Against the picturesque backdrop of a blue sky and lush greenery, chart-topping singer-songwriter Rachel Platten took the stage at Meyer Green last Wednesday night. The intimate concert — which aimed to raise awareness for mental health — was sponsored by the Inspiring Children Foundation (ICF).
Stanford Speakers Bureau, the ASSU, Arbor Live, IEEE, Stanford Mental Health Outreach, SUPER, Wellness Buddies and Cardinal Nights co-organized the night. Anish Anne ’28, co-president of Stanford Speakers Bureau, said the Rachel Platten event was the first concert the organization had ever hosted.
Platten, who has around 3.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify, is best known for her inspirational hit “Fight Song.” Released in 2015, “Fight Song” peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and has since surpassed a billion Spotify streams.
Cherrial Odell ’25 produced and hosted the performance. During her childhood, Odell was supported by ICF, a mental health nonprofit in Las Vegas with whom Platten has collaborated in the past. It was ICF who reached out to Odell, asking if she wanted to bring Platten to Stanford.
Before Platten began the concert, Odell shared her struggles with mental health both before and during her time at Stanford. Through those challenges, she told the audience, she found support in campus communities and resources, including Wellness Buddies, a peer support initiative she founded.
“[The] narrative around mental health at Stanford is a bit gloomy, but there are so many students and resources on campus that are doing really hard work everyday to support people and meet the needs of [students],” Odell said.
Following Odell’s remarks, Platten commenced the show from a small, lofted stage. During the evening, Platten performed several well-known tracks on piano, including “Set Me Free” and “Girls” (written for her two daughters). Rocking her head back and forth as she performed, Platten opened the concert with “Stand by You,” as the audience sang along, swaying and clutching their chests.
In addition to singing, Platten engaged in community-based crowdwork. During her performance of “Bad Thoughts,” she led the audience through a meditation and synchronized deep breaths.
Platten opened up about her experience with postpartum depression, performing an emotional song she wrote from that period of her life. But she also brought humor to the night. At one point, Platten shared a song written for her sister’s wedding, jokingly calling out students who believed they would “be single forever.” The comment drew a loud reaction from the audience, causing Platten to laugh and encourage students to get out more and participate in college life. After she asked the audience for volunteers to play the piano, one student came up on stage and played “What A Wonderful World” with enough precision and elegance to impress Platten.
The singer also facilitated a Q&A encouraging an open and supportive conversation surrounding mental health, inviting students to ask vulnerable questions.
Answering a student’s question about how she supports her own mental health, Platten shared a journaling ritual in which she creates columns of tasks, writing down her individual role for each one and what was left for God to decide. Through this journaling exercise, she came to realize that her part in the to-do list was often much smaller than she had imagined. Platten described how she would start laughing as she realized that the column labeled “God’s job” held most of the responsibility. She repeatedly emphasized the need to surrender control to preserve her well-being.
For her final number, Platten called for students from the crowd to stand up, huddle close and even join her on the small lofted stage to sing her iconic “Fight Song.” While playing the beginning notes on the piano, Platten shared one last personal story, describing how she dealt with rejections from labels and spent 13 years playing at house concerts and volunteering at hospitals.
“It was brutal,” she said. “I kept coming back to the reason I was doing it in the first place. Which was [that] I love playing music … And I was helping people, even if it was one person at a time in a hospital room or 20 people at a time in a living room.”
At first, audience members remained at a distance: “You guys paid way too much for this, come in closer,” Platten said. Once one person gathered up the courage to stand next to her on stage, more students flocked up the stairs of the stage, filming the sing-along in selfie mode.
After the concert, Platten boarded a golf cart, exiting Meyer Green with students still chasing after her. As she sped past the campus bookstore, more students recognized her, calling out her name as she zoomed away.