I knew Benson Boone before he was selling out Rocket Arena.
Prior to the days of “Beautiful Things,” Boone’s TikTok-famous hit that has amassed nearly 2.5 billion streams on Spotify since its January 2024 release, I caught the singer taking up softball during the summer of 2023.
I was attending a charity event at the Columbus Clippers stadium — you know, as a Cleveland girl does on a Sunday evening in July. The main attraction was a little Columbus duo called Twenty One Pilots, whose members, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, had both local and national personalities divided into teams for a competitive game of ball. Boone, a sort of nobody, was a silent stunner on Team Tyler. Emphasis on the stunner.
Yes, I thought he was cute, because before I’m a journalist, I’m just a girl. It wasn’t perfect marketing, but it turned my friends and I into fans. To our surprise, Boone was wildly talented off the field, even with just a few songs to his name, and we followed the bandwagon as he opened for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour in 2024 and earned a Grammy nomination for “Best New Artist” in 2025.
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His talent rightfully came to fruition on Tuesday night at Rocket Arena through charming, flamboyant stage presence and golden vocals — but not without a bit of dissonance.
The 23-year-old's sophomore album American Heart came in June 2025 off the high stakes of its second single “Mystical Magical” released two months earlier, where the infamous “Moonbeam ice cream” was born. As the internet made the fake flavor the butt of several jokes, it spiraled into real criticism calling Boone an industry plant, or just plain talentless.
And somehow, that became his brand: embracing the naysayers and the nonsense.
He randomly does backflips (informed by his years as a competitive diver). He wears tight suits that are reminiscent of a knockoff version of Freddie Mercury. Gen Z loves it. Music snobs hate it.
Pitchfork rated American Heart a 3.7, amid a slew of other negative reviews. Variety noted that the album sounds like it was written in less than 3 weeks — because it was. But, the same album supposedly sold out a nationwide tour in nine seconds and drew thousands of people to Cleveland on a Tuesday night.
So, is it really that bad?
In the grand scheme of all the most legendary pop music of all time, Benson Boone’s music is not good. But, as I text my friends and poke fun at the fact that I am here reviewing a Benson Boone concert, I scan a jam-packed crowd of kids, many no older than 13, taking selfies with their moms and dads. I see one young girl wearing a shirt that says this is her first concert. And I recognize who I’m poking fun at. I think of myself at my first concert: the Jonas Brothers, here in this space with a different name: Quicken Loans Arena, circa 2009. And I realize the standard that his songs should be held to.
I can understand why one might dislike his music. It’s weird. It’s corny.
But it’s fun. Embracing cringe is fun. Boone speaking onstage about heartbreak as an elusive bowl of cereal is fun. Boone singing on a floating chandelier is fun. It makes the kids in his audience laugh (and even me, a few times). Nobody seems to want to embrace the cringe these days.
That’s arguably how Boone built an empire off a fictional dessert — an empire of folks in Cleveland donning blue jeans, glittery skirts, American-flag T-shirts, cowboy boots and paper mustaches, plus one kid in a literal ice cream cone costume. No matter your age, you were at the American Heart tour to have a good time. It didn’t need to be the best show of my life. It was a reminder to not take music, or life, too seriously.
We still got a solid performance from a growing talent — belting melodies and holding notes unlike any 20-something I hear on the radio.
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All gimmicks considered, his songs are the kind of catchy that’s nearly overdone, but ironically, his lyricism saves the day with surprising nuance. Ballads like “In the Stars” saw him on the piano for an intimate exploration of grief and faith. “Cry” was a gusty breakup song with a comfortable groove. “Mr. Electric Blue” was a vulnerable-yet-upbeat ode to his father, punctuated by bold stage graphics and impeccable vocals that were as satisfying as sticking the landing of a flip.
Which, if you were curious, he did a total of 8 throughout the 22-song setlist. Yes, I counted.
Benson Boone, Aug. 26 Cleveland Set List:
“I Wanna Be the One You Call”
“Wanted Man”
“Sorry I'm Here for Someone Else”
“Man in Me”
“Drunk in My Mind”
“Slow It Down”
“Be Someone”
“Mystical Magical”
“Pretty Slowly”
“In the Stars”
“Let Me Go”
“There She Goes”
“Sugar Sweet”
“Take Me Home”
“Young American Heart”
“Mr Electric Blue”
“Sparks” (Coldplay cover)
“Momma Song”
“Love of Mine”
“Reminds Me of You”
“Beautiful Things”
Encore:
“Cry”
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