Daya said it best when she sang, “Don’t Let Me Down.” This year’s Fall Concert certainly did no such thing. One of the most eagerly awaited events of the year, the Fall Concert fell early this year.

It began with the opener, Daya, known for her pop hit “Hide Away” and ended on the main act, rhythm and blues singer-songwriter Kehlani, whose most recent release “Gangsta” appeared on the Suicide Squad soundtrack and continues to gain a lot of mainstream buzz.

Fall Concert is the second event to take place in Devlin Fieldhouse this year, as opposed to the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life Quadrangle that hosted the show in previous years.

“This was only our second concert in Devlin,” Jacqueline McLennan, vice president of marketing of Tulane University Campus Programming, said. “So we’re still kind of learning about how we’re going to set up shows to make them go more smoothly, what kind of shows work best in there.” 

When the concert began, students attentively piled in front of the stage’s barricade, anticipating the music acts to come. Starting off the night on a lighthearted note was Daya. She sang guilty pleasure songs such as “Thirsty” and “Don’t Let Me Down,” and she even covered the James Bay hit “Let It Go.” As she concluded her performance, the students’ excitement for Kehlani’s upcoming set was visible through people leaving the seated area to join the standing area closer to the stage.

Kehlani’s disc jockey mounted the stage first, playing hip-hop hits to hype up the audience before Kehlani’s performance. Eventually, Kehlani herself ascended the stage, welcomed by a shrieking crowd. Along with two backup dancers, Kehlani danced and sang crowd favorites like “You Should Be Here,” “Down for You” and “The Way.”

Her performance even convinced some students who previously hadn’t listened to her music to give it a chance.

“I’m not the biggest Kehlani fan, but she did take me by surprise, I really liked what I saw,” freshman Kristen Munguia said. “I had a lot of fun, and I thought she was great at what she was doing.”

Between the venue and impressive performances by Kehlani and Daya, TUCP set a high bar for future concerts on campus.