Music can change lives. It has the power to take a story so bleak and so horrific and turn it into something listeners can relate to. They can hear their stories in the words of someone else, and it takes a great artist to accomplish that.

RMU had the privilege to see such an artist perform last night.

The first time I saw Jasmine Tate perform, I was a naïve freshmen going to see a fellow student perform, but what I got from it was so much more.

One of the songs she performed that night was one she wrote called Believer, a story about a girl going through hell trying to find something to hold on to. Believer was, and still to this day, one of the most raw and emotional songs I have ever heard. Jasmine Tate was able to take something so rough and turn it into something anyone could relate to, and in that moment, I was changed.

I know that sounds like one of the biggest clichés in the book, but I only speak the truth and for the freshman and sophomores who weren’t able to have that experience, they finally had the chance last night.

Jasmine returned back to campus, two years after departing these hallowed halls, and gave students the chance to experience what I had years ago. She only played eight songs, but the setlist was a loaded gun of emotion.

She opened up her acoustic session with “Just Wanna Know” from her Life and Love album. Following the song, Jasmine addressed all of us in the audience and prepared us for what was next, Believer. She jumped right into the song and as I listened to it, I looked around and I saw myself.

A few underclassmen listening to a girl they probably knew nothing about, performing a song with so much emotion and wisdom beyond her age. But the experience didn’t stop there.

She continued her set with her own music, playing “Dreams” and “Seeing the Impossible,” but also covers like “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol, and a remix of “I Know I Can” by Nas and “Loose Yourself” by Eminem.

You could tell just from watching that with every strum of the guitar and with every note she sung, she was doing it with so much emotion and soulfulness that could only come with experience.

When it was finally time to close out the evening, Jasmine, with her loving and out going personality, played a song that was of her equal; “Sunrise”. I walked away from that evening the same way I do after every time she performs; opened, empowered, and strong.

Her music is something that everyone should listen to. Jasmine has moved and inspired students not just with her music and lyrics, but with the way she lives her LIFE, with LOVE.