency, on Wednesday, March 9, according to SPC co-Band Party Chair and Goizueta Business School senior Max Mayblum. “[This agreement] was one of the easiest negotiations I’ve been a part of,” he said, adding that The Chainsmokers had been SPC’s first choice.
Unlike in previous years, the decision to negotiate a contract with a particular artist involved direct student feedback. Through online surveys, SPC received 300 to 400 student responses that included students’ music preferences as well as their opinions on past Dooley’s Week performers, according to Mayblum. “We made sure to go out of our way to find out what people like,” he said.
Mayblum said that SPC members began the artist selection process in December, when they reached out to various agencies in California and New York. Those agencies suggested “hot” artists looking to perform at colleges.
Because of privacy and legal issues, and to prevent the spread of rumors, the negotiation process was kept internal and confidential, he added. Only Mayblum, co-Band Party Chair and College senior Julia Baker and Rebecca Shetty, SPC’s advisor and assistant director of the Emory Integrity Project, spoke directly to the agencies from the start of the process, he said.
From talking with the agencies, Mayblum, Baker and Shetty compiled a list of hundreds of potential performers, Mayblum said.
According to Mayblum, he, Baker and Shetty then reviewed feedback from the student surveys to narrow the artist choices down. They generated a final list of about 10 names with The Chainsmokers at the top, he said.
Although J. Cole raised the bar with last year’s Dooley’s Week headline performance, Mayblum said that he is confident that students will be excited about this year’s choice .
“We’ve done more to cater toward everyone,” he said, adding that his main goal is “getting everyone involved and providing a week of energy, spirit and excitement that really galvanizes the student body.”
Some students immediately conveyed their anticipation for this year’s headline performance.
“I’m ecstatic,” College junior Evan Reilly said. “I’m over the moon. They’re huge and I couldn’t think of anyone better to be here.”
College sophomore Sariyah Benoit expressed disappointment in SPC’s choice of artist.
“At first I was disappointed because I thought it was gonna be the signature rap or hip-hop artist,” she said. She added that SPC has not done a sufficient job of catering to different groups of students, such as students of color and students “who are not interested in listening to that repetitive, headbanging, jumping, whatever the hell that music is,” she said. “Either way, it’s all just very disappointing.”
Correction (3/29 at 8:25 p.m.): Goizueta Business School senior Max Mayblum and College senior Julia Baker were mistakenly listed as Dooley’s Week co-chairs. Their actual titles are co-Band Party chairs.
emily.sullivan@emory.edu | Emily Sullivan (18C) is from Blue Bell, Pa., majoring in international studies and minoring in ethics. She served most recently as news editor. Last summer, she interned with Atlanta Magazine. Emily dances whenever she can and is interested in the relationship between journalism and human rights issues.
