If the name Benee isn’t familiar to you, we’re curious about how you spent your lockdown days. While the lyrics I’m just a loser, shouldn’t be with ya, guess I’m a quitter send us immediately back to March 2020 and the rise of TikTok, their super-talented, Supalonely creator is very much living for the now.
WATCH BELOW: Benee previews ‘Marry Myself’ on TikTok
Chattting to Girlfriend from her bedroom in New Zealand, where she was completing her final packing before leaving on a seven-month world tour, Stella Rose ‘Benee’ Bennett seemed super excited for what lies ahead.
“I’m pretty keen to go to Paris,” she says. “I’ve never been before.
“But honestly, I’m just as pumped about leaving tomorrow to [go to] Aussie, because it’s been a bloody long time,” she laughs.
Benee’s music really took off in March of 2020. While her songs Glitter and Evil Spider had gained some momentum, it was her 2019 hit Supalonely that went completely viral on TikTok, inspiring millions of lockdown dances and memes.
While the world fell in love with her music, Benee was stuck at home in her native New Zealand, watching herself take off.
“It was pretty weird I would say,” she says of the experience now.
“I couldn’t go out and perform and connect to people properly, so it was kind of an odd time, and in this last year I’ve definitely been like ‘oh, I really missed out on a great opportunity’,” she reflects.
“But hey, it’s a world thing!” she says of COVID with a laugh.
Ready to seize the missed opportunities, Benee will land in Australia today, where she’ll then kick off her tour were it all began, live on TikTok, airing tonight at 7pm AEDT.
“We’ve got a TikTok planned and we’ve been rehearsing all week, and we’re basically just doing a new set, which will be really exciting because it’ll be the first time properly recording this set,” she tells us.
“It’s going to look really cool, because we have it all art directed … and it’s going to be really fun playing the new songs for the first time for people to come hear them.”
Benee has just released her new EP, Lychee, with seven new songs she recorded in LA with the help of renowned song producer Greg Kurstin, who has worked with the likes of Adele, Pink, Sia, and Kendrick Lamar.
“It was awesome,” Benee says of working with Greg.
“I was like, a little nervous before going on the trip, like working with people I don’t know … but they’re so pro, they’re just used to working with a ton of new artists so it was actually very cool.”
Greg also helped her put together our favourite song off the EP: Marry Me.
“I was just feeling this kind of newfound … I’d broken up with my boyfriend. I always break up with my boyfriend before I go to LA,” she laughs.
“It’s not intentional, it’s not meant to be like that, but it just so happens.
“So, I was kind of independent, you know, badass bitch vibe … and I had just written ‘marry myself’ somewhere in my notes, and I got into the session, and I just kind of made up this entire story about someone proposing to me and me saying “no, I want to marry myself”,” she explains.
Personally, Benee’s favourite song off the EP is Never Ending.
“All the songs you love the most, I feel people don’t love as much, I don’t know,” she says.
“I really like Never Ending. I mean, it’s not for everyone.
“Where that song kind of sits for me, I think is a really exciting kind of area I haven’t really explored before, and I think that it definitely gets me more into the experimental side of things, which I love.”
While there’s surely a lot more experimenting ahead for Benee, you can now stream her new EP, Lychee, and catch her live on TikTok tonight (Wednesday March 16) from 7pm AEDT.
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