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The 2019 Battle for Yardfest — an annual music competition that determines the student performers for Harvard’s spring music festival — culminated with a Wheel-of-Fortune style reveal of the concert’s headliners. After two hours of live music in Sanders Theatre, Harvard’s College Events Board took to the stage, revealing letters on posters one by one. The audience shouted guesses (“Drake?”) from the balcony.
When CEB announced the final names — Bazzi and Kiiara — the audience burst into applause.
Yardfest, the College’s spring music festival, will take place on April 7 in Tercentenary Theater. The event will feature two professional artists, Bazzi and Kiiara, and two student groups. There will also be a dinner in the Yard and neighborhood block parties across campus.
This year’s headliners, Bazzi and Kiiara, are both pop artists with Midwestern origins. Michigan-born Bazzi is best known for his singles “Mine” and “Beautiful,” and his first album debuted in 208. Kiiara, who is from Illinois, gained fame through her 2015 debut single, “Gold.” She is also known for her collaboration with Linkin Park, “Heavy.”
Before the event, several audience members said that they’d like to see Ariana Grande or Khalid headline Yardfest. One viewer said that she wanted to see One Direction make a Yardfest comeback — she had dreamed about the band the night before, she said, “and you can put that on the record.”
Bazzi’s and Kiiara’s names did not come up in the pre-Battle poll. After the announcement was made, however, audience member Casey R. Goggin ’19 said that while he doesn’t “really know” the artists, he is excited to see them at Yardfest.
Two student acts, Extra Extra and Maybe There’s Life, will open for Bazzi and Kiiara. The groups won their spots in a competition between nine different bands, judged by both audience votes and an expert panel.
Extra Extra is a four-person band whose sound is comparable to, per the group’s Facebook description, “Smash Mouth meets Zeppelin meets Weezer (but only Weezer’s recent albums).” The group opened with an original song, “Dreaming,” and closed with audience members singing along to the Killers’ “Mr. Brightside.”
The other winning student act, Maybe There’s Life, is a collective and record label from Michael A. Aduboffour ’21 (MJangles) and Lincoln A. Hart ’21. Hart rapped while wearing a tweed blazer; MJangles sang in a maroon suit jacket, running across the stage with the bottom of his jacket bouncing. Both Hart and MJangles plan to become professional musicians.
In addition to the winning performances, the Battle for Yardfest offered viewers acts from pop to rock to breakdancing. 21 Colorful Crimson, one of last year’s winners, performed a song dedicated to mothers. Beatboxing and R&B group the SH*T staged their performance as a mock relationship counseling session. Six-person rock band Edna Mode took their shirts off; when Daniel K. Hasegawa ’22 brought out his harmonica for a Bob Dylan number, audience members began waving the flashlights on their phones. Emcee and British comedian Chris James broke up the music with jokes about Harvard (he asked if anyone had sports pictures to photoshop him into), England, and dating.
“I thought it was great,” Goggin said of the night. “Luke Martinez is a real live popstar. I love the people who had real, original music — loved [the band] Eat Your Feelings.”
After the show, lead Extra Extra singer Ethan J. Fields ’22 said that he hopes Yardfest will “build on the momentum” that he felt at the Battle.
“It’s just great to see people coming out and enjoying live music,” Fields said. “We’re just feeding off that energy.”
— Staff writer Iris M. Lewis can be reached at iris.lewis@thecrimson.com
