Benson Boone to Headline Spring Concert

International pop phenomenon and certified backflip enthusiast Benson Boone has confirmed he will headline Amherst College’s Spring Concert on April 25, bringing his signature operatic wailing and shirtless stadium energy to a crowd of approximately 400 students standing in a similarly sweaty Lefrak Gymnasium.

The announcement, which sent ripples through both the Amherst community and Boone's global fanbase, has raised questions after The Student confirmed that the $90,000 allocated to the event — originally earmarked for repairing the famously temperamental shower pressure in campus dorms — was redirected toward Boone’s booking fee, production costs, and a custom backstage rider that sources say includes seventeen varieties of sparkling water and one live emotional support squirrel.

At the beginning of the year, the Campus Activities Board (CAB) and the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) released a survey to the student body to choose three different genres they were most interested in seeing at the concert, as well as accepting artist recommendations. 

The top three genres from the survey were pop, rap, and R&B. “When we were weighing our options, we really looked toward the future of what we want to see for Amherst,” said a CAB representative who asked to remain anonymous because her roommate still thinks she voted for the shower repairs. “And in the end, we decided that the publicity Benson Boone will bring to our campus will far outweigh the benefits of adequate water pressure. We have a return-on-investment plan and hope to resume shower renovations by 2031.”

In an exclusive phone interview with The Student, Boone said that while Amherst was not the institution that offered him the most money — he noted that Hampshire College had bid slightly higher and offered unlimited Celsius to fuel his journey. It was Amherst’s world-class geology department that ultimately swayed his decision.

“I’ve been really into rocks lately,” Boone said, pausing to hit a high note that shattered the interviewer’s phone screen. “Like, genuinely. I heard Amherst has incredible metamorphic samples in their collection, and I just knew this was the place.”

Boone will make a ceremonial visit to the Beneski Museum of Natural History on April 26 to personally examine the mastodon and mammoth skeleton, an event ticketed exclusively for senior faculty and geology majors. Enthusiastic students are already planning to press their faces against the Beneski windows in what organizers are calling “a completely normal and not at all concerning Sunday morning activity.”

Tickets for the one-night-only show are free for Amherst students with a valid college ID, though last year’s statistics indicate that approximately 60% of the student body arrives 40 minutes late because they forgot it was happening. Five college students’ tickets are priced at $15, a price point that has already been described by one visiting Amherst parent as “actually quite reasonable” and by every current student as “outrageous.”

CAB confirmed that revenue generated from the $15 public ticket sales — preemptively, all eleven of them — will first be used to replace the missing salt and pepper shakers in Valentine Dining Hall before contributing to deteriorating dormitory infrastructure.

Similar to previous years, students wishing to perform as the opening act of the spring concert have to compete by submitting a one-minute video and are reminded that the $350 payment for the 25-minute set works out to $14 per minute, which one first-year mathematics major has already confirmed is “technically around minimum wage if you do not account for rehearsal time, emotional labor, or the existential weight of performing original music in front of people you have class with on Monday.”

CAB has also confirmed that Boone’s set will feature his breakthrough hit “Mystical Magical,” which will cause at least one person in the crowd to cry, deny crying, and then post about crying on Instagram later that evening.

Boone may use the Amherst stop to debut new material as a preview for his new tour, “Wanted Man,” which was formally announced last week and is to run this summer across 32 locations.

“I have not slept in three weeks,” said senior thesis student Willy Yams ’26, who clarified that this had nothing to do with Boone and everything to do with their thesis, but that the timing was nonetheless meaningful. “The fact that he is coming around the time that my thesis is due is not a coincidence. It is a sign. He is coming to save us.”

CAB reports that the team has been working tirelessly for five months to coordinate the event. The Student intends to cover the concert in full, but has been informed that press credential was reassigned to the emotional support squirrel, who will have floor access and has already filed two questions to ask Boone during his Beneski visit by posing as a geology major.