Toreros get “Down” to Jay Sean and Marc E. Bassy

USD students filled the Missions B parking lot for Torero Program Board’s annual spring concert

Danielle Angello / A&C Editor / The USD Vista

This past Friday, March 29, University of San Diego’s Missions B Parking Lot was flooded with students of all years, eager to kick off their night with Olé Music Fest’s featured act, Jay Sean. The English Songwriter who has worked with performers including Sean Paul, Lil Wayne, and Lil Jon, prepped the USD students for the San Francisco-based headliner Marc E. Bassy. The singer-songwriter Bassy, who was formally the lead singer for the L.A.-based pop band, 2AM Club is known for his collaborations with American rapper G-Eazy.

Junior Nina Tabrizi attended Olé Music Fest and enjoyed Bassy’s performance.

“The DJ before Bassy did a solid job of getting the students’ energy up,” Tabrizi said. “But once Bassy started performing, everyone went wild, literally the minute he went onto the stage.”

When it comes to songwriting, Bassy has written songs for artists including, CeeLo Green, Sean Kingston, Wiz Khalifa, and Ty Dolla Sign, but clearly he can still put on a good solo performance. However, Bassy has a stronger presence as a songwriter and a feature in songs.

First year Colton Landaiche also had a solid Friday night thanks to the concert held at USD.

“It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be,” Landaiche said. “Nobody really knows much of Jay Sean’s music and I had never even heard of Marc E. Bassy, but it was actually still super fun.”

The students of USD danced along to Jay Sean’s hit “Down” taking them back to the early 2000s with this oldie, but a goodie. Though the throwback hit song was a crowd pleaser some said, it definitely wasn’t worthy of being performed more than once.

Sophomore Tiffany Elamparo had a lot to say in regard to Jay Sean’s redundant performance.

“I liked Jay Sean the first time he performed ‘Down,’” Elamparo said. “Not going to lie, it was very repetitive of him to perform it two to three times, and I could totally tell he was lip syncing too.”

Other students including Landaiche shared a similar opinion.

“When Jay Sean sang ‘Down,’ I could tell he was lip syncing,” Landaiche admitted. “At one point, Jay Sean went to grab some water, but the music kept going and I was like, ‘woah, hold on.’”

Despite the lip syncing and repetitive nature of Jay Sean’s performance, the students still managed to make the most out of the night and have a good time. Many students agreed that a more relevant and timely artist may have been a better fit for the Friday night entertainment.

“Overall I think this was a good event, but getting a more well-known artist would be nice,” Landaiche said. “Jay Sean was awesome, but a lot of people thought, ‘this guy’s still alive?’ I had no idea he was still around.”

Some concert-goers were slightly frustrated with the artists’ lip syncing and suggested that TPB shouldn’t spend as much money on live performers if they’re not really going to be performing live. 

In response to the alleged lack of live music, first year Katie Bush had a lot to say.

“I wish the artists weren’t lip syncing because that made it feel like less of a concert,” Bush said. “If they were planning on not actually singing, we could’ve just played some music on speakers. I don’t know, it all just seemed a little pointless.”

Generally, the USD student body danced the night away in the residential hall’s parking lot. Even though being surrounded by familiar faces in a concert setting was a refreshing change of scenery as opposed to the traditional indoor music venue some believe the performers should’ve at least played a live set for the fellow Torero crowd.