Benson Boone invited Kenzie Riddle to sing “Beautiful Things” with him at Brisbane Entertainment Centre on November 6, her 13th birthday. Kenzie, who is facing cancer for a second time, had made a video with friends and local musician Fergus Hogan in the hope that it would reach him. The invitation came during the final song of Boone’s first Australian show on the tour.
The last song of the night was already under way when Benson Boone stopped to introduce a guest. Kenzie Riddle was in the building to see his first Australian show on the Wanted Man tour, and she had a specific birthday wish. She wanted to sing “Beautiful Things” with him. At Brisbane Entertainment Centre on November 6, Boone told the audience what she had asked for and invited her to join him.
Kenzie appeared on an elevated part of the stage and took a microphone. She sang alongside Boone in front of the people who had come to hear him close the show. Friends who had helped her get there were part of the moment too. A plan that had started with a small group making a video now had an audience that could hear what she had wanted to do from the beginning.
The family had bought tickets in July as a gift for her 13th birthday. At that point the plan was to go to a concert and see an artist she liked. Before the show, Kenzie talked about the energy of Benson Boone’s performances and the flips he does onstage. She was looking forward to seeing how the songs felt in a room with him, even before the possibility of joining in became real.
The video grew out of an effort by Kenzie and her friends to get that wish to Boone. Fergus Hogan, a young musician with a connection to her school community in northern New South Wales, had heard about her from a teacher. The teacher had taught Hogan at the same school. He helped the group put the video together and get it seen. That gave their idea a way to travel beyond the people who already knew what the concert meant to her.
Kenzie later recalled that making the video had been fun in itself. They could hope the singer would see it without knowing how far it would get. It drew more than 600,000 views on Instagram, a number she said had surprised her. By the time Benson Boone introduced her from the stage, the work her friends had done to get his attention had turned into a place in the show.
Boone told the crowd that Kenzie was facing cancer for a second time. He kept that part of the introduction brief and explained what she wanted to sing. The audience had enough information to understand the occasion and then hear Kenzie take part in it. Her family had also spoken about support from the community, including the people who had made it possible for a birthday plan to turn into something larger.
“Beautiful Things” had been part of Benson Boone’s live repertoire well before the Australian date. Released in January 2024, it reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became an international hit. By the time a concert gets to its final song, many of the people in the room know the tune and are waiting for it. Kenzie had picked the one she wanted to sing in that setting.
The invitation also changed the last few minutes of a set that had already been running for about two hours. Audiences had seen Boone work through his catalogue and perform the physical moves Kenzie had been looking forward to. The ending made room for her to stand beside him and use a microphone of her own. For the friends who had helped with the video, the point of the evening could now be heard in the two voices on the song.
Brisbane opened the Australian leg of the Wanted Man tour. Two more shows in the city were scheduled for November 7 and 8 before the run moved on to Melbourne and Sydney. That schedule gives the night its place in the tour. It was the first chance for Australian audiences on this run to hear the set, and the date for which Kenzie’s family had bought the birthday tickets months earlier.
For Benson Boone, the finale was a chance to act on a request that had made it to him through a group of friends. For Kenzie, there had already been a concert to look forward to, a video to make and the surprise of seeing people share it. At the end, she was standing where she had hoped to stand, singing the song she had picked. The invitation only took a few words. The work that got her there had begun long before the last song.
