NO ONE LIKES to really feel out of contact. It may be jarring when listening to the radio—or, within the case of the Grammys, watching an award present—and seeing a face or listening to a reputation that is simply fully unfamiliar. “Who the f— is that?,” you may suppose to your self. “This particular person is nominated for an award?,” the road of thought continues. “And I do not know who they’re?”
It is possible that a variety of artists elicited that response in the course of the 2025 Grammys; music, inherently, is a wide-spanning and subjective type of artwork and leisure. You want what you want, and it will not be the identical stuff that is touchdown within the mainstream and incomes widespread acclaim. Nonetheless: names like Sabrina Carpenter, Shaboozey, and Chappell Roan (all nominated for Finest New Artist) have been exhausting to flee for anybody dwelling by way of the current day cultural second. However the Grammys had a giant second for another person: a dude named Benson Boone.
And in case you heard that title and noticed him give a efficiency—the place he stripped off his swimsuit to disclose an Elvis-esque jumpsuit (with the assistance of Nikki Glaser and Heidi Klum), belted out some track, did a backflip, and grabbed his crotch—and have been fully confused and baffled as to who this man is… you weren’t alone.
(Additionally, about that complete crotch factor… Mr. Boone went on his Instagram and addressed the entire thing. “Sorry for adjusting my jumpsuit so aggressively on stage tonight that factor was extraordinarily limiting in sure areas,” he wrote on an Instagram tales put up following the present. OK then!)
The Finest New Artist class has by no means made a variety of sense. Khruangbin, one of many 2025 nominees, has been releasing music for greater than a decade, and notably collaborated with celebrity artist Leon Bridges again in 2019. Whereas Sabrina Carpenter definitely broke out in 2024, she’s been placing out music since 2015; Brief n’ Candy is definitely her sixth album.
However Benson Boone… it is a man who appears to have come out of nowhere. As soon as he began to carry out, his track, “Stunning Issues,” could have began to sound somewhat acquainted; possibly that is since you heard it in a industrial, or on Instagram Reels, or in a TikTok. It is that type of track. Possibly he regarded acquainted; that is as a result of he roughly seems like a cross between ascending film stars Jacob Elordi and Paul Mescal, however smushed right down to Bruno Mars measurement. All the pieces about Benson Boone, right down to his alliterative title that feels like both a comic book guide character or an all-star baseball participant appears acquainted—however but it is exhausting to know who, precisely, he’s.
If Benson Boone is something, nevertheless, he is self-aware; he could have been nominated for Finest New Artist, however he clearly knew that the nomination itself was going to be his victory.
“Chappell Roan is gonna get that Grammy,” he accurately predicted in a video interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “That is her yr. I feel she’s unbelievable.”
We will give credit score the place credit score is due: he understands what is going on on. And doing a backflip is not any straightforward feat, as Tom Holland acknowledged in Males’s Well being‘s most up-to-date cowl story. So bravo, Benson Boone.
Who truly is Benson Boone?
Benson Boone acquired his begin in music in a decidedly fashionable means; after getting some early notoriety from posting singing movies on TikTok, he finally auditioned for American Idol in season 19, which aired in early 2021. He wowed the judges and acquired by way of to the Hollywood spherical; he competed within the Hollywood spherical earlier than selecting to withdraw from the present and concentrate on his profession. The present solely aired his authentic audition.
Boone continued posting on TikTok the place he continued to achieve notoriety and fame, finally catching the eye of Think about Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds, who would finally signal him to his label, Evening Avenue Information. (Each males have additionally been related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at one level or one other; Boone is presently a member, whereas Reynolds now not practices.)
Boone’s first single, “Ghost City,” continued to construct his star, finally moving into the Billboard Sizzling 100 and getting him the chance to carry out on TV reveals like The Kelly Clarkson Present. He was additionally chosen by Taylor Swift to be an opener for one of many London reveals in her well-known Eras tour.
His track “Stunning Issues” is among the most-streamed in latest music historical past; since its launch in January 2024, it has greater than 1.7 billion streams on Spotify, and peaked at #2 on the Billboard Sizzling 100.
