USUSA activities director: Charlie Puth quirky enough to be an Aggie

Singer and songwriter Charlie Puth is performing at the End of Year Bash on April 23 in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. In preparation for his visit, Puth asked for a medium-sized dog, a leash and treats as part of his hospitality request.

Felicia Gallegos, the activities director for USUSA, said when she read the request in an email, she laughed and panicked at the same time.

“Where are we going to get a dog?” she said.

Gallegos said she now thinks the dog comment was actually a joke, because Puth’s manager confirmed to her the dog wasn’t necessary.

“If you follow Puth on Snapchat, he is just quirky like that,” she said. “He would be an Aggie if he wasn’t a famous singer.”

Gallegos said Puth is excited to come to Utah State because he hasn’t performed at a lot of college schools and Aggies are becoming known as being a great audience.

“Performers love our students,” she said. “It is just incredible.”

Gallegos said she had heard of Puth, but initially she wasn’t a huge fangirl. This academic year, she put out an interest survey to find out what genre students were interested in for the End of Year Bash. Then she looked up all of the artists that Utah State University could get who fit the ticket. She said she was surprised the budget could afford such a well-known artist as Puth.

“That’s when I became a fangirl,” she said. “I started to listening to the songs that he put out originally on YouTube.”

The university looks for a performer who is either going on tour near USU or someone is in a reasonable price range, Gallegos said. Puth fit the latter because he contracted with USU before he released his new album and he was nominated for three Grammys.

“Since then, his ticket sales have soared,” she said.

Usually, Utah State University puts in a request for a contract with an artist and it gets rejected several times before an artist confirms a performance. But Gallegos said Puth was at the top of the university’s list for performers.

“Then one day I got a text that said ‘confirmed’ from my advisor,” she said. “I was in a meeting and I ran to the office Old Main screaming and I was close to tears I was so excited.”

Kieth Ariaz said he is excited for Puth’s performance.

“A guy liking a pop star can kinda be weird,” he said. “But I can dig this guy.”

Ariaz said thanks to Charlie Puth, he has had a lot of successful dates. When he goes out with a girl, he does the routine: he takes a shower and puts on a nice shirt and cologne while listening to Charlie Puth’s Nine Track Mind album.

“I started playing his music to get in the mood,” he said. “It gives you the romance feeling — ‘yeah, I’ve got this.’”

Ariaz said he really wants to go to the Bash, but none of his friends are going and he thinks it would be awkward for a guy to go alone to a Puth concert.

“But if there are any women looking for a date, I am only ‘One Call Away,’” he said referring to Puth’s single hit.

Gallegos said there will be two openers performing. Anapesi Ka’ili-Sii is an USU student and the winner of Aggie Voice.

“She sounds like Beyonce, she’s going to kill it,” Gallegos said.

Mimi Knowles will also perform, Gallegos said. He is a growing artist and is out of Ogden.

“He’s a modern jazzy and today’s hits,” she said. “He is at every single event party and he is super talented.”

Kevin Webb, the assistant director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, said The End of Year Bash is one of the unique activities on campus because it creates more revenue than it loses.

“Pretty much everything that we get for student fees goes to the Howl, but then we make back more than that in revenue,” he said. “The existing money in the account is student fees. We can sell tickets and generate revenue.”

— morgan.pratt.robinson@gmail.com