The Student Program Board (SPB) announced on Jan. 19 that Andy Grammer will headline the spring concert on April 15 at Meadow Brook Music Festival. The opening acts will be the indie pop band “Oh Honey” and an alternative revivalist band “COIN.”

In 2014, Grammer released his second album, “Magazines or Novels,” which featured the multi-platinum hit single “Honey, I’m Good,” which sold more than three million copies and climbed to No. 1 on the Adult Pop Radio charts. Following a successful year, Grammer joined the Season 21 cast of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

Even with Grammer’s recent success, many students weren’t happy.

“It kind of sucks because barely anybody knows who Andy Grammer is, to my knowledge. And even then, there are so many other choices that would have been a better pick,” Marquis Ray, junior social work major, said.

Jeremy Johnson, freshman sociology major, simply said, “Do better, OU.”

Johnson had to research Grammer to figure out who he is and he had never heard any song by the artist.

“In the words of Kanye West, Who is Andy Grammer? We don’t know,”said Leia Joyce, junior psychology major. 

Before deciding to bring in Andy Grammer, Oh Honey and COIN, SPB made a student survey to find out what kind of genres the general population of OU wanted.

“We, as an E-Board, do our best to choose someone that we think the students will enjoy,” said Abigail Godwin, mainstage director. In April 2015, a survey was posted on GrizzOrgs as a way to get an idea of what genre students would want to see at this concert and Godwin stated that the top choice was pop.

SPB normally plans to do a fall concert every year, but this year the concert has been pushed back to the winter semester.

There is a lot that goes into planning for the concert, and Godwin explained the planning process.

“First, we have to get a date at Meadow Brook Music Festival, then we work with our middle agent to find available artists within our budget,” she said.  After all of that, the E-Board and Godwin work together to vote on who should perform.

Once an artist and the openers are picked, the focus is shifted to marketing the show, such as promoting the concert and ticket sales.

Discounted tickets will be available to OU students starting at 9 a.m. wednesday, Jan. 27. Student ticket prices are $25 for pit seating, $15 for pavilion seating and $10 for lawn seating. To receive the student discount, students must purchase tickets with valid student IDs at the CSA Service Window, located in the lower level of the Oakland Center.

“Students can buy up to five tickets as long as they have five valid OU IDs with them. To clarify, it’s one ticket per one ID,” said Godwin.

Tickets will be available to the public on Monday, Feb. 8. Public ticket prices are $40 for pavilion seating and $25 for lawn seating. Tickets can be purchased at the CSA Service Window or at ticketmaster.com. 

For more information about the upcoming concert, contact SPB at [email protected], (248) 370-4295 or visit oakland.edu/spb.