By JONAS MILLER
Co-Executive Editor
Excitement swept across the College of Saint Rose campus when it was announced early last week that the artist responsible for the 2004 hit single “Beautiful Soul” was an option for this year’s Rose Rock headliner. That excitement disappeared Monday, when the artist was found to be absent from the second round ballot.
Despite receiving the necessary amount of votes to move on to the second round, Jesse McCartney was left off of the ballot that was sent out to students on Monday night.
McCartney was booked by another venue before voting closed, according to Student Association Director of Student Activities Vito Van Dunk.
“This is common within the music industry,” Van Dunk said. “Artists can become unavailable at any moment and this is something that we work around every year.”
Many students were ecstatic to see the pop star on the first round ballot, immediately taking to social media, urging their peers to vote for McCartney.
One tweet from senior Kellsey Sullivan quickly gained traction, amassing more than 40 favorites and 20 re-tweets by week’s end.
In previous years, voting for the annual spring concert has begun in the fall semester. Due to complications with the agent Van Dunk had planned to use, voting had to be postponed until the spring.
“In order to offer the student body better artists, and make the most out of Rose Rock, I switched the agency we work with,” Van Dunk said. “This delayed the voting process more than I would have liked.” Van Dunk added that voting with be back on track once the second round is completed.
“There is a lot of planning and execution that the student body is unaware of,” Van Dunk said. “My committee and I are working hard each day to make sure we can plan an amazing Rose Rock for our Saint Rose community.”
This year’s event will take place on Saturday, April 29. A start time has not been set. The Chronicle will bring you more updates on Rose Rock 2017 as they become available.
