New Zealand musician BENEE has opened up about the origins of her viral single “Supalonely” in a new video for Beats By Dre’s Beat x Beat series.
Released on her Stella & Steve EP in November of 2019, “Supalonely’ was issued a single in December, where it quickly found widespread attention online, ultimately going viral in March of 2020 when it was picked up on TikTok, receiving seven billion views on the service for the month.
Since then, the 20-year-old’s profile has only continued to grow, with Apple Music naming her as their first Up Next artist from New Zealand, and the likes of Elton John singing her praises.
Now, in the latest Beat x Beat video from Beats By Dre, Benee was joined by songwriter Jenna Andrews and producer Josh Fountain to discuss the origins of the track, and how she was inspired to write the song following an untimely breakup.
“The inspo behind ‘Supalonley’ was a breakup,” she explains. “I got to L.A. and I was going to be there for a month and I kinda broke up with my boyfriend like a week before going. And I was just feeling super lonely, and I got into a session with Josh and Jenna, and we were like, ‘Let’s make a sad banger!’”
While the track was a viral success, the similarly viral outbreak of COVID-19 gave rise to another version of the song, with BENEE stripping things back to create the dreamy “Lownely”, mere hours before New Zealand went into lockdown.
“We finished the song in the session, so it was like, what? Like six hours or something?” she recalls. “Okay, skip to this year, March, it was the night before lockdown and we just wanted to make a different version. I just wanted to make it sort of sad and show, like, the mood that I was actually feeling when I was writing the song.
“Quite a few people did reach out in lockdown, messaging me, and sending me like videos of them dancing to my song and stuff. It was really cool to see how they kind of connected to the lyrics when they are kind of lonely, and sad, and stuck at home.
“It’s like a baby. And you, like, you kind of put them out in the world and you have no idea what’s gonna happen to them. And then when good stuff happens to them, it’s kind of just, like, yeah. You go little thang. You do your little thang.”
While touring is currently off the cards for most artists, BENEE was recently announced as one of the main artists to be performing at the 2021 edition of Yours & Owls Festival when it takes place in January of next year.
