BENEE is back with her first single of 2023, “Green Honda”.
The new song, featured on Apple Music’s New Music Daily, is the first taste of a larger body of music set to be unveiled by the New Zealand singer-songwriter later this year.
Working alongside Elvira Anderfjard (Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift) and Luka Kloser (Jojo Siwa) to produce it, “Green Honda” is exactly the type of fizzing alt-pop we’ve come to regularly expect from BENEE.
“It was such a refreshing experience to be in the studio writing with two other young women,” the Aucklander notes. “There is so much that you just don’t need to explain when you’re working with your true peers. It’s intuitive. They just get it, and that’s amazing.”
“Green Honda” thrusts forward with electrifying energy, BENEE sounding briskly confident. “I wanted the energy of the song to capture the idea I had of writing a song about knowing where you’re at and what you need to say and not being afraid,” she adds.
And longtime fans may notice something: a green Honda car actually features on the cover of BENEE’s 2019 EP STELLA & STEVE, and the car was passed on to BENEE by her grandmother. “I call him ‘Steve’… we’ve had lots of adventures together.”
You can watch the accompanying music video for “Green Honda” below. Directed by Eliot Charof and AA and shot in California, the clip sees BENEE and friends cavorting through a rundown junkyard; a green Honda car, of course, also features. “I pull up in my green Honda / To tell ya that I don’t want ya!” the singer proudly declares.
It’s set to be a big few months for BENEE. The Kiwi features on the Coachella bill for the first time, and will play the iconic festival in April alongside the likes of Bad Bunny, Frank Ocean, and BLACKPINK.
BENEE’s “Green Honda” is out now via Republic Records.
