Audience members snacked on free popcorn and sipped water and soda as Emily Hearn and her husband Michael Harrison sang songs of love and growing up Wednesday at 7th Street Underground.

The University Board hosted Hearn, a “YouTube-famous” singer-songwriter from Athens, Ga., as a part of its new YouTube Series.

Hearn and Harrison kept audience members engaged throughout the evening with love songs, mostly based upon their own love story. Hearn and Harrison have been married for two years, and they travel together across the country to perform their music.

“Gotta Have You” and “Please Don’t Take My Love Away” were the opening songs of the night that hooked the audience to the performance.

Hearn told a story about her song “Without You” prior to singing it.

“Without You” was written while Hearn and Harrison were staying at a friend’s cabin in Michigan this past February.

Hearn said despite her and Harrison being “seasonally depressed,” “Without You” is one of the few happy songs that was written during their stay in Michigan.

Although Hearn and Harrison have been together for a few years, Hearn still writes songs about past loves and heartbreak.

“Darlin’” is a tongue-in-cheek song Hearn wrote about heartbreak. She said she wrote the song because when significant others weren’t interested in their relationship, she just wanted them to be upfront and tell her.

While fondly reliving memories and telling the audience stories, Hearn mentioned meeting Bill Murray while filming the music video for her award-winning tune, “Rooftop.”

“Rooftop” appeared to be a crowd favorite, as it caused many members of the audience to sing along to the chorus by the end of the song.

Among her original compositions, Hearn performed a few covers such as “Let Go” by Frou Frou and “The Scientist” by Coldplay.

Hearn and Harrison ended their set with a pair of love songs about their wedding and relationship titled “Found a Heart” and “Like Ships Need the Sea.”

Bobby Thornton, and Eastern student, opened for Hearn with a cover of “God Gave Me You” by Blake Shelton and his original song “The Good Ole Days.”

Hearn said she has been uploading videos of her songs on YouTube for the past five years after winning a contest that led to one of her songs being made into a music video.

“They designed the music video for me, filmed it, and posted it and then I began posting some covers and some originals,” she said.

Hearn described her music in a different way than most do.

“I always described myself as pop, or an indie version of pop, but I’m pretty heavily influenced by my country roots,” she said. “But I still don’t consider myself country, I’d call myself a singer-songwriter.”

Viewers can find a variety of music genres covered on Hearn’s channel.

“I’m completely self-taught when it comes to my music knowledge; I’m limited,” she said. “But Michael and some of the other guys we play music with are really smart, and some of them have studied music, so they just naturally come up with things.”

In particular, a cover of “Let Go” by Frou Frou stands out, because the original is so unlike the cover.

“I thought it was a joke because the song is amazing, but it’s really electronic, so I didn’t understand how I could cover it,” she said. “We ended up making an acoustic version that just takes it in a different direction.”

Hearn said she recently finished recording a new album, and it will be released in February.

The UB will host Dan Henig, another YouTube singer, part of the YouTube series, in November.

Samantha Middendorf  (@Samantha_EE) can be reached at 581-2812 or semiddendorf@eiu.edu