Canadian R&B artist Daniel Caesar will perform at Dillo Day, Mayfest announced Wednesday.

The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter released his debut album, “Freudian,” in August 2017, to critical acclaim. “Get You,” its lead single, recently hit gold in both the U.S. and Canada.

Mayfest co-chair Andrew Hunter said R&B has been an “underrepresented” genre at previous Dillo Day festivals, adding he’s excited for Caesar to play this year.

“Since Dillo Day is at the end of the school year, it’s kind of a bittersweet time and we feel like that really comes across in his more soulful, emotional music,” the Weinberg senior said. “We think it’s going to be a really cool experience for Northwestern students.”

Caesar, who was born Ashton Simmonds, debuted with “Praise Break” in 2014. The EP made Rolling Stone’s list of the 20 best R&B albums of 2014.

Mayfest promotions co-chair Molly Dudas said she thought students would respond well to Caesar based on how their responses to previous acts like Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals and Little Simz. She also said Mayfest was excited to bring an R&B act to Dillo Day.

“Daniel Caesar is someone we’re super excited about,” she said. “We haven’t always had an R&B genre featured, and we definitely wanted to highlight that genre because a lot of Northwestern students are really responsive to it.”

Mayfest teased the announcement earlier in the day, posting a video on social media of instructions for preparing a caesar salad with the caption “teaser salad.”

Caesar is also set to play at Lollapalooza this summer and recently played at Coachella. He’s the first act announced for this year’s Dillo Day, which is set to be held June 2. Hunter said he hopes Caesar’s music will help contribute to a great environment on Dillo Day.

“Dillo Day is just kind of everyone coming together and loving the fact that they’re at Northwestern,” he said. “Daniel Caesar is definitely a love song kind of guy, and so we really think that when people are out on the Lakefill, jamming out, they’re just really going to vibe with his music and they’re going to remember why they love Northwestern.”

Mayfest director of concerts Grant Pender said because Dillo Day was pushed back this year, many artists were unavailable due to a number of major music festivals that weekend.

“He’s playing a ton of major festivals and the fact that we were able to snag him is, I think, just really lucky and a great opportunity for Dillo Day,” Pender said. “And he’s got a Grammy nomination, so that’s just kind of the cherry on top. We were definitely really lucky to grab an artist like this.”

Gabby Birenbaum contributed reporting.

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