Ihad one question on my mind for Benson Boone: Sir, why are you always doing backflips? But the 22-year-old chart-topping artist behind the hit “Beautiful Things” was running late to our interview. I couldn’t blame him. Boone, as his publicist explained to me in an email, was “literally doing a flip.”

You see, backflipping has become Boone’s schtick, a staple for quite possibly every performance he’s ever done since his days on American Idol . Why and how did he learn? It turns out the talent runs in his family.

“My dad does flips—or did ,” Boone, who’s partnering with Armani Beauty to support the launch of Stronger With You parfum , tells GQ . “I saw him do a backflip at a family barbecue. He did it off the neighbor’s balcony, and I was like ‘Hell yeah, dad, I’m gonna try that.’

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