Chances are you, like me, might not know much about Benson Boone, but you have heard of him. Or heard his voice.
After all, his single “Beautiful Things” exploded in 2024 and spread like wildfire across TikTok and music charts alike.
But during his set on Wednesday night — the first of three shows as part of a mini-residency at the Delta Center to close out the North American leg of his “American Heart World Tour” — I become distinctly aware of him.
Boone sets the expectations high from the get-go. A video skit plays at the beginning of the show, welcoming fans to his first arena tour. It ends with a simple message: “Get ready for the best night of your lives.”
Shortly after, the curtains part to usher his entry onto the elaborately long stage. He steps out in a whimsical fog. Then he lands a backflip. This is how the two-hour show begins. What follows is a true display of showmanship and a mildly concerning amount of aerodynamic action.
“It’s safe to say there are a lot of people in this room that are very new to the music and to…” Boone said, gesturing to himself.
“I get it,” he said later on in the show. “I’m a lot.”
Boone is this year’s only musician booked with three shows at Delta Center and will see approximately 40,000 fans in that time, according to a representative from Smith Entertainment Group.
Since the release of Boone’s 2024 debut album, “Fireworks and Rollerblades,” the Washington-native has been on a cosmic pop trajectory. In 2021, Boone competed on “American Idol” but voluntarily withdrew, and that same year, he signed a record contact with Night Street Records, a company founded by fellow Utah favorite Dan Reynolds, the frontman of Imagine Dragons.
His current world tour sold out in just nine seconds.
The reason behind his popularity — devotion from fans — was apparent Wednesday night. They show up decked out in red, white and blue outfits, matching the album’s American dress code. For them, Boone’s enhanced performance factors (like fireworks and elaborate stage lighting) are just those: factors. It’s the heartthrob on stage that’s the real star.
They dance all the way up in the nosebleeds and clutch hands as they sing along. Many of them are young kids, tweens, teenagers — eyes full of stars and mouths full of lyrics.
By the fourth song, Boone is dripping in sweat, a nod to his athleticism. The excellently crafted stage, which takes up nearly the entire floor of the arena, serves as his catwalk. He’s fearless, backflipping and jumping and running. If he had come out of a cannon, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
Instead, Boone takes to the sky, hooked to a blue structure that seems to be part-chandelier, part-rocket, for his dreamy, groovy track “Mystical Magical.”
The crowd follow as he beckons. When the spotlight focuses on him as he sings to those in the pit, eyes full of devotion stare back at him. It’s impossible not to feel like he’s singing directly to you in those moments, and a point from Boone in any general direction of the crowd is enough to make Utah fans fawn.
They sing back his songs to him like memorized national anthems, “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else” being one of them.
Throughout the show, Boone’s voice and stage presence anchor the entire performance; In “Drunk in My Mind,” he’s hitting high notes, dragging the mic stand around, falling to his knees and jumping into the crowd. “In the Stars” is a touching tribute to grief that leaves the crowd clutching one another in hugs and many wiping tears.
“The thing I love so much about this song is when you listen to it, it’s not about my feeling, my story, about this person [or] about my life. It’s about yours. It becomes about your life,” Boone said before performing it.
As much as his tracks are loud, bold and instrumentally jam-packed, they’re also soft, heartfelt and thoughtful. “Momma Song” is a beautiful ballad, an ode to his parents and a touch point in the show that doesn’t need any added theatrics: just Boone with his microphone.
Later on, when Boone says his voice is a little off tonight, it can only be taken as a joke, since he then proceeds to perform a cover of Adele’s “All I Ask” like it’s his song. Even his 11-minute fan fiction-esque telling of a fan’s romantic life is endearing. It’s a bit he uses to introduce “Reminds Me of You” — one of his best songs from the entire night.
When he finishes his encore song and the pit is drenched in firework smoke, Boone hops off stage and runs through the crowd, he hugs fans, signs autographs and makes sure to grab as many outstretched hands as he can.
He sings, “Thank you all for coming to the show tonight,” and then we get one final glimpse, before he’s gone.
Boone left it all on the stage on Wednesday night — most especially his heart — literally. By the time the lights come up, the entire arena is home to hundreds of red, white and blue confetti hearts that fluttered through the air during “Young American Heart.”
One can only hope for the best when going to a show where you aren’t overly familiar with the artist’s work.
By the end, his sophomore album is added to my digital library and I’m ready to become a certified “Booner.”
Boone’s closing residency will continue Thursday and Saturday.