Benee

Under the moniker of "Bene", Benee released her debut EP Fire on Marzz on 28 June 2019, before later adding an "e" because of "pronunciation woes", and copyright issues. The EP, which was described by George Fenwick of The New Zealand Herald as "a funky, sun-soaked record", peaked at #13 on the New Zealand Albums Chart and at #75 on the Australian Albums Chart. The EP also earned Benee the award for Best Solo Artist at the 2019 New Zealand Music Awards in November 2019, where she also won awards for Single of the Year with "Soaked", Best Breakthrough Artist and Best Pop Artist.

Benee's follow-up EP, Stella & Steve, was released on 15 November 2019. The EP features the single "Supalonely" featuring Gus Dapperton, which later gained international success in March 2020 after a viral dance challenge accompanied by the song spawned on the online video-sharing platform TikTok. This became her second song to become viral on TikTok after "Glitter" spawned a similar dance challenge in December 2019. Benee also supported American singer-songwriter Conan Gray for nine nights of his Comfort Crowd Tour of North America during December 2019. Benee's singles, "Glitter," "Find and Island," and "Evil Spider" each appeared in the 2019 Triple J Hottest 100 at 19, 25 and 51 respectively.

Benee made her solo debut under the moniker of Bene with the 2017 single "Tough Guy", before gaining prominence with her 2018 single "Soaked", which was certified double-platinum in New Zealand. She released her debut EP, Fire on Marzz, with help from producer Josh Fountain in June 2019. Her second EP, Stella & Steve, was released in November 2019 and charted in the US, Canada and France as a result of the international success of the EP's final single "Supalonely".

Benee began her music career by posting covers to SoundCloud, and began making her own music in her final year of high school. After dropping out of a communications degree at the Auckland University of Technology after two weeks, during what she called "a quarter-life crisis", she decided to enter the music business professionally. Her music caught the attention of Josh Fountain, a producer and member of the band Leisure, with whom she worked with for both her 2017 debut single "Tough Guy" as well as her 2018 single "Soaked". Benee (as Bene) earned her first career entry on the Triple J Hottest 100 2018 with "Soaked" at #58.

throughout school I struggled with writing....I liked creative writing, that was what I loved, but I was always making mistakes, and I was confined to this way that I should write....Songwriting for me was this place where I don't have to be grammatically correct. Learning the craft with [Josh Fountain], when he was sharing all his knowledge – something clicked, and I was just like, I love this. It's a great emotional outlet for me; I just love splashing what I feel on to a track.

Stella Rose Bennett (born 30 January 2000), known professionally as Benee (/ˈ b ɛ n iː / , stylised BENEE, formerly spelt Bene) is a New Zealand singer and songwriter from Auckland. In 2019, Benee won 4 New Zealand Music Awards, namely Single of The Year, Best Solo Artist, Best Breakthrough Artist and Best Pop Artist. She is best known for her singles "Glitter", "Soaked" and "Supalonely" which have gained over 292 million streams on Spotify altogether. Since 2018, Benee has earned 4 credits on the Triple J Hottest 100, 3 of which were in the 2019 list.