By Bridget Sjoberg | Staff Writer
Baylor students can look forward to a night of music and supporting worthy causes on Mar. 28 from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. when viral music star Mason Ramsey will perform a concert in Waco Hall.
The event will be hosted by Pi Beta Phi sorority and Phi Kappa Chi fraternity and is planned in partnership with Waco Hall, Student Activities, BDSC Ticket Office and Creative Artists Agency.
Donations from the event will benefit Read Lead Achieve and I Love Orphans philanthropies. Ramsey will visit Waco as a stop on his “How’s Your Girl & How’s Your Family” tour, which also visits cities like Austin and Nashville.
Ramsey, 12, went viral in last March when he was caught on video singing “Lovesick Blues” by Hank Williams in a Walmart store in Illinois. The video quickly circulated around the Internet and currently has over 62 million views on YouTube. Ramsey signed a record deal with Atlantic Records and Big Loud Records a month later, and he has appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show as well as performed at Coachella music festival. His six-song EP Famous is currently available on Spotify, with the lead single “Famous” garnering over 37 million listens.
Tulsa, Okla., junior Hannah Scroggins is the president of Pi Beta Phi and anticipates the event being one that unites the Baylor community for a night that all students can enjoy.
“I’m so excited to watch Mason perform and make memories with Baylor students who are involved in a variety of things, all while supporting Pi Beta Phi and Phi Kappa Chi’s philanthropies,” Scroggins said. “I think this will be a super fun and unique Baylor memory to add to the book. Trent Bradley approached Pi Phi and pitched the idea, and we ran with it — we thought it would be a fun and one-of-a-kind event to bring students from all ages and involvements together.”
Colleyville senior Trent Bradley said he came up with the idea and reached out to Ramsey in September. He was surprised to hear back quickly to begin coordinating the event.
“I came across Mason Ramsey’s Twitter profile and saw an email in his bio about booking. I sent a quick email, almost certain that nothing would come from it. The kid was coming off a huge performance at Coachella, so I knew I needed to set expectations low,” Bradley said. “I was honestly surprised that his agent even replied the next morning. I hadn’t told anyone about sending the initial email, and by the next day, I was negotiating price and venue and determining if this was feasible for us.”
Bradley, a member of Phi Kappa Chi, decided that working with Pi Beta Phi for the event would be beneficial.
“Phi Kappa Chi has hosted concerts for our philanthropy before, most recently Kings Kaleidoscope in 2017, but we’ve never had an artist as big as Mason Ramsey,” Bradley said. “I brought my executive council up to speed, and we decided to try and bring Pi Beta Phi on board. Not only would they be able to help cover some of the up-front expenses, but we knew they’d be a huge help with marketing and ticket sales. Plus, our fraternity developed a great relationship with them after Sing this past year, so I knew our members would be excited about it.”
Since an event this large-scale can be difficult to coordinate, Bradley said that he was surprised how everything was able to come together for Ramsey to host an on-campus concert.
“There were just so many moving parts – he was trying to fit us into his tour, and we only had a few dates that would work with our schedules. And even if we could agree on a date, we’d need to find a venue that could house the event,” Bradley said. “Because of this, we decided to keep the event as secret as possible, even amongst our chapter members. We really didn’t want everyone to be disappointed if it ended up falling through. I’m still baffled at how perfectly everything fell into place over Christmas break. He really wanted to come Mar. 28, which happened to be one of the few dates that worked with the Waco Hall calendar and our own.”
Bradley and Scroggins both emphasized that all money collected from the concert will be donated to Pi Beta Phi’s philanthropy Read Lead Achieve, which promotes literacy and developing a love of reading, and Phi Kappa Chi’s philanthropy I Love Orphans, which will use funds to help out the “Bukaleba Project”, a plan to build various educational and community facilities in Uganda.
“The coolest part about this event is that every penny we make will be donated to our respective philanthropies,” Bradley said. “Trying to bring a big name to Baylor’s campus has been a lot of work, but knowing this concert will help thousands of individuals all across the globe has made it so worth it.”
Both Pi Beta Phi and Phi Kappa Chi announced that the concert would be taking place last week on their Instagram pages, and Bradley anticipates the event as one that will be exciting for the Baylor community to enjoy.
“We were able to announce it to our chapters and the rest of Baylor this month, and it still doesn’t seem real,” Bradley said. “I sent a random email in September and now we’re hosting one of the biggest concerts ever at Baylor in March. Pretty crazy.”
Scroggins said that tickets for the concert will go on sale next week, and that the best way to stay updated is to check the “Mason Ramsey Concert” Facebook page.
