Before the performance started, the house music played the ultimate party songs. Everything from Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) to Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Want To Have Fun to Garth Brooks Friends in Low Places was blasted over the PA. The Boulder audience was jubilantly singing along. It sent the message that the Teddy Swims show was going to be a celebration.

Atlanta, Georgia native Jaten Dimsdale uses the stage name Teddy Swims (Teddy from a childhood nickname due to his large frame and Swims an anacronym for Someone Who Isn’t Me Sometimes). Learning this fact made it disappointingly clear that no synchronized swimming will be taking place. In 2019, YouTube videos of Swims singing George Strait, Michael Jackson, and Shania Twain covers went viral. Currently his videos have over 500 million global streams. The thirty-year-old singer continues to gain in popularity by continuing to mix Rhythm and Blues, Country, and Pop genres. He recently even released a duet with All About the Bass singer Megan Trainor. 

Swims is an unlikely looking soul singer. He is 5’6” with face tattoos and gauges in his ears. In a Billboard Music News interview, Swims admits, “My voice doesn’t match the way my face looks.” When he stepped on to the Boulder Theater stage, Swims was decked out in a pink ensemble from Blazy Susan (a local smoking accessory shop). He sang with a soulful voice astonishing everyone in the theater. 

Instead of discouraging people taking photos, Swims embraced it. Throughout the night, he would take someone’s phone and sing directly into it. It’s remarkable how he returned the devices to the proper owners. Or did he? I even noticed one instance when he turned the phone’s video on without missing a note. Swims took off his pink ensemble after a few songs. He had clothes underneath (it wasn’t that kind of show). He gifted it to an enthusiastic kid in the audience and signed the hat. 

When introducing the song Amazing, Swims stated that women don’t need all the extras to look pretty. Then he sang, “You look perfect when you wake up/I’m the lucky man in your bed/You wastin’ time puttin’ on makeup/Don’t know how it got in your head.” Swims girlfriend Cassidie Cottone (who apparently shares the singer’s passion for body art) joined him on stage for the chorus, “You look amazing/Don’t matter what you wear or what you do/You turnin’ heads in every room/Don’t know why you act so surprised/You look amazing, every time.” Because Swims was so sincere, the moment didn’t come across staged, it came across heartfelt.

Other highlights included a cover of Shania Twain’s You’re Still The One that originally helped Swims rise to fame, the fun Rhythm and Blues song 911, and Simple Things which had an authentic Country quality. Swims also previewed the dance song Devil in a Dress from his soon to be released EP. After crossing multiple genres of music with ease throughout the night, the band exited to Bill Medley’s Time of Your Life from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

See you at the next show. I’ll be the one getting ready to take off my pink smoking accessory outfit.