05 May Meet Me In the Middle [of SunFest]
Right now, you can’t slide into an Uber/grocery store/bar/spin class without hearing the early-summer smash hit “The Middle.” The insane ear worm is following us all around, putting a little bit of shimmy in our steps.
While you’re humming the new Zedd-produced hit, I hope you’re also reading the headlines surrounding it. The New York Times just ran a piece just a few days ago, showing the masses how to create a hit single. Many, many artists recorded the track (including Demi Lovato, Camila Cabello, Carly Rae Jepsen, Tove Lo, Bishop Briggs, and Charli XCX) before Maren Morris woo’d everyone involved for the final version.
You didn’t have to venture far last night to catch the absolute best sounding version of “The Middle.” Last night at SunFest, South Florida fans heard Zedd’s stellar track complete with explosions, fireballs, and candy colored streamers.
In recent years, SunFest has welcomed some of the biggest names in EDM and IDM. I was honored to catch Morgan Page in 2013, Pretty Lights in 2014, Kaskade in 2015, Steve Aoki and his cakes in 2016, and Marshmello in 2017. All have headlined the Ford Stage and drawn massive crowds. Now, we can include the Grammy Award winning-Anton Zaslavski, better known as Zedd.
On Friday, the supremely talented Russian-German producer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist performed his biggest tracks, and other beloved classic hits. On a three-tier platform above the massive crowd, Zedd drew screams with bursts of fireworks, flames, steam, and streamers. Of all the recent EDM performances, I feel like Zedd had the most pyrotechnics to date (it was great pacing).
The all-ages crowd was wild, dancing and singing along to his massive catalog of mashups and mixes. Giant blue glow sticks pulsed and waved against the cool night sky.
Zedd performed so many hits, it’s hard to catch them all. Here is what I heard:
- Zedd’s “Beautiful Now” featuring Jon Bellion
- Zedd’s “Starving” with Hailee Steinfeld & Grey
- “Magnificence” by Cobra
- “All The Way Up” by Fat Joe and Remy Ma
- Afrojack’s “Polkadots 2010”
- Clean Bandit + Jess Glynne’s “Rather Be”
- Icona Pop’s “I Love It”
- Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble”
- Zedd’s “Break Free” with Ariana Grande
- Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”
- Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”
- Daft Punk’s “One More Time”
- Zedd’s “The Middle,” and
- Zedd’s Grammy-winning “Clarity”
What were your favorite songs? What did I miss? Let us know using #SunFestFL on social!