Channelling Freddie Mercury in a blue velvet costume and bandana, Boone opened the show sitting at a grand piano, before climbing atop it and greeting the crowd. “How we doing, Auckland, New Zealand?”
Amid deafening screams, he somersaulted off the piano on to the stage and launched into the show, serenading the Kiwi crowd with tearful ballads like In the Stars and Ghost Town and upbeat tracks Be Someone and There She Goes.
Songs like Coffee Cake showed off his impressive vocal range, from lower raspy notes to a perfect falsetto.
Boone is synonymous with his expertly executed backflips on stage during his shows – and there were plenty of them on the Spark Arena stage last night. So many, in fact, that I quickly lost count.
Where did he learn acrobatics like that? During an appearance on the Graham Norton Show last year, he told viewers, “My dad started doing flips when I was a little boy and I thought he was the coolest – so when I was, like, 3, I would try them off my couch.
“And it progressed and progressed to the front yard and then on stage.”
Boone was originally booked to play two sold-out shows at Auckland’s Powerstation in September 2024 – but in August last year, it was announced that the shows had been cancelled due to “huge demand” and “a scheduling conflict”. And, presumably, not enough room to do backflips.
Instead of the Mt Eden venue, which has capacity for just 1000 people, Boone would play just one Auckland show the following January, swapping the more intimate Powerstation crowd for 12,000 concertgoers.
Judging by the full seats and jam-packed floor at Spark last night, it was the right call.
The venue change reflects Boone’s meteoric rise to fame in a relatively short amount of time. Last night, the 22-year-old acknowledged that 2024 had changed everything – and thanked the Kiwi crowd for being “part of my life”.
“Over the past few years especially, my life has changed a lot,” he reflected on stage.
“This is not necessarily what I thought I would be doing even just a couple years ago, but I’m very grateful to be here and this is a huge honour to play shows like this.”
Boone appeared on American Idol in 2021. After his audition, judge Katy Perry told him, “I see you winning American Idol if you want.”
Boone later left the show, telling podcast host Zach Sang, “The reason that I quit American Idol is because I wanted to do music. I decided that I wanted to do music, and I don’t want people to be like, ‘Oh Benson Boone. American Idol blew him up. That’s what he comes from. No.
“I want to be Benson Boone because I write smash hits, and they love my music. That’s why I quit.”
It wasn’t long before Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds came across his singing videos and signed Boone to his label Night Street Records. The singer released his debut single Ghost Town in October 2021.
He released his first studio album Fireworks and Rollerblades, for which the tour was named, in April last year.
Since then, he’s opened for Taylor Swift during her Eras Tour, appearing at her Wembley Arena shows in June last year, and earned his first-ever Grammy nomination – he’s up for Best New Artist at the awards show in February. He’s also set to perform on the Grammys stage during the ceremony.
Last night’s show was the final slot in his Fireworks & Rollerblades Tour, after several performances in Australia – and, as Boone noted early on in the night, his biggest one to date.
After the final song, the hotly-anticipated Beautiful Things, had everyone in the crowd on their feet and singing along, Boone was handed the New Zealand flag by someone in the front row and held it up amid resounding applause.
It won’t be long before he’s back in Aotearoa – Boone’s continued rise to fame is clearly written In the Stars.
