Keenan TreVon could be Denver’s breakout R&B star. But is the city giving him his flowers?

Keenan TreVon has the goods.

Raised in Aurora, the musician has natural talent, a studied passion for music, a dedicated team, fierce ambition and, of course, the dashing good looks of an R&B heartthrob. But despite achieving many “firsts” for an urban artist from Colorado, TreVon hasn’t found the success you’d expect in the market.

To be fair, he spent the past few years in Florida, San Diego and on the road, but since returning to his hometown last spring, he’s made a concerted effort to establish himself as a leading artist in the Box State. TreVon will drop his sophomore album, Buy Me Flowers: The Album, on Friday, May 22, the day before he headlines at the Bluebird Theater.

TreVon first teased an EP titled buymeflowers (Part 1) in November 2024, with the intention of following it up with a full album soon after, but he didn’t drop Part 1 until a year later. In the time between the initial announcement and the release, TreVon’s life was turned upside down, prompting him to redo both parts of the project almost entirely.

“Life kind of served me that platter,” he says. “At the beginning of last year, my mom got sick, I ended up getting jumped and my jaw got broken, so everything just kept getting pushed and pushed with life happening. This whole buymeflowers thing has been a journey.”

Buy Me Flowers: The Album reflects TreVon’s R&B origins, where he is now and everything he’s been through to get here.

“I think with everything that happened, my entire mood changed,” TreVon says.

After a tumultuous year, TreVon finally dropped buymeflowers (Part 1) last November. Buy Me Flowers: The Album will include the five songs from Part 1, plus nine new tracks. “It’s the most proud I’ve been of the R&B stuff,” he says. “I feel like we’ve really found the sound here. It sounds good, it sounds grown, it sounds mature, it sounds sexy.”

While Buy Me Flowers: The Album is grounded in R&B, it incorporates elements from the emo and punk music that TreVon has grown to love, including his own guitar playing. “You’ll hear a few attempts on the album of bridging the gaps,” he explains, “like throwing R&B vocals and melodies on alternative-sounding beats. ‘Do U Miss Me?’ is a good example of blending the two.”

He’s been gearing up for the album release with a three-month North American tour. TreVon is one of the few urban artists from Colorado who has a solid amount of touring experience, including opening for singer Marc E. Bassy and rapper G-Eazy, who’s also managed by Mike Gomez, TreVon’s manager. On the buymeflowers tour, TreVon’s doing a few shows opening for New York rapper Skizzy Mars, whom he’s joined on tour before. But for the first time, he’s headlining more than half of the shows himself.

“Touring is exhausting,” TreVon admits. “Not even being dramatic, I think you have to be built for touring. Because it is a lot of late nights, it’s a lot of early mornings, it’s a lot of travel, it’s a lot of avoiding being sick, it’s a lot of horrible food, it’s a lot of alcohol. It definitely takes a toll on your body.”

But he wouldn’t want to be doing anything else: “I absolutely love it. I love performing, so having a show every night, there’s always something to look forward to.” 

Considering this is TreVon’s first headlining tour, he and Gomez are swinging big, booking several venues with a 500- to 600-person capacity. “This is where you find out what you’re really made of,” Gomez says. “It’s easy to go on tour when everything isn’t in your name, and you just show up and perform and make the crowd love you. Now it’s a little bit different.”

But Gomez and the label he co-owns, New Gold Medal, are confident in betting on TreVon. “Our pop girls get five million streams a week,” Gomez says. “We think Keenan is going to be bigger than them.”

The songs TreVon has released during the album rollout are already drumming up some impressive buzz. “Yours, Hers, Theirs,” a smooth-talking players’ anthem released as the lead single off Part 1, caught the attention of Spotify, which put the track on its Fresh Finds R&B playlist the week it dropped; a month later, his standalone single “Act Like U Loved Me” landed on Spotify’s R&B Weekly playlist. TreVon also performed live versions of both tracks for On The Radar; he was the first Colorado artist to appear on the popular web series, which hosts freestyles, DJ sets, cyphers and live tapings from up-and-comers and industry legends alike. And his most recent single, “Grand Ave,” was featured as the cover of Pandora’s Indie R&B Radio station. 

“He’s got so many firsts right now,” Gomez says. “He’s played in the biggest rooms, he’s gotten 1,500-person shows already. … There’s never been an urban artist here that does these ticket numbers.”

For years, the city has been looking for an urban artist to hit in Colorado, and Gomez is now convinced he’s found just that with TreVon. “Keenan is going to be the breakout,” he says. “We want our city to be behind us, and we want everybody to focus on what he’s doing because once he opens the door, everyone else can come through.”

Frequent touring has helped TreVon build a wide-reaching fanbase around the world, but he’s still determined to have his home state match that energy.

“When we go out of town, everyone loves him. We want people [here] to have that same gusto and love,” Gomez says. “He’s got all these pieces to the puzzle, and when you tell that story outside of Denver, everyone is like, ‘This is amazing.’ But here, he doesn’t get that same love.”

“Denver’s music scene has come a long way, in my opinion,” TreVon says. “I think there was a negative connotation with being an artist in Denver at some point. Do we have some work to do? Absolutely. But the way the community has progressed in the last five years has been really beautiful to watch.” Since starting his music career as a teenager, TreVon has gone from opening for touring acts to headlining his own shows at iconic Denver venues like Cervantes (where he first met Gomez, thanks to a nudge from the venue’s talent buyer, Dan Hargrove) and The Bluebird.

It seems like Denver could be catching on, in part thanks to TreVon’s willingness to simply give people what they want. A song called “she goes by,” by Denver-based artist @where.t.at, recently started going viral on TikTok — but when accusations flew that the song was made with AI, fans were split on whether to continue listening to it or redirect that support to other local artists. So TreVon released his own cover of the song, allowing listeners to enjoy the track while still supporting a human working musician.  

“‘She goes by’ not only created a huge moment for Denver, but also for artists in the city in terms of exposure. For that, I’m really appreciative. I honestly just wanted to put my own spin on it,” he explains.

He also wanted to give a nod to Aurora, the city that raised him. “The real intention was to mention Aurora because I feel like Aurora gets a bad rap, when in reality, there are a lot of great things about the city,” he says. “I never expected the reaction it got. Suddenly, I had a song exposing Denver and Aurora to people across the globe, and it wouldn’t have happened without the moment where.t.at created. So for that, the city thanks you, bro.”

(Westword reached out to where.t.at for comment, but has not heard back.)

TreVon knows that his music is good, but he also realizes that’s not enough to make him stand out in today’s oversaturated market. “Because I’m such a music guy, I blinded myself to the way this actually works. You could make the best music on the planet, and it won’t matter if no one is buying it. People have to fucking like you,” he says.

He considers himself an introvert, so he’s working on eschewing the fear of “being cringe” and giving more of himself to his audience. “I’m shy, I’m quiet, and I don’t like to talk too much if I don’t have to,” he says. “But I’m getting rid of that, and being as vulnerable as I can, and connecting with people. That’s so important, and I had it so ass-backwards.”

TreVon and Gomez are already laying the groundwork for what’s coming next. “You have to have a plan,” Gomez says. “We’re planning our next tour, our next album. We’re trying to make sure that people see that Keenan is going from this guy in Denver to this superhero.”

Once Trevon gets the city behind him, it’s only a matter of time. 

Buy Me Flowers: The Album by Keenan TreVon drops on all music platforms Friday, May 22. On Saturday, May 23, he headlines the Bluebird Theater with DJ Squizzy Taylor, Kayla Rae, E.M.E and AC Yung; doors open at 7 for the 8 p.m. show. Tickets online are $36.86 including fees, and the show is open to ages sixteen and up.