Benee

Life and career

Stella Rose Bennett, born on 30 January 2000 to an actor father and a video editor mother, grew up in Auckland’s Grey Lynn suburb. Diagnosed with dyslexia, she attended St Mary’s College, a Catholic girls’ school where music was a compulsory subject for four years. She started playing saxophone at eight and guitar in primary school, but briefly set music aside to play water polo before returning to it and beginning to produce at 17. After finishing school, she worked as a dishwasher and pizza cook, and tried studying communications at Auckland University of Technology for just two weeks before leaving after a meltdown.

2000–2020: Early life and "Supalonely"

Her earliest tracks went up on SoundCloud under the name Bene. When Universal Music New Zealand reached out about them, her mother put her in touch with Paul McKessar, a friend who connected her with producer Josh Fountain. Her debut single “Tough Guy” came out in late 2017, followed by “Soaked” in September 2018. “Soaked” reached No. 14 in New Zealand and No. 58 on Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2018, went double-platinum by April 2022, and was nominated for the 2019 APRA Silver Scroll.

After “Soaked,” she signed with Republic Records and opened for Lily Allen at an Auckland show in February 2019 during Allen’s No Shame Tour. Between May and June 2019, she dropped the singles “Evil Spider” and “Want Me Back,” plus the EP Fire on Marzz. She promoted the EP with a music video for its track “Glitter” and changed her stage name to Benee around that time. Fire on Marzz won her Best Solo Artist at the 2019 New Zealand Music Awards, where she also took home Single of the Year for “Soaked,” Best Breakthrough Artist, and Best Pop Artist.

Three tracks from the EP—“Glitter,” “Find an Island,” and “Evil Spider”—landed at positions 19, 25, and 51 on the 2019 Triple J Hottest 100.

Did You Know?

• Benee was raised on the catalogs of Radiohead, Björk, Groove Armada, James Blake, and Grace Jones.
• The music video for "Beach Boy" was inspired by Twilight.
• Her earlier works were compared to fellow Auckland artist Lorde.