‘American Idol’ Contestant Beane and His Boyfriend Seem Smitten on Instagram
Published April 18 2021, 3:12 p.m. ET
On April 12’s episode of American Idol, Brennan “Beane” Hepler earned a standing ovation after singing the Ben Platt song “Grow As We Go,” which landed a spot in Season 19’s Top 12 contestants. He even turned judge Katy Perry into a “card-carrying Beanie baby.”
And on Instagram, Beane told followers that he was dedicating that night’s performance to his boyfriend, Anthony Rodriguez.
“He has been the most gentle and supportive human, my calm in this nutty storm,” Beane wrote that day. “Can’t wait to sing for you all again. Humbled and grateful to be here.”
Read on for more details about Beane, his pre-Idol life, and his relationship with Anthony.
Beane from 'American Idol' and his boyfriend Anthony have been dating for more than a year.
Beane marked his one-year anniversary Anthony on March 16. “Celebrating my love today,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “We’ve been dating for a year. Kinda cool to be in love with your best pal.”
A month earlier, Anthony posted an Instagram tribute of his own, writing, “Te adore Beannnno. Thank you for singing to me, goofing/gooning with me, and loving me in ways I didn’t know were possible.”
Turns out, Anthony is a singer, too. His Instagram bio links to a YouTube clip of him performing with the Nor’Easters, Northeastern University’s a cappella team, as they sang their way to victory at the 2019 National A Cappella Convention. In fact, Anthony won the Outstanding Soloist title at that event, according to Acaville.
Beane is deaf in one ear.
The Idol hopeful told MassLive recently that he’s deaf in his right ear. “It definitely was a hurdle for the first few times that we sang on stage,” he added. “But now with this performance [Monday] night, we started to have in-ear monitors, which definitely make it much easier for me to overcome that.”
Beane also has type 1 diabetes, which makes his time on the ABC reality competition a little more challenging. “I have to manage that very involved thing throughout this whole process, which has been interesting, to say the least,” he said.
Throughout any hardships, though, Beane keeps a three-word mantra in mind. “I was given advice one time by a dear friend, and she told me to just do it,“ he told the site. “It seemed like the dumbest advice at the time but when you kind of employ that as your mantra to just do it, then things become a little easier. So I just do it. I do what I got to do to make it happen.”
Beane and other 'American Idol' Season 19 singers attended the same school.
After growing up in central Pennsylvania, Beane attended Berklee College of Music in 2015 and has lived in Boston, Mass., ever since, according to MassLive. (Beane’s ABC bio, meanwhile, reveals that he’s 23 and he works as a wedding singer.)
Multiple contestants from Season 19’s Top 24 attended Berklee, including Grace Kinstler, who also joined Beane in the Top 12. “I am a huge Grace fan,” Beane told MassLive. “She is a powerhouse, and she’s a wonderful human.”
American Idol airs on Sundays and Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
