Vocal artist starts food court tour

In front of a crowd of strangers in the center of Wright Food Court last Friday, IU sophomore Jo Fipps stood on a chair and sang a rendition of “We are the World,” by Michael Jackson.

Students all over the dining hall looked at Fipps, unsure of what exactly was going on with the unannounced a capella performance. Others couldn’t help but clap along and cheer for him, while taking out their cameras to film this unexpected occurrence.

“It was a bit nerve-racking before I started, but after singing, it all just came out naturally,” Fipps said.

The performance was the first in Fipps’ “For the People Tour,” which is an ongoing tour that will take place every Friday for the next five weeks in which he will perform a different song at a different food venue.

The idea for his tour evolved from a dare. Because Fipps has a reputation of being extroverted and loves to sing, his friends dared him to stand on a table and sing in front of everyone in Forest Quad.

He sang a chorus of Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up,” and received a positive response from the students in the dining hall. One of them suggested that he should just go around and sing at every dining hall on campus
someday.

“For the next couple days this idea grew in my head like a weed, and I was determined to go on a tour in order to have fun, and promote my YouTube channel,” Fipps said. “So I came up with the name for the tour, and got an RPS approval to start off with.”

He wanted people to have fun, with each Friday performance being the same for a different crowd of people to witness.

“If I can make even one person smile or laugh for a few minutes, I will be content,” he said. “A big part of the college experience is branching out, doing unexpected things, and just letting loose and having a good time.”

The tour is free admission and will continue the next four weeks until finals week. Fipps will bring his tour to all the large food courts on campus, such as Gresham, McNutt, Forest and Collins, and it will conclude in Wright where it began.

Each Wednesday, he will announce when and where his performance will be and the week’s song on his Facebook page “Ernie Jo Official.”