Benson Boone

A diving board, a battle of the bands and a withdrawal from American Idol

Benson James Boone was born on 25 June 2002 in Monroe, Washington, grew up with four sisters and left Monroe High School in 2020 having competed in diving and tennis rather than in anything musical. Singing started almost by accident: during his junior year a friend asked him to play piano and sing at the school's battle of the bands, and he went into it with no vocal experience behind him.

In early 2021 he auditioned for the nineteenth season of American Idol, won a place in the Top 24 and then withdrew from the competition to work on his own material instead. The clips he posted afterwards built a large TikTok following, which is how Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons found him. Reynolds signed Boone to Night Street Records in partnership with Warner Records in October 2021, and the debut single "Ghost Town" arrived that same month.

Two EPs, two albums, one Diamond single

The groundwork was laid by two EPs, Walk Me Home... in July 2022 and Pulse in May 2023, both of which went platinum in Canada. "Ghost Town" and "In the Stars" went multi-platinum across several markets, but the song that changed the scale of the career was "Beautiful Things" in 2024: number two on the Billboard Hot 100, a chart-topper in a string of other countries and eventually certified Diamond by the RIAA.

The debut album Fireworks & Rollerblades followed in April 2024 and peaked at number six on the Billboard 200. The second, American Heart, came out on 20 June 2025 and entered at number two with 61,000 album-equivalent units, topped the charts in Australia and New Zealand, reached number four in the UK and number two in Canada and Flemish Belgium. Its singles ran "Sorry I'm Here for Someone Else" on 27 February 2025, "Mystical Magical" on 24 April, "Momma Song" on 22 May, "Mr Electric Blue" on 26 September and "Man in Me" on 2 January 2026.

Along the way came a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist in 2025 and a Coachella set the same year in which he sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" with Queen's Brian May — a pairing that says a good deal about where his instincts point.

The split verdict on American Heart

American Heart holds a Metacritic score of 47 out of 100, which puts it in mixed territory, and the reviews that pulled it down were not gentle. NME gave it two stars out of five and called it overproduced pop-rock with an attention-seeking, theatrical bent. Rolling Stone also gave two stars, arguing the record had been rushed out to capitalise on a sudden rise. Pitchfork scored it 3.7 out of 10 and wrote that it was music for people who like how music sounds but not for people who like music. The Arts Desk went the other way with four stars, crediting the album's nostalgic grooves and hooks.

The gap between that reception and the album's commercial performance is the central fact of Boone's current standing. The reviews did not slow the ticket sales, and the touring pattern since has been set by demand rather than by consensus.

Fifty shows, and a voice that occasionally gives out

The American Heart World Tour was his first all-arena run: 50 shows from 22 August 2025 to 15 March 2026, taking in 30 North American cities before moving through the UK, Ireland and continental Europe. Elliot James Reay opened the early North American dates and then the European leg, Brooke Combe supported the remaining North American shows, and Victor Ray was billed for the final night.

That final night was itself a repair job. The Birmingham date was cancelled at short notice on 1 November 2025 because of vocal problems and rescheduled to 15 March 2026, which is where the tour eventually finished — a recurring theme for a singer whose material sits near the top of his range for long stretches.

The Wanted Man Tour

Boone announced the Wanted Man Tour on 29 March 2026 as a run of 32 US arena dates, with general tickets going on sale on 3 April. It grew into 47 shows between 7 July and 19 November 2026, making it his fourth concert tour. It opened at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on 7 July with a 22-song set.

Support rotated by leg: Olivia O'Brien through 28 July, Ashe from 30 July to 15 August, Luna Li from 17 August across the remaining US dates, and Ruel on the international shows. Two dates moved — Spokane from 2 August to 6 September because of wildfires, and Sacramento from 8 August to 9 September after vocal trouble.

The Asia-Pacific leg takes in South Korea, Japan and Singapore before the Australian arena dates in November, closing in Sydney on 19 November 2026. Australian tickets went on sale in mid-July, with the artist presale on 15 July, a Frontier members' presale on 17 July and the general presale on 21 July.

The newest music in the set is "The Time of My Life", released on 25 June 2026 — his 24th birthday — through Night Street and Warner Records. It peaked at number 60 on the Hot 100 and number 20 on US Adult Contemporary, took 1,298,574 Spotify streams on its first full tracking day, went to US contemporary hit radio on 30 June and got a seven-inch pressing on 28 August. Its video stars the social media personality Alix Earle. Boone's other recent appearance was on the Life Uncut podcast on 1 October 2026, telling a long story against himself about a backstage encounter with a fan.

What a Wanted Man show actually delivers

The Newark show at the Prudential Center in July 2026 ran 90 minutes and came with a projected text crawl in the manner of a Star Wars opening, stage fog, pyrotechnics, a catwalk section that lifted into the air, a chandelier Boone swung from, confetti cannons and repeated backflips. Alix Earle walked on for the newest single. "Beautiful Things" closed it under sparklers and fireworks.

The shape has held across the run. At Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville on 25 August the set was 20 songs, eight each from American Heart and Fireworks & Rollerblades, opening with "Sorry I'm Here for Someone Else" and finishing with "Beautiful Things". Mid-set there was an unreleased song, "Traveler (Love You Again)".

The sharpest reading came from Selena Fragassi in the Chicago Sun-Times, reviewing the first of two Chicago-area nights at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont on 24 July. She counted five or six backflips, noted the chest-baring waistcoat, the backpack worn as a nod to a fan habit and a Freddie Mercury costume turn, and rated the opening four songs as arena rock done properly. Then came what she described as a nearly 12-song stretch of extended pop ballads that went stale. She picked out "Traveler" and "Momma Song" as the night's best moments, and finished unconvinced that Boone's many sides add up to one person rather than several fragments. The crowd, drawn across generations and heavy on parents alongside younger fans, did not appear to share the doubt. Boone addressed it himself from the stage: "My greatest fear is to show up to this stage, to write songs, to do all of this for no one."