YouTube musicians perform, take questions at CSA event

Kelli Nguyen, Reporter

Youtubers and singer-songwriters Joseph Vincent and Clara Chung visited Northwestern on Sunday for a performance and Q&A, giving attendees an intimate look into the lives of the two self-made musicians.

NU’s Chinese Students Association hosted the musicians as its fall speakers. More than 90 people came to see Vincent and Chung, who initially found fame on YouTube and have since become friends, expanding their careers beyond the computer screen. The two musicians’ YouTube videos have amassed more than 122 million views.

The speaker event began with an introduction from Weinberg seniors Jonathan Lo and Leo Zhu, CSA’s co-presidents, who emphasized that “all good things come in pairs.”

Vincent and Chung then gave individual performances before coming together to sing their first ever live-duet. Following the performance, attendees participated in a Q&A about the stars’ lives.

“It was really intimate, which is what I really like about it,” Vincent told The Daily. “They really get to see into who I am as a person, and I get to see who they are. And it’s just a more intimate connection.”

Vincent and Chung were asked about a number of topics, ranging from their favorite songs to details on their love lives.

When asked why music was important to them, Chung said music is a universal language that does not have to be spoken to be felt.

“I can sing things that I can’t talk about,” Chung said. “And the release it gives you, the catharsis, it’s just powerful.”

Vincent posted his first YouTube video roughly seven years ago and now has more than 510,000 subscribers and more than 95 million total views. He has been featured on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and is currently working on another album.

Chung, better known by her followers as Clara C, has been on YouTube for more than six years and has accumulated more than 260,000 subscribers and more than 27 million views. She is also currently working on another album.

The duo has collectively posted more than 300 YouTube videos, including a number of collaborations between the two stars.

The event was one of two speaker events hosted by CSA, with a second event set for the spring, said CSA’s programming chair Lydia Chen, a Weinberg junior

For its speaker events, Chen said CSA tries to bring in well-known Asian-American talent who can perform for the club and the community.

Chen said she was pleased with how everything turned out. The event had been five months in the making and featured two speakers, Chen said, a deviation from its traditional format. CSA decided that two performers would enhance the show quality, Chen said.

“The thing we are most proud of for this show is bringing both of them,” Chen said. “It was definitely a struggle getting one, but I think that the fact that we were able to get two really says a lot about the way our club plans and executes events.”

McCormick freshman Yasmeen Wood has been watching Vincent’s videos since the seventh grade

“It was super cool,” Wood said. “They’re amazing people, not just singers, and I just like to hear their music.”

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