The University Programming Council announced Jon Bellion as the third artist for the 2017 Spring Concert, replacing Matt and Kim.

The concert featuring 2 Chainz, Lil Dicky and Jon Bellion is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 23.

UPC began looking for an act to replace Matt and Kim as soon as they got word that the duo would not be performing.

“We were looking for other artists as soon as we found out that Matt and Kim couldn’t perform and I’d say honestly it’s been very last minute and I want to say maybe a week ago…our agent had told us that Jon Bellion would be interested,” said Shameen Akhtar, UPC director of external affairs and a senior architecture major.

According to Lindsey Blackman, the executive director of UPC and a senior communication major, this is not the first time UPC has dealt with groups backing out of concerts in the past.

Blackman said in these instances it was “not due to injury but sometimes due to smaller things. And we’ve always learned to work around it and we kind of have to go with the cards that we’re dealt and figure it out and still try to make it the best show for students.”

“We don’t really deal with Matt and Kim directly, our advisors do. So we just kind of found out through our agent and he also told our advisors,” said Akhtar.

Akhtar said she is looking forward to the show.

“We’re very excited, we’re relieved. I think that a lot of the students are happy with this change, even though it was a bummer to find out Matt and Kim couldn’t come, but I think people are going to be okay with Jon Bellion…We’re still really excited, we get to put on a show for the students,” she said.

Blackman said she is excited for the concert as well.

“I still think that it’ll be a great show altogether. I’ve been reading things online about his performances and everyone says that he is really really great live and really passionate. So I think he’ll still bring a lot of positive energy to the UMass student body, which I think Lil Dicky and 2 Chainz will do as well,” she said.

UPC distributed a survey to students in the fall regarding who they wanted to see in the Spring Concert. With the news that Matt and Kim would not be performing, UPC went back through the surveys and deemed Jon Bellion to be a good fit, according to Blackman.

“Although he’s not the exact same genre as Matt and Kim, we kind of wanted to keep it in that general area,” she said.

Kathryn Luo, a junior psychology major said that although she does not plan on attending the Spring Concert this year, she knows of Jon Bellion more so than Matt and Kim.

Hayley Johnson can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @hayleyk_johnson.