Benson Boone tells haters to ‘at least have a good reason’

Benson Boone scored the world’s most popular song of last year with Beautiful Things – but that success has come with a backlash.

The US singer has now sent a message to his haters, asking them to make their criticism more constructive.

“If you hate me or my music at least have a good reason for it,” the 22-year-old wrote in a message on TikTok.

“I just read a comment that said ‘idek [I dont even know] why I hate Benson Boone but it feels right.’ Like WHAT!? how am I supposed to improve after reading that?”

The star, who is also known for his love of sparkly catsuits and doing athletic on-stage backflips, added: “At least say something valid like ‘he low key just flips everywhere can he doing anything else?’

“Or even ‘I just don’t like his songs even though I’m basing my opinion off the only one that I’ve heard over and over’ (super valid).”

Boone captioned the video containing his message: “I’m literally giving you ideas.”

Boone’s breakout hit has been near-inescapable on radio and social media, and the impassioned folk-pop anthem is still in both the US and UK top 10s more than a year after its release.

It was the most popular single of 2024 across digital platforms, with more than two billion streams, according to global music trade body the IFPI, beating hits by Sabrina Carpenter, Teddy Swims and Billie Eilish.

Boone was nominated for a Grammy and two Brit Awards, and made headlines at the first weekend of the recent Coachella festival when he brought out Queen guitarist Brian May to perform Bohemian Rhapsody.

But with such ubiquity comes criticism.

Pitchfork’s savage review of his first Coachella set pulled no punches and summed up the sentiment of those who can’t stand him.

“Benson Boone is horrible, just godawful, the kind of act that makes you wonder if this whole medium has been worth it,” the site’s critic Paul A Thompson wrote.

“His main stage set, at 7pm on Friday – a preposterous slot for him – was nine absolutely insipid originals that seem designed to soundtrack tearful front-facing confession videos followed by a galling (and inexplicably Brian May-assisted) cover of Bohemian Rhapsody.

“I didn’t love it.”

Nora Princiotti, co-host of the We’re Obsessed podcast, then waded in.

“I’m also a Benson Boone hater,” she said. “So… reading these [Pitchfork] paragraphs and seeing them tweeted out cleared my skin and corrected my posture, because I don’t care that that man can do a flip, I hate that song that’s all over TikTok, Beautiful Things.

“I hated having to talk about it in conjunction with the Grammys. It didn’t deserve anything and I never want to think about him again.”

But Boone isn’t going away – he is playing a string of other North American festivals this summer, and is releasing his second album, American Heart, in June.