Program Board Announces Maroon 5 Concert

By Zahin Hasan

In an email sent to those signed up for the PB Happenings mailing list, Program Board announced their upcoming fall concert at the Smith Center on Friday, November 13th: Maroon 5 and special guest K'Naan. The event is to be the largest concert held at GW since spring's Jason Mraz/Ben Folds concert, which was co-sponsored by WRGW. Like the Mraz/Folds concert, tickets are GWorld+5, meaning those with GWorld can purchase a ticket for his/herself, and for 5 others. Ticket sales will open beginning Friday, September 25th at 10 am, and will cost $30 for students, and $33 for faculty, staff, and alumni.

Descriptions of the two acts were provided in the email sent by Program Board: "A mix of polished pop, rock and neo-soul appeal has made Maroon 5 one of the most popular bands of this decade. Songs such as "This Love," "She Will Be Loved," and "Makes Me Wonder" all topped music charts worldwide, and have propelled the group to selling more than 10 million albums.Maroon 5 has been together since 2002 and has recorded other great hits such as "Harder to Breath," "Wake Up Call," and "Sunday Morning." In 2005, the group won a Grammy for Best New Artist, and by 2007, they completed an American tour withThe Hives and continue on a world tour with New Found Glory.

K'Naan brings an enormous dose of realness and urgency to the hip-hop world in a time when people are desperate for it. From a personal and cultural history rooted in poetry (being the grandson of one of Somalia's most famous poets ), K'Naan widens the traditional hip hop perspective. In 2002 while recording a verse for a War Child benefit track entitled "Keep the Beat" K'Naan's unique flow caught the attention of artist/producer Jarvis Church, one half of the Grammy award winning production team Track and Field (Nelly Furtado). From there began a creative partnership that would lead to the creation of K'Naan's first full length album The Dusty Foot Philosopher."