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Grammy-nominated producer, songwriter and performer Maggie Rogers will be performing for Syracuse University and SUNY-ESF students, faculty and staff on Feb. 21 at 8 p.m.

The pre-recorded concert is being presented by University Union. Viewers can access the show through UU’s ‘Cuse Activities page with their NetID username and password. To prepare for her performance, here are 5 things to know about Maggie Rogers:

She began playing the harp at 7 years old

Then she learned the piano and the guitar in middle school, and the banjo later. While she enjoys her success, she told Refinery 29 the music-making process is the most important part of her career as it makes her feel “alive.”

“What I’ve always wanted to do is make music, and I understand the natural response is, well don’t you want people to hear the music? But the answer is kind of like, I don’t care,” she said in an interview with Refinery 29.

She wrote her 2016 hit “Alaska” in 15 minutes

The track about a hike she went on was the first song she had written for a music production class in which Pharell Williams was the guest lecturer. The video of Williams listening to it for the first time went viral after he got emotional and had no feedback for the college senior.

“I have zero, zero, zero notes for that,” WIliams said. “And I’ll tell you why. It’s because you are doing your own thing.”

She attended New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music

Some of her famous friends from her college years include Camilla Mendes from the TV show “Riverdale” and singer-songwriter Fletcher. Mendes makes an appearance in the music video for Rogers’ song “Give A Little.”

During her time in New York, she performed for multiple bands and “overdosed on large music,” she told The New York Times.

She was caught in a record label bidding war

After the video with Williams went viral, multiple record labels battled for Rogers to sign with them. One of the record companies tried to persuade her with a first edition of Virginia Woolf’s novel “To the Lighthouse.” She eventually signed with Capitol Records and produced her EP “Now That The Light Is Fading” in 2017.

“It became very clear early on that there was a lot more to her than a viral moment — that she was an artist with a real soul, and something to say, and a modern pop star with a strong female point of view,” said Michelle Jubelirer, the chief operating officer of Capitol Music Group, to The New York Times.

She went to the boarding school where “Dead Poets Society” was filmed

The Easton, Md., native went to St. Andrews boarding school in Delaware for high school. She recorded her first demo in a broom closet at the school at age 17 and used it in her application to NYU. The demo later became her first album: “The Echo.”

Published on February 9, 2021 at 9:28 pm

Contact Sydney: sabergan@syr.edu