Made in America Highlights

Rebecca Satz, Staff Writer

Made in America is a two-day music festival hosted by Jay-Z in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the Ben Franklin Parkway. This year, the event took place one the Saturday, September 5, and Sunday, September 6. The festival includes five stages, food tents and trucks, and even a skate ramp. It had a wide variety of artists ranging from pop to R&B to electronic to rock. Here are some of the highlights from this amazing weekend:

Queen B
She isn’t referred to as a queen for no reason. Beyoncé headlined on Saturday night. From every dance move to music note she was flawless. Her performance involved a variety of dance moves, outfits, and songs. She did her 50 Shades of Grey rendition to her old, but popular, song “Crazy in Love” as well as the original version to open the show. She drew the crowd in by singing many songs off her newest, self-entitled, album Beyoncé. She even threw in empowering monologues from Maya Angelou and Ronda Rousey to not only move her audience with her music. One of my personal favorites was her song “Halo.” It was a nice throwback of a beautiful ballad. Beyoncé never disappoints and this performance was no exception.

Axwell and Ingresso vs. Bassnector
Two top electronic artists in the business took the stage previous to the headlining artists. Axwell and Ingresso went on Sunday night. From the lights show to a constant stream of fireworks to the amazing music it was a performance to never forget. These artists are two-thirds of Swedish House Mafia, an old electronic music group who recorded the hit “Don’t You Worry Child.” The previous night, Bassnector performed. His insanely long hair was over the top, matching his performance. His music seemed to fill the whole festival and every time the bass dropped, heads swung and vibrated in every direction. He did versions of other artists’ songs like Nirvana’s “In Bloom” and the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” If you have never heard of either of these artists you definitely should; listening to them is something you won’t regret.

Surprise?!?
Nicki Minaj made a guest appearance during Meek Mill’s performance on Saturday. The duo sang “All Eyes on You.” Future announced that he will be releasing an album within the year. Kevin Hart introduced Fabulous with a hysterical video advising him to do crazy things on stage like making a cheesecake and feeding it to the crowd.

EDM Is In
EDM music has been in for a while now, but some of the lesser-known EDM artists are still very good. Made in America proved this over and over again. Duke Dumont puts a chill vibe on EDM music with his songs like “The Giver” and “I Got U.” If you are looking to rave, GTA is a must. They performed at Ultra, a music festival in Florida, earlier this year. An artist to watch is Burns. His music may not be super popular yet, but it is very good. I could tell the amount of talent he had while performing his original songs and various remixes, including one to Big Sean’s “I Don’t F*** With You.”

Best Weeknd Performance
Headlining alongside Beyoncé was The Weeknd. He took the stage for the last, but certainly not least, performance of Made in America on Sunday night. He sang old songs like “The Zone” and “Or Nah,” as well as his rendition to Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love.” He even sang songs off his brand new album, The Beauty Behind the Madness, which was only released on August 28. The crowd’s energy was at its height when he sang one of his newest hits, “The Hills.” He stopped the music before letting the beat drop into the chorus, advising everyone to go crazy when it did. He then restarted the song and when the chorus came the crowd went wild. The vibes were unforgettable as well as his vocal abilities. There is no question of why he was chosen to close the festival.