Benny Blanco is an American record producer, musician and actor. He has won the BMI Songwriter of the Year award five times in different years. He has worked with many notable singers such as Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Halsey, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Kesha, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Sia and others. He is the boyfriend of popular American singer Selena Gomez.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Benny Blanco was born as Benjamin Joseph Levin on Tuesday, March 8, 1988 (age 35 years; as in 2023) in Reston, Virginia, USA. His zodiac sign is Pisces.
Childhood photo of Benny Blanco with his mother
He completed his high school education in 2006. He attended IAR (Institute of Audio Research) in New York.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 8″
Hair Color: Medium Ash Blonde
Eye colour: Hazel brown
Family
He is from a Jewish family.
parents and siblings
His father, Andrew Mark Levin, owned a business selling underclothes and sleepwear. His mother, Sandra Beth, worked in assisted living. He has an elder brother.
Benny Blanco with his mother
Wife
He is unmarried.
relationships/affairs
Selena Gomez
Benny Blanco started dating popular actress and singer Selena Gomez in June 2023. The couple has been seen together at many events. Gomez confirmed her romantic relationship with Blanco in an Instagram comment in December 2023. Later, she also shared some of their pictures on her Instagram handle.
Benny Blanco with Selena Gomez
elsie hewitt
In 2019, Benny was in a romantic relationship with actress and model Elsie Hewitt. They met each other for the first time on the sets of the music video ‘Graduation’. In January 2020, he talked about dating by sharing some photos of Hewitt on Instagram, which he captioned, “I have a girlfriend, she goes to another school right now.” The couple was also seen together at Spotify’s ‘Best New Artist’ party in the same month.
Benny Blanco’s Instagram post
livelihood
musician
When he was just 6 years old, he started making hip-hop beats and recording his vocals over them in his bedroom. His real interest in music started in 1994. He was inspired by songs such as Nas’ “The World Is Yours” and All-4-One’s “I Swear”, which he listened to on cassette tapes at the time. Later, he began sharing his work with artists on MySpace in hopes of gaining recognition. After trying to create beats on his boombox and record himself, his rapping skills were noticed by executives at The Source and Columbia Records.
Benny Blanco in his studio
Early in his career, Blanco was mentored by popular songwriter and producer Dr. Luke. Later, he was signed to Dr. Luke’s production company ‘Kaz Money Productions’ and there he worked with him (Dr. Luke) as co-producer and co-writer for a long time. Together with Dr. Luke, he has co-produced several hit singles in the late 2000s, such as “I Kissed a Girl” (2008) by Katy Perry, “Tell Me What Your Name Is” by Ciara (2009 ), “Tik Tok” (2010) by Kesha, and “How to Be a Heartbreaker” (2012) by Marina.
Poster of Kesha’s song ‘Tik Tok’
In 2007, the musician collaborated with Baltimore rapper Spank Rock. Together, they released an EP titled “Spank Rock & Benny Blanco Are…Bangers & Cash”. This collaborative project used samples from 2 Live Crew and received much attention in the music industry. The EP received praise from notable publications such as Rolling Stone and Pitchfork.
Poster of the EP ‘Spank Rock & Benny Blanco Are…Bangers & Cash’
Blanco, along with Dr. Luke and Claude Kelly, worked as a writer and producer for Britney Spears’ song “Circus” in 2008. The song became a hit and was listed as number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the American Albums Chart. Pop Radio. It became Britney’s second best-selling digital song in the United States with over 3.2 million downloads as of July 2016. According to IFPI, the song became one of the top 10 best-selling songs of 2009 with 5.5 million digital copies sold. World that year.
‘Circus’ song poster
In 2011, he began working as a writer and producer without Dr. Luke. Some of her popular works that year were Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger,” Gym Class Heroes’ “Stereo Hearts,” and 3OH!3’s “Don’t Trust Me.” That same year, he worked on Maroon 5’s album “Overexposed” (2011) and its lead single titled “Payphone”, featuring Wiz Khalifa.
Poster of the album ‘Overexposed’
In July 2018, Blanco released her debut single “Eastside” as a lead artist under her own label Friends Keep Secrets with Interscope Records. It was a collaborative work with Halsey and Khalid. The song proved to be a super hit and reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100. It became his 27th song to chart in the top ten as a songwriter and his first top 10 single as an artist. The song was well received worldwide, topping the charts in four countries and reaching the top ten in several other countries.
‘Eastside’ song poster
Later, he released several hit singles such as “Better to Lie” (2018) with Jessie and Swae Lee and “Roses” (2018) with Brendon Urie and Juice WRLD. She released the video song “I Found You/Nilda’s Story” with Calvin Harris and Miguel in January 2019. The song was created to support ‘The While They Wait’ support group, a collaborative initiative of Brooklyn Defender Services, the Refugee and Immigrant Center. For educational and legal services, and to the American Civil Liberties Union for assistance to American asylum seekers. In February 2019, Blanco teamed up with Tany, Selena Gomez and J Balvin for the song “I Can’t Get Enough”.
Benny Blanco (right) with Selena Gomez in a scene from the music video ‘I Can’t Get Enough’
He has released the song “Graduation” (2019) in collaboration with Juice WRLD. This was his second project with Juice WRLD after the song “Roses” (2018). The musician first collaborated with Justin Bieber in October 2020, releasing the song “Lonely”.
Benny Blanco (right) with Justin Bieber.
In March 2021, he released a deluxe edition of his album ‘Friends Keep Secrets 2’. The album proved to be a superhit and was certified RIAA platinum on the day of its release. In August 2022, Blanco collaborated with BTS members Jin, Jimin, V and Jung Kook and popular American actor and rapper Snoop Dogg for the song “Bad Decision”.
Benny Blanco (fourth from left) with BTS members.
The following year, he released the song “Lace It” with Eminem and Juice WRLD.
actor
Television
Benny Blanco made his television debut in the American sitcom ‘Dave’ (2020), which aired on the channel FXX. He appeared as himself in the sitcom, playing Dave’s friend and producer.
Benny Blanco (right) in a scene from the sitcom ‘Dave’
youtube
Blanco launched a cooking show with chef Matty Matheson called ‘Matty & Benny Eat Out America’ in March 2020. The cooking show was streamed on his YouTube channel ‘Benny Blanco’. The following year, the duo came up with another cooking show titled ‘Stupid F*cking Cooking Show’, which premiered on Benny’s YouTube channel.
Benny Blanco (left) in a scene from the cooking show ‘Stupid F*cking Cooking Show’
Awards, Honors, Achievements
won
- ‘Songwriter of the Year’ at the BMI Awards in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015
- ‘Most Performed Pop Song’ for Maroon 5’s song “Moves Like Jagger” at the BMI Awards in 2012
- ‘Urban Songwriter of the Year’ at the BMI Awards in 2013
- Hal David Starlight Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013
- ‘Best Songwriter’ for Justin Bieber’s song “Love Yourself” at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in 2017
- ‘Producer of the Year’ at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in 2017
- ‘Secret Genius: Pop’ at the Spotify Secret Genius Awards in 2018
- Gold Award for the music video “I Found You/Nilda’s Story” in the category of Directing at the Clio Awards in 2019
- Gold Award for the music video “I Found You/Nilda’s Story” in the category Music Video at the Clio Awards in 2019
nominated
- ‘Album of the Year’ for Katy Perry’s album “Teenage Dream” at the 2011 Grammy Awards
- ‘Best R&B Song’ for Trey Songz’s song “Heart Attack” at the 2013 Grammy Awards
- ‘Album of the Year’ for Ed Sheeran’s album “X” at the 2015 Grammy Awards
- ‘Album of the Year’ for Justin Bieber’s album “Purpose” at the 2017 Grammy Awards
- ‘Song of the Year’ for Justin Bieber’s song “Love Yourself” at the 2017 Grammy Awards
- ‘Best R&B Song’ for Tory Lanez’s song “Love” at the 2017 Grammy Awards
- ‘Producer of the Year, Non-Classical’ at the 2017 Grammy Awards
- ‘Song of the Year’ for Julia Michaels’ song “Issues” at the 2018 Grammy Awards
- ‘Best Pop Duo/Group Performance’ for Justin Bieber’s song “Lonely” at the 2022 Grammy Awards
- ‘Album of the Year’ for Justin Bieber’s album “Justice” at the 2022 Grammy Awards
Facts/General Knowledge
- He was deeply fond of music since childhood. Reportedly, he won a songwriting contest when he was 9 years old. When he turned 13, many companies wanted to sign him to record music.
- In an interview he told that earlier he wanted to become a rapper. However, later he found making beats more interesting and decided to make a career in it.
- At the age of 17, he landed an internship under producer Disco D that required him to travel from Virginia to Brooklyn, New York. Later, he joined a New York school called IAR (Institute of Audio Research) and started working with Disco D.
- Blanco’s work has contributed to worldwide sales of over 500 million album-equivalent units for artists including Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Selena Gomez, Rihanna, Sia and many other artists.
- When he was 18 he worked as a DJ.
- During his childhood in Thurmont, Maryland, he attended Camp Erie for several years, where he also performed and hosted a radio show under the name “Ebba Ebba”.
- In March 2020, he appeared on the cover of Vogue magazine with chef Matty Matheson.
Benny Blanco (right) with Matty Matheson on the cover of Vogue magazine.
- In an interview, he shared how he got his stage name Benny Blanco and said,
I was Beanie Bounce for a while, and then I was like, “I’m white!” And I was learning Spanish at the time, so I was like, “Blanco!” I was just going to be Blanco. A friend said, “You should be Benny Blanco, like in ‘Carlito’s Way’.”
- He is the founder of two labels ‘Mad Love Records’ and ‘Friends Keep Secrets’ with Interscope Records.
- In an interview, he revealed that early in his career, he once pretended to be famous rapper Jay-Z’s lawyer to talk to the owners of a big music company on the phone.
- She has written a cookbook titled “Open Wide”, which is scheduled to be published in April 2024.
Benny Blanco’s book ‘Open Wide’
- Blanco frequently serves as a guest lecturer in the Clive Davis Recorded Music Department at New York University.
- He has started a charity called ‘Get Well Soon Tour’, which organizes concerts of famous musicians for sick children in hospitals.
- He is a good friend of popular singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran.
Benny Blanco with Ed Sheeran
- He was often seen smoking cigars and drinking alcohol on various occasions.
Benny Blanco smoking a cigar
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn