The chanting of Jesse McCartney’s name filled Shryock Auditorium on Saturday night, as the audience flooded the venue into their seats.

Saweetie, an American rapper and songwriter, cancelled last minute leaving DJ D9-3 to take center stage as the opener.

DJ D9-3 performed alongside an artist he found from west Chicago who is also a SIU alumni.

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The DJ was entertaining, besides a few transitional errors, however his sound system didn’t help energize the crowd as half of them sat back in their seats reading their phone waiting for Jesse McCartney to perform.

After 30 minutes of restless beats and singing, it was time to transition the stage to welcome on McCartney.

Dory Lobel, a guitarist from The Voice and McCartney’s guest guitarist, began the show with a solo act leading into “She’s No You.” McCartney kept the high energy by performing “Leaving” and “How’d You Know.”

As he sang hits like “Bleeding Love,” (sang by Leona Lewis, written by McCartney), and “Body Language,” audience members of all ages screamed the lyrics along with McCartney.

Gallery • 7 Photos

Jesse McCartney plays with Dory Lobel on stage Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018, at the Shryock Auditorium. (Isabel Miller | @IsabelMillerde)

After singing four songs, McCartney paused his performance to read a t-shirt made by a fan stating the top ten reasons he should notice her in the crowd.

Keeping up the pace, McCartney sang “Better With You,” “Selfless” and “Wasted” both new singles released earlier this year.

He slowed things down singing a cover of Robin Thicke’s “The Stupid Things.” During this song, McCartney paused his show as he asked the crowd who would like to come up on stage for the rest of the song.

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He picked a student named Emma, who told the crowd she’s a junior physiology and chemistry major, out of the hundreds of stretched out hands. There she sat on a stool as McCartney involved his crowd full of cheering fans to sing along with the rest of the song.

McCartney said this was the first year of him putting out music in four years.

McCartney put on a show for his fans, who all screamed after being asked who was attending their first McCartney show, after months of waiting to see him perform.

McCartney’s DJ-styled upbeats and charisma personality kept the crowd pleased throughout his entire show keeping the crowd singing along to his multiple hits.  

“I think he was a really great performer,” Eunice Obeng-Adjekum, concerts director of the Student Programming Council, said. “I would say out of my contract here, this was one of the best concerts.”

He ended his show with “Beautiful Soul.” The audience chanted for him to perform the song before the show was over. Willingly he performed it, while the crowd filled the auditorium with the lyrics to McCartney’s most well-known song.

Staff reporter Emily Cooper can be reached at ecooper@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @ecooper212.

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