The University Board announced Tuesday that rapper Mac Miller will headline for the Spring 2015 Concert.

The concert will be at 8 p.m. April 25 in the Lantz Arena. Tickets are $21 for students and $24 for the public.

Miller, a Pittsburgh-based rapper, is known for his Billboard 200 chart-topping album “Blue Slide Park” (2011). He has more recently been featured on Ariana Grande’s 2014 album “Yours Truly.”

Miller will be the first rap artist in five years to perform for the spring concert.

Drake, the last rapper to perform at Eastern, headlined the Spring 2010 Spring Concert.

Berenz said the students’ requests took a different direction from previous years.

“Country artists have been popular in past years,” he said. “The survey showed they wanted something different.”

Students were able to voice opinions on potential artists before the board publicly announced it in the Bridge Lounge of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Students were given three clues from which they could guess the artist performing and then enter a raffle for two free tickets.

Stevie Roberson, a sophomore art major, said she was excited to receive the winning tickets.

“I’ve been a fan of him since my sophomore year of high school,” she said. “I cannot wait to go.”

When prompted, many students said they thought Miller was the headliner.

Nick Dale, a junior biological sciences major, said he heard about the performer through social media sites such as Yik Yak, and then confirmed it from the clues given before the announcement.

“I think it is Mac Miller from the clues,” he said. “I would go see him if he was picked.”

Social media sparked debate over the Spring Concert act, with people commenting on other possible artists that matched the given clues.

Carrie Klaphake, a graduate assistant for student life, said Wiz Khalifa was the second-most popular response.

Klaphake said other artists students guessed included Lil Wayne and Paramore.

UB Concert Coordinator Blake Berenz said the student survey played an important role in selecting the act.

“There was a lot of love for the hip-hop genre,” he said. “Pop was a close second.”

Hip-hop was the second most popular genre, following pop, according to the UB Spring 2015 Concert survey report.

In the survey, students were asked to rank their favorite artists. Miller was in the top 10 selected, placing eighth.

Artists such as B.o.B., Neon Trees, All American Rejects and Diplo showed more popularity than Miller, while Meghan Trainor, Chance the Rapper and Cage the Elephant ranked lower on the list.

“We had other artists, but (Miller) was definitely our top pick,” Berenz said.

Berenz said he hopes the concert will expand to audiences in neighboring areas.

“We want to get the word out to the students first,” he said. “But we hope to bring in local people, and people from Champaign and Tuscola.”

Megan Ivey can be reached at 581-2812 or at mkivey@eiu.edu.