Keri Hilson's Performance Highlights Yardfest

By Alex Brown

Homecoming Yardfest is an opportunity for students to put down the books and enjoy a free concert as apart of the Homecoming festivities, sponsored by the Student Government Association. This year's Homecoming Yardfest was held in the "Yard" directly in front of Dwight Holmes Residence Hall on Oct. 8, which was a beautiful day for a concert and also a beautiful day to celebrate the Homecoming festivities on. Yardfest brought students, local artist, a few go-go bands, and even a couple of celebrities to Bowie's campus for the free concert that was hosted by WKYS 93.9.

Our own BSU-TV station and WBSU 90.5 radio station was there to cover the Yardfest that by night's end was a large size crowd. The crowd was a mixture of current BSU students and the BSU community which includes the entire listening audience of WKYS as they broadcasted live from our campus. Singer/ Songwriter Keri Hilson, was the headline performer, in which she performed numerous songs off her debut album "In A Perfect World..." which is set to be released on Dec. 9. Hilson also spoke to the Bowie crowd about making sure they go out and vote on Nov. 4.

One of the many songs that Hilson performed was her first single "Energy" that debuted as a hit record that peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Hilson said of her performance that she "loved the (Bowie) crowd, just a perfect crowd, (they) were really into it at all the right moments, and gave me extra energy... and they received me well and I'm still waiting on my (Bowie State) T-shirt."

Hilson, who is from Atlanta, started out as a songwriter who was able to write many different songs for many different artist that include Usher, Timbaland, Mary J. Blige, Omarion, Avant, Brittney Spears, and many more but she has also been featured in many different music videos. And of all the artist that Hilson has worked with she says her favorite artist that she has worked with would be Justin Timberlake and Usher.

As Dec. 9 comes around, Hilson is doing more and more to promote her new album, Hilson then left Bowie's campus so that she could go to the set of her video shoot for her next single called "Return the Favor" that is featuring fellow Interscope Recording Artist Timbaland.

BSU senior Jon "J-Smooth" Harris of WBSU 90.5 FM radio was at Yardfest and was able to work alongside WKYS, BSU-TV and WBSU says "that Yardfest was a good showcase of talent from all of the performers. Young Swagga, AP from BET's Rap City and 106 & Park, Keri Hilson and (many) more local artists from the area came out and did their thing."

Harris also went on to say that "the students were interactive to an extent, but could've shown more energy, but all in all it was a good vibe left by the students for the performers." J-Smooth's host a radio show that is on every Tuesday and Thursday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. so be tuned in for his show so that you can give him some feedback on his show.

"This year's Yardfest was nice but they had too many local acts. Previous ones may have been better because there were more mainstream artists" said, Adrianne Taylor who is a student here at Bowie and also works with the BSU-TV station. Previous years have brought artists such as Gucci Mane, Fat Joe, Tabi Bonney, UCB, TCB and many more artists but this year's Yardfest was still tremendous and the SGA did a magnificent job of putting not only the Yardfest together but the rest of the Homecoming activities as well.