Review: Stephen Sanchez gets fans swooning and all shook up at State Fair grandstand

Historically, the Minnesota State Fair grandstand has rarely presented current heartthrobs.

There was Leif Garrett in 1979 (ask your grandmother). New Kids on the Block in ‘89. (“Donnie Wahlberg is so hot!”) And 13-year-old Aaron Carter in ‘01. (“Probably the wildest, silliest and most spontaneous [concert] in memory at the fair,” I wrote.)

We don’t count boy-band hotties gone solo like Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers in 2016 or Niall Horan of One Direction in ‘18. And we can overlook a series of wannabes including Big Time Rush, R5 and Why Don’t We.

And that brings us to Stephen Sanchez, the TikTok-boosted 21-year-old who headlined the grandstand on Saturday and had the young girls and women swooning.

The scene: Couples of various ages and orientations cuddled throughout the 90 minutes packed with love ballads crooned by the suave young man with greased-back hair and spiffy Rat Pack outfit highlighted by black-and-white shoes. Plenty of quartets of young women sang along when they weren’t screaming. As much of a grand time as they were having, it was one of the smallest Saturday-night grandstand crowds in memory — 4,081.

The music: Unlike at his knockout concert in October at First Avenue, Sanchez didn’t focus on recreating his 2023 debut concept album “Angel Face,” which tells the story of a 1950s rock star and his love triangle with a woman and a mobster who owns a nightclub. The conceit this time was that Sanchez was appearing on “The Connie Co” TV show, complete with a host and faux television cameras.

Most of the 19 songs were taken from “Angel Face (Club Deluxe),” featuring the Sacramento native’s refreshingly retro pre-Beatles pop sound. The bravura ballad “Until I Found You” found Sanchez an audience (2 billion streams) and a No. 1 fan in Elton John, who invited him to sing the song at last year’s Glastonbury Festival. To fill out Saturday’s set with the right vintage vibe, Sanchez, who sounds like the son of Roy Orbison and Patsy Cline, threw in covers of Paul Anka’s dreamy “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” and Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman.”

Biggest takeaways: A fresh face with limited performing experience, the melodramatic Sanchez knows how to make the women go crazy. It wasn’t just the romantic lyrics, but it was also his rangy croon with its goose-bump-inducing falsetto and exaggerated stage moves, whether swiveling hips, rubbery legs or modified duck walk. However, his performance was not as crisp and convincing as at First Avenue. His patter seemed awkward, and he seemed unfocused at times.

Coolest moments: Sanchez showed he has a special way with Orbisonesque ballads like the stratospheric “Be More,” the strobe-lit “High,” the oh-so-lonely “Fame or Fortune” and “I Need You Most of All” with his stunning falsetto and high leg kicks. Sanchez will rock you, too, as he did with Elvis-like élan on the all-shook-up rockabilly finale “Shake.” His smoothest move came as he sashayed in the audience during the Anka oldie, kissing several women on their hands and then twirling one woman, who nearly fainted with delight.

Low point: A couple of ballads fell flat — the sit-down solo acoustic number, “Into Your Heart,” and the slow “No One Knows.”

Best banter: When Sanchez joined Connie Co at the talk-show desk, they had a funny exchange, trying to decide if Orbison had blue or brown eyes because he always wore dark glasses.

When Co mentioned that Bob Dylan was from the Twin Cities, Sanchez broke into “Mr. Tambourine Man” in a Dylanesque voice and declared, “There’s only one Bob.”

Opening act: “I’m a bold choice for a state fair,” Nashville-based singer/songwriter Madi Diaz, 38, said early in her 40-minute set. “I don’t write love songs; I write ‘was that love’ songs.” The indie folkie was garrulous for an unknown opener, carrying on about a number she wrote with Kacey Musgraves and one of her tunes that Kesha covered. Diaz’s songs weren’t especially tuneful, but she fired off a few good lines in her sad songs.