BIO:
Benjamin Utecht spends every minute of every day making his dreams become a reality. The 31-year-old stud achieved football’s highest honor when he and the rest of his teammates on the 2006 Indianapolis Colts squad won Super Bowl XLI. But now, two seasons removed from his NFL career as a tight end, he is chasing after his original childhood dream: becoming a successful artist in the music industry.
While it’s been difficult for athletes to crossover into the music world, the truth is Utecht has been preparing for this transition for the past twenty years. Utecht’s vocal style brings a refreshing new voice and sound to a genre in need of a new male lead.
Now, Utecht is ready to share his inspired music and giant yet tender voice with the rest of the world. “I’ve been given an opportunity to greatly impact people’s lives and the only way you can do that is through vulnerability. Revealing yourself completely and sharing your heart with people. I want people to truly experience my heart, to connect with them on an emotional level and sing songs about hope, love, and inspiration, and write songs that encourage and lift people up.”
Utecht grew up in Hastings, Minnesota in a very athletic family. He’d often spend most of his free time playing sports. But while he had a knack for sports, he also had a talent with the microphone. With music in his genetic makeup, Utecht was blessed with a demanding voice and began singing publicly while in the fifth grade.
“I’m an emotional guy. I have always had a sensitive soul and music has always clicked with me,” he explains. “[With] sports and athletics, you have to have a competitive, rough and tough nature. However with music there is an ability to connect more deeply in certain areas that make up who I am. That is one of the many things I appreciate about singing.”
Believe it or no, Utecht was the Home-Coming King and star athlete at his high school. He was offered a football scholarship to play at the University of Minnesota. With one passion taking off immediately, he decided to put the music on pause and chase his football aspirations.
The tight end entered college in 1999, started all four seasons, playing in four bowl games including the Music City Bowl. But while Utecht was tearing it up on the field and working towards a degree in Speech Communication, he also continued performing – singing the national anthem for various Minnesota sporting events and, in 2002, performing in front of President George W. Bush.
It’s a distinct memory Utecht remembers vividly. “President Bush was literally a foot to my right when I was singing,” he recalls. “I could’ve reached out and put my arm around the guy I was so close, but it went real well. I got to turn, shake his hand and he said, ‘I would have never imagined football players sounding like that.’ So it was a good compliment to get.”
By 2004, a year after getting his degree, Utecht signed to the Indianapolis Colts and was a starting tight- end alongside quarterback Peyton Manning. After three seasons with the Colts, they finally made it to Super Bowl XLI in 2006 against the Chicago Bears and won. Utecht had achieved one of his childhood dreams.
“To find yourself in the Super Bowl, the clock counts down to zero, you just stand there and your life flashes before you,” he explains. “You think about all these memories and playing football in fourth grade and here we are. It’s always hard for me to describe because I still put the ring on and ask, ‘What? Did this really just happen,’ so to be one of the few is an honor.”
But then, his life changed drastically. Utecht signed with the Cincinatti Bengals in 2008 and during training camp in 2009, he received a serious concussion that knocked him out for 90 seconds. The concussion would take over 8 months to recover from and permanently putting him out of the 2009 season. After that experience, he began pondering whether he should continue his football career.
“I had to walk away. We had just started a family and now we have three little daughters and I want to do what’s best for them,” he says. “The hidden blessing in the whole thing though is I had this other passion my whole life that I wanted to go after, so I’m one of the fortunate ones who knows what he wants to do.”
Utecht made music his fulltime job, and began building his new team to hit the ground running on a highly anticipated music career. Thus far, he has recorded two albums “Christmas Hope” nominated for Holiday Album of the year by the Dove Awards. A duet album titled “Two of Hearts” with the greatest love songs of all time, and a number of new songs that are simply mesmerizing. Utecht is now getting ready to start production on his break out solo album, which is sure to surprise and captivate all listener’s.
Utecht has now become a household name in the Symphonic arena having performed with many Symphony Orchestras including the: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra (Legendary Maestro Eric Kunzel, and NY Pops Maestro Steven Rieneke), Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Colorado Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, Richardson Symphony Orchestra, and the Monroe Symphony Orchestra.
While Benjamin Utecht is now focusing on achieving his music career aspirations, he is also using what he has learned from the football field and bringing it with him.
“What I’ve learned from playing with athletes like Peyton Manning [is] when you put everything you have into your craft, there is no limit to how good you can become,” Utecht explains. “Also I learned through Tony Dungy [former Colts’ head coach] the importance of faith and believing in something bigger than yourself. This includes everything from religion to believing in your teammates and coaches because when you incorporate that into your framework, it breeds success. I will take what I learned about work ethic and faith and use that in music. It’s a great combination and something that can keep me grounded, but at the same time, motivate me to work at it as hard as I can, to make this dream a reality.”
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