After “Beautiful Things” became the most-streamed song of 2024 and Benson Boone was seemingly everywhere, some might have thought he came out of the blue as an overnight success. But the 22-year-old singer-songwriter has been making waves since auditioning for season 19 of “American Idol” — even performing one of his signature flips after receiving a ticket to Hollywood.
Boone advanced all the way to the Top 24 in 2021, receiving rave reviews from judges Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie, and Katy Perry. But Boone disappeared before the live episodes began, opting to walk away from the competition.
At the time, viewers were shocked Boone gave up the opportunity to gain so much exposure and guidance. But within months, he’d signed a record deal with the label started by Imagine Dragons’ front man Dan Reynolds. By 2024, he was opening for Taylor Swift and nominated for his first Grammy.
On June 18, 2025, Boone told the Scott Mills’ Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 that he talked to Perry “a couple of months ago” at an awards show, and got the impression that the pop star is thrilled for his success and thinks he made the right decision in leaving the show.
Benson Boone Says Katy Perry is ‘Really Happy For Me’
Sitting in The Breakfast Show’s U.K. studio on June 18, Boone was asked whether he thinks Perry feels like she “discovered” him on “American Idol,” given that she predicted he could win the show and said fans everywhere would one day “swoon for Benson Boone.”
“Do you want to know the actual truth?” Boone replied. “I actually think she is really glad that I left the show.”
Mentioning that they got to “chitchat for a little bit” at a recent awards show, Boone said, “She was, like, really happy for me. Also really worried about me. Like, I think she understands that when you’re starting to go through all of this, like, there’s just a lot of hate coming your way, a lot of people that want things from you, so she was more just checking in on me.”
When Mills noted how great it was to have Perry concerned for him, Boone said, “Yeah, she actually really is a lovely person.”
“She told me, she was like, ‘Leaving that show was, like, the best thing you ever did,” Boone added. “I think she just understands, like, I didn’t even know if I wanted to do music at that time.”
Benson Boone Will Release His Sophomore Album on June 20
When Boone auditioned for the judges on “American Idol,” ABC was just figuring out how to do virtual auditions — which are now the norm — and he was invited in by producers who saw him post clips online of himself singing, he told The Scott Mills Breakfast Show.
At that time, Boone was in college and had only been singing for about a year, encouraged by friends who wanted to start a band. In a profile video that aired before his audition, he said that “getting a golden ticket would be the biggest honor of my life.”
Speaking on the Scott Mills Breakfast Show, he recalled, “I was like, ‘I’m in college, you know, what do I have to lose? I’ll just go do it. This might be fun.”
Although he did get his golden ticket to Hollywood and advanced through the competition, he began to realize that he had the potential to go far in the competition and potentially win it, even though he’d given no thought to truly having a career in music. First, he decided he wanted to hone his skills and sound.
In a statement at the time, according to Us Weekly, Boone said, “It was a very hard choice (to leave the show). I didn’t really know who I wanted to be as an artist yet, and I didn’t want to show the world someone I’m not. … I want people to see that I take music seriously.”
Boone will release his sophomore album, “American Heart,” on June 20, including new singles “Mystical Magical” and “I’m Here For Someone Else.”
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Benson Boone Reveals ‘American Idol’ Judge is ‘Really Glad’ He Left the Show