The Bell Memorial Union was filled with pop music, captivating the crowd as audience members swung back and forth to the music during ‘A Night With Paul Russell.’
Paul Russell is an American singer and songwriter from Dallas, Texas, known for his viral hit song ‘Lil Boo Thang’, which has over 470 million streams on Spotify as of April 2026 and gained massive popularity through TikTok in the summer of 2023.
Russel was brought to campus by the Associated Students. There were about 130 people at the concert. Tickets were previously $10 for students and $20 for non-students, but on the day of the concert, they were free for students.
The opener of the show was senior Grayson Souza who performed as DJ Leichtermann. He also works in the BMU Auditorium for Associated Students as a stagehand, lead lighting designer and technician.
“If you’ve seen any performance, any dance show, any concert here for the past six semesters, I’ve done the lighting for that, probably,” Leichterman said. “Even tonight, for Paul Russell, after I did my set as Leichtermann. I went upstairs and did the lighting for him.”
It took Leichtermann five hours over the course of a week to set the lighting for his set. He said he spent a total of 20 hours on the lighting design and nine drafts of the music for his set. For Paul Russell, the lighting decisions were made live and spontaneously in coordination with Hugh Hammon, A.S. audiovisual and technical director.
“I love how the lights matched itself to the mood,” said Mel Manvel.
Leichtermann played remixes of songs. His music was atmospheric with heavy kicks, bass and synths.
“I’m thankful to the Chico community for welcoming Paul Russell and myself with open arms,” Leichtermann said.
Toward the end of his set, he announced to the audience that he is grateful for his mother, his partner and the graduating class of 2026. He put on his graduation cap, then continued to perform.
“It was bittersweet. I’m graduating in a couple of weeks, and it was super awesome to have that full circle moment on stage,” Leichtermann said. “This is really an homage to the people that are graduating this semester and everyone whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.”
He started playing dubstep music with louder synths and thick bass that was felt throughout the auditorium. At one point, the walls illuminated with colored shapes and flashing lights that burst through the auditorium like fireworks.
After his set, Paul Russell’s DJ came on stage, and he told the audience to come closer to the stage as he began to play ‘We Fell In Love In A Hopeless Place’ by Rihanna. The crowd jumped to the beat as the song played.
“I heard at Chico State, y’all like to have a good time? Is that what you about to represent?” Paul Russel’s DJ said.
After his DJ’s performance, Russell came on stage as the audience screamed with excitement. He started his set on a high note with his song ‘Say Cheese.’
“His stage presence was there. It was nice he brought people together, and you could tell he was really passionate about singing,” said sophomore Carmen Pareda-Munoz.
Russell’s stage presence instantly drew people in, even away from the snack table offering free drinks and refreshments like cookies, chips and soda provided by A.S. Catering.
Throughout the concert, he engaged with the crowd, inviting them to dance along as he instructed them on what to do. For some songs, he asked them to sing along, such as ‘Eat Pray Love.’
During his song ‘FaceTime,’ Russell told the crowd to FaceTime someone during the concert, acknowledging those who joined on FaceTime.
Russell would sometimes stop performing and talk to the crowd. A young boy, JJ Magnotta, tossed Russell a light stick during one of these moments. He used it as a prop and told the audience to swing their sticks during ‘FaceTime.’
“Can’t lose the glowstick! That man, forever indebted to you,” Russel said, which made the audience laugh.
Magnotta said he didn’t expect Russell to be so involved with the crowd, which was a shared sentiment among attendees.
“The way he interacted with the crowd is really nice,” said senior Jacklyn Moreno.
For the song ‘I Could Be That Too’, he asked anyone in the audience if they were secretly in love with someone in a relationship. One girl raised her hand, and her friends hyped her up.
This was Russel’s first time at Chico and the university. He said Chico is a cute little town. He asked the audience where a good place to eat afterward was. Everyone suggested different places, but overwhelmingly, the audience agreed on Madison Bear Garden.
In his song ‘Toury Places’, he replaced the lyric “you got friends in Brooklyn” with “you got friends in Chico.”
“It was really good. The fact that he came, you could tell he was a naturally good singer and wasn’t using autotune out there,” senior Mariana Kloak said.
Russell closed the night with ‘Lil Boo Thang’ performing the song twice and turning the moment into a full-on grand finale.
“Before this song, I worked a desk job,” Russell said. “Then I posted it (Lil Boo Thang) on the internet and it completely changed me, so I’m gonna have so much fun singing this.”
After the concert, audience members had the opportunity to join a meet-and-greet with Russell. A line of about 60 people formed where they got their pictures taken, took selfies with him, and got his autograph on things like flyers, water bottles and bags.
This is the second concert that A.S. has brought a bigger artist to campus. The last one was ‘Una Noche Con NEZZA’, which happened in October, 2025.
“We’re still figuring out what students best respond to and what they want to see,” said Thomas Duran, events and outreach coordinator. “If students want to see more artists, we’ll bring more artists; if students don’t want to see more artists, then we’ll just cater to what they want to see.”
A.S. chose Russell because they felt like he is an artist the campus is familiar with, said Abraham Trujillo, event and outreach assistant.
“Our leadership team made the amazing choice of, let’s just have our concerts be free,” Trujillo said. “Let’s just make sure that there’s no barrier whatsoever when it comes to our events.”
Aiden Masson and Lucy Bakowski can be reached at [email protected]
