American singer-songwriter Benson Boone held his first-ever performance in the country last Saturday, August 5, at the Venice Piazza, McKinley Hill, with hopes of eventually touring around the world.
Despite not feeling well, Boone was ready to push forward with his performance, “All of my songs are very hard to sing, they’re very high and strenuous on my voice and I had to do that a lot. Of course, that’s part of the job, and it gets to a point that I feel like I couldn’t perform, and on those days, I don’t talk at all, and I would drink lots of tea, lots of honey, and just kind of push forward,” he said during the media roundtable. “I’ve never canceled a show… and I would like to keep it that way.”
His event marked his first performance in the Philippines and among his first ventures in the Asian region.
“Asia feels so much different from everywhere I’ve been,” Boone shared. “This is where it feels the coolest to hear people sing my song, ‘cause a lot of people will sing my songs and not even be able to speak English and they’re still connecting with my music which is an incredible thing.”
As such, the mini-concert started with the performances of Filipino artists Rangel – who sang her 2022 hit single “DIKA,” an unreleased heartbreak song titled “Clue,” and Music Hero’s “KLWKN” – and Jikamarie, who sang a cover of Kitchie Nadal’s “Bulong!!!” and Stacey Ryan’s “Fall In Love Alone,” and her original song “lutang.”
As the opening acts end their performances, Boone took on the stage along with keyboardist Chris Potter, starting with his 2022 piano ballad “Before You” followed by the angsty “Sugar Sweet,” which is a part of his recently released EP PULSE. This was followed by the EP’s focus track “Little Runaway” and an unreleased breakup song titled “For The Last Time.” Boone then belts his heart out during the cover of Sam Smith’s “I’m Not The Only One,” before ending his set with his hit songs “GHOST TOWN” and “In The Stars.”
The 21-year-old singer became prominent through the video-sharing platform TikTok for his 2021 hit single “GHOST TOWN,” followed by another hit song “In The Stars” in 2022 – with his entire discography earning a total of 1.2 billion global streams to date.
He recently released his EP PULSE last May, featuring “Little Runaway,” “Coffee Cake,” “Lovely Darling,” “What Was,” and “Sugar Sweet.”
Boone shared that he’ll continue to release a “healthy mix of upbeat and sad songs” in the future, “I would say I am consistently writing songs that are very sad, very emotional, or just have that side or that feel to it – but there are definitely a lot more upbeat songs, I think that I’ve ever had. So, there’s a lot of both worlds,” he said.
Moreover, his first-ever performance in the country will not be the last. Boone shared his aspiration to do a proper Asian tour and to perform in bigger venues.
“I want to go everywhere, I’ve never been anywhere in Africa, I want to do tours there, I want to do tours here in Asia, I want to be able to say I’ve performed in every continent,” he expressed. “That hasn’t happened yet but I’m very excited for it to (happen). I want to get my music anywhere it can go, anywhere I can push it, I will.”
ADVT