Although the origins of Dillo Day are unclear, the most commonly known start to what is now the nation’s biggest student-run music festival is that Donald Stout (Weinberg ’73) and George Krause (Weinberg ’73) founded the event their senior year.
They named it Armadillo Day because they are both from Texas, where armadillos are the state animal, and there is a concert venue located in Austin, Texas, named after the animal.
Northwestern held its first Armadillo Day on May 13, 1973, and the event was called The First Annual “I Don’t Think We’re In Kansas Anymore” Festival and Fair. Since the 1970s, the tradition has significantly grown in scope and has been headlined by world-famous artists.
There is a belief that Mayfest Productions, the organizing body for Dillo, usually books artists before they reach mainstream status. To put that belief to the test, The Daily dug into the accomplishments of Dillo performers since 2001 before and after they took the stage at NU.
Since 2001, 119 individual artists and groups have graced the Dillo Main Stage. Alternative is the most represented genre, with 32 out of the 119 performers being primarily alternative artists. Hip-hop/rap is the next most common genre among Dillo performers, with 30 hip-hop/rap artists performing over the last 24 years. Jazz and reggae are the least represented musical genres, with only two performers from each genre.
Chicago is the most popular city for where Dillo artists got their start. Since 2001, 12 performers have started out in the Windy City. Los Angeles follows close behind with nine performers.
“Sunflower” by Swae Lee, who performed at Dillo in 2024, and Post Malone is the most-streamed song by a Dillo Day performer. Sitting at just over 3.8 billion streams, it leads the next highest song — “HUMBLE.” by Kendrick Lamar — by over a billion.
In total, Dillo performers have produced 81 songs that have accumulated over 500 million streams on Spotify. Kendrick Lamar leads with the greatest number of songs in this category, with eight. The Black Eyed Peas trail closely behind with seven songs that exceed 500 million streams. Six of the top 10 total songs have been produced after the artist’s Dillo performance, leaving four that came out after.
In total, 42 albums created by Dillo performers have sold over one million units in the U.S. Nelly has produced five such albums, the most of any Dillo performer.
However, “Legend” by The Wailers, who performed at Dillo in 2004, is the highest-selling album by far, selling over 18 million units — eight million more than the next highest-selling album.
Out of these 42 albums, 26 were released before the artist performed at Dillo, while 16 albums followed their performance. The majority of these albums are hip-hop/rap with 24 being of the genre.
On Spotify, Lamar is a clear frontrunner with over 90 million listeners. He is almost 40 million listeners above the next most-listened-to artist, Playboi Carti.
The median number of monthly listeners for all Dillo performers since 2001 is slightly over 2.2 million listeners. The first quartile of monthly listeners falls at about 350,000 and the third quartile of slightly under 8.5 million.
Among the different genres, the R&B/soul Dillo performers have the highest median with over 9.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Meanwhile, the rock performers have the lowest median with less than 77,000 monthly listeners. However, this low figure is partially due to the lower number of performers in the rock genre.
Similar to the monthly listeners category, Lamar leads all Dillo performers in the number of Grammy wins and nominations. He has 57 wins and nominations combined. This is over double the number of Common’s nominations and wins, which sit at 22 combined. There have been 20 Grammy winners who have performed at Dillo Day, and together, they average 3.9 wins. Additionally, 20 Dillo performers have been nominated but have not won a Grammy.
The most recent addition to the list was “luther” by Lamar, but Nelly was the first with a song to top the chart, as he had “Dilemma” and “Hot in Herre” both reach the top by January 2003.
In total, 120 songs by Dillo performers placed 30th or higher on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and stayed there for over four weeks. Lamar is the most represented artist on that list as he is behind 25 of these songs.
Out of all songs by Dillo Day performers, “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas stayed on the Hot 100 chart for the longest time, sitting on it for 56 weeks. However, the average time those 120 songs remained on the chart was just over 24 and a half weeks.
Among Dillo performers, the most popular artists are not the ones who have the most live performances. Dillo performers have averaged 697 total concerts performed in their careers. Reel Big Fish soars above this average, performing in just under 3,000 concerts — more than triple the number of concerts Lamar has performed. Nevertheless, three artists have performed over 2,000 concerts, while 28 have performed over 1,000.
The 50 most popular songs by Spotify streams from Dillo performers since 2001 are compiled in a playlist above. Natasha Bedingfield will headline Dillo Day 53 on May 17. She will be joined by artists including BigXthaPlug and Ravyn Lenae for the carnival-themed festival.
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