Programming Board continued their weekly Happy Hour event with singer/songwriter Matt Beilis this Thur., Feb. 18 in the Gottesman Room of the Kessel Student Center.

Accompanied by his own Yamaha keyboard piano, Beilis performed renditions of well-known popular songs as well as his own original songs, as he continues his country-wide tour performing in numerous colleges and universities.

His set included songs like James Bay’s “Let It Go”, Tom Petty’s hit “Free Fallin’”, Michael Jackson’s classic “Billie Jean”, and the Grammy Award winning song “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran, which two students in the audience decided to have a dance to.

In between each song, Beilis would speak to his audience, trying to get to know the students who came out to support his performance and adding a layer of comedy to his musical performance. In attendance were sisters of the Delta Phi Epsilon and Sigma Iota Chi sororities, and brothers of the Alpha Phi Delta fraternity, all of which Beilis joked with saying he “wouldn’t be able to remember those names.”

Beilis, a classically trained pianist, introduced each of his original songs by telling the audience what each was about.

The first song he introduced was “Dial Tone,” a new single off his EP, which is set to be released on March 4. Another song off the EP is “Whatever We Are,” a song about being proud to be unique and it being more important to be yourself than fitting in with everybody else.

Beilis said his song “Famous” was about how lots of people these days get media attention and become famous because they are attractive and not necessarily because they have talent. This song was for all those people that deserve to be famous instead. Beilis also mentioned how he just released a music video for this song on his Youtube channel.

Trying to relate to the audience, he asked if anyone was currently in the “friend zone,” which is a situation where two people are in a friendship, yet one person has romantic feelings for the other that are not reciprocated. His original song “Bury Me Alive” went out to all those currently in that situation. It is also a part of his new EP.

Beilis ended his set with his original song “Parade,” which he said was about “when you have a bad day, but you keep your head up through it.” The singer/songwriter got the audience to join him to sing a part of the song with him.

After his set was completed and the students in attendance applauded him, he hung around Gottesman in order to meet and chat with people that came up to him.

Matt Beilis is heavily active on social media. For those interested, they can find him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @mattbeilis. He often posts updates about his tour and his musical endeavors. His Youtube channel hosts videos of his original songs and their music videos as well as covers to popular songs, both those that he performed at the event and others.

All his music is available for streaming on Spotify and Soundcloud and well as available for download through iTunes.

Programming Board’s Happy Hour events occur every Thursday night at 8pm, either in Gottessman or the Kessel Multipurpose Room. Make sure to follow Programming board on Instagram to stay updated on all the latest events @paceprograming and look for the emails sent out by Vice President of Programming Meaghan Biggs.