Before Benson Boone became one of pop music’s most talked-about voices, he was a teenager on American Idol, and a never-before-seen clip from that run has just surfaced. American Idol released footage of Boone’s Hollywood Week duet with Mary Jo Young, a moment that predates the trajectory that would eventually take him to global stages and top-40 radio. Young, who auditioned alongside Boone during that original season, returns to compete in the show’s 2026 season currently airing Mondays on ABC.
The clip lands as a reminder of how early the raw material was there. Boone left Idol before the competition concluded, a decision that freed him to pursue a recording career on his own terms, with results that have since spoken for themselves. For anyone who found him through “Beautiful Things” or his arena-filling live performances, the Hollywood Week footage offers a look at where it all began, paired with a reason to follow Young’s 2026 run on the show.