'Storied tradition': Thousands of students attend Derulo concert for UF's Gator Growl

Kiah Coleman-Spradley never attended Gator Growl while she was a student at the University of Florida. Now, she’s making up for lost time and passing down the century-old tradition.

As a volunteer coordinator at UF Health, she wasn’t as involved in student life during her undergraduate career, she said. It wasn’t until after she graduated in 2002 that she started taking part in the annual student-run pep rally around Gainesville and has since encouraged others to do the same.

Thursday’s show was Coleman-Spradley’s first Gator Growl in over a decade — and the first ever for her 13-year-old daughter Tatyana, a student at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School. The mother-daughter duo both sported sparkly outfits and matching glittery boots, with Coleman-Spradley bedazzling her daughter’s black top by hand for the occasion.

“I felt like this is a good opportunity for her to experience UF Homecoming,” she said. “We just wanted to have fun.”

As thousands of students, faculty, alumni and Gainesville residents flooded the Stephen O’Connell Center Thursday evening, it seems the community took her advice.

Gator Growl kicked off UF’s 2023 Homecoming festivities with a headline performance from singer-songwriter Jason Derulo, the Florida-born-and-raised musician whose pop and R&B hits set the soundtrack for much of the 2010s. His set was accompanied by opener Sammy Adams, host Johnny Townsend and UF athletes, cheerleaders and dancers.

This year, Homecoming & Gator Growl is also celebrating its 100th anniversary, a milestone Gator Growl’s executive producer, Blake McCoy, said made the pep rally even more exciting.

“It’s such a storied tradition,” he said. “You can see the work of other people come to fruition over the years.”

Adams, an American singer and rapper most known for the 2016 song “All Night Longer,” did his part to build energy in the arena early on in the night.

Wearing a pinstripe baseball shirt and blue cap both adorned with the Florida logo, he motioned the crowd to put their “thumbs down for Georgia,” handed the microphone to someone in the pit and danced on stage with UF mascots Albert and Alberta − a pair Adams called an “absolute f---ing power couple.”

The 36-minute-set began with the first song he ever wrote − ironically, titled “I Hate College (Remix)” — and closed off with a rendition of “All Night Longer” while bathed in orange and blue spotlights.

Even intermission seemed to prepare the crowd for Derulo’s performance, blasting 2010s hits like One Direction’s “Story of My Life” and Bastille’s “Pompeii” that had the audience singing along to the chorus.

Townsend, former Gators football punter, led the crowd through a series of celebrity cameos; UF-centric skits; the announcement of Homecoming king and queen; performances by the UF cheerleaders, the Dazzlers and the 2023 Soulfest winners; and compilations of scenes from former Gator Growls.

To Barbara Janowitz and Dee Dee Nordstrom, best friends who met 35 years ago in downtown Gainesville, these clips invoked a special kind of nostalgia. The two − Janowtiz being a UF grad and Nordstrom a Gainesville native − have been going to Gator Growl together for years.

They saw comedians Bob Hope, Bill Cosby and Robin Williams, all hosts from the 1980s. When the show stopped being held at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 2013 and instead moved to Flavet Field, they mourned the new outdoor setting’s penchant for lawn chairs and mosquitoes.

This year, the pair donned outfits brimming in orange and blue — everything from T-shirts to sneakers to bracelets.

“It’s part of homecoming,” Janowitz, who graduated in 1984, said. “And part of UF.”

More: UF to spend $9M in state funding on launching of 19 new initiatives

Videos inspired by Jeopardy, HBO’s “Succession” and mobile game “Dumb Ways to Die” poked fun at some of the ways UF has transformed over the past year, with the closure of popular midtown bars Grog House Bar and Grill, The Rowdy Reptile and Fat Daddy’s, as well as the arrival of popular chain restaurants Raising Cane’s and Cava. Midtown’s newest gray paint job also received its fair share of comedic backlash.

As for the dumbest ways to die on UF’s campus, the skits warned against “rooting for Vandy,” a nod to the Gators' upcoming game against the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday.

Filling up the O’Connell Center arena was a slow and steady process, but by the time Derulo took the stage at 9:03 p.m., almost every seat in the house was full. Suspended above the pit, two blow-up robot heads floated over the crowd, eyes gleaming red and blue.

Derulo hit the ground running, kicking off his set with wildly popular fan favorites “Whatcha Say” and “Wiggle” − numbers accompanied by colorful animations of iconic lyrics and puffs of smoke pumping to the beat.

“I heard this was the biggest party in the world right here,” he yelled out toward the audience. “So, I got one question for y’all: Did y’all come to party?”

Evidently, the rumors were true.

For the next nearly 90 minutes, Derulo delivered an Eras Tour of his own creation, with each song eliciting louder and wilder reactions from the crowd. He did a large portion of the set shirtless. The crowd didn't seem to be deterred by news of a sexual harassment case lodged against Derulo by a fellow singer he worked with just hours earlier.

During “Swalla,” he called upon the audience to echo back the song’s chorus, all while a virtual Nicki Minaj rapped her verse on the massive screen behind him. Spotlights danced across the arena as Derulo belted “Marry Me,” a ballad so loud he lifted the microphone stand up above his shoulders during one of the final notes. By the first whistles of “It Girl,” the entire arena erupted in cheers.

Between numbers, Derulo reflected on the COVID-19 pandemic, during which he started posting videos on TikTok. Today, his account has over 58 million followers. He grew to love the app, he said, because of the variety of life experiences reflected in its content.

“[There were] people from all over the world — it didn’t matter where they were from,” Derulo said. “I just thought it was such a beautiful thing.”

More: 'I'll just turn off my Wi-Fi': TikTok banned from use at Florida universities

UF officials in January banned the app from its devices and also called on students to delete it. The app was later banned from UF’s Wi-Fi network. President Ben Sasse has publicly condemned the app several times, claiming it is a cybersecurity threat that allows the Chinese government to gather intel on Americans. He has not been as critical of other social media apps like X and Facebook.

When he played “Savage Love,” a song that went viral on TikTok after its 2020 release, the crowd not only sang along, but danced along — whipping out the choreography millions learned during quarantine.

As expected, Derulo went out with a bang, ending his set with “Talk Dirty” and “Want to Want Me” — two songs that are emblematic of the musician’s 14-year-long solo career and the era during which he got his break.

In his final moments on stage, he encouraged the audience to chase their dreams.

“You have a special light inside of you,” Derulo said, orange and blue confetti still rippling toward the ground. “The world needs that light.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gator Growl: Thousands dance with Derulo during 100th Homecoming party