If you listened to the charts at all in the past 15 years, you are probably a fan of one man without even realising it.
Moves Like Jagger, Payphone, TiK ToK, 2002, California Gurls, Love Yourself, Shape of You — the list is truly endless.
Turns out the 37-year-old hitmaker just as surprised as we are to discover he’s been behind our favourite tracks.
‘I just sit there and I twiddle my thumbs,’ he once humbly told the Sydney Herald, ‘I’m still confused as to why I have a job.’
After decades of hits plus his own album, he’s finally getting the recognition he deserves thanks to newfound spotlight with his very well known, fiancée Selena Gomez.
Yes, Benny Blanco is the genius behind basically every hit song in the 2010s and beyond.
Who is Benny Blanco?
Born in Virginia on March 8, 1988, Benny is best known as a prolific and successful producer and songwriter.
He released his own album in 2018, with track Eastside featuring Halsey and Khalid becoming a breakout hit and charting.
Most people became aware of Benny when Selena hard launched their relationships, and boy, did fans have opinions on him.
However, the pair have actually been friends for years behind the scenes, first collaborating in 2015 to create Same Old Love and Kill Em With Kindness.
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Benny, real name Benjamin Joseph Levin, got his start as a teenager after experiments with beats and recording himself singing caught the attention of executives at Columbia Records.
He earned an apprenticeship with producer Disco D and by 19 years old he was working alongside Dr Luke with some of the biggest artists in the world.
Over the past two decades he has received eleven Grammy Award nominations, although he is yet to win.
He also won the 2017 iHeartRadio Producer of the Year Award and was the recipient of the 2013 Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
What is the biggest song Benny Blanco wrote?
During his period with Dr Luke he helped write and producer Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream, Kesha’s TikTok, and Taio Cruz’ Dynamite.
By 2008, Benny was included on Britney Spears’ Circus album and is credited with co-writing the titular track which is recognised as one of the top 10 best-selling songs of 2009.
From here, his discography continued to grow as he amassed hit songs including in 2011 when he wrote without Dr Luke for the first time — and made Moves Like Jagger.
He told YouTuber Daniel Wall the song came about because Adam Levine had featured on a demo and wanted the song for Maroon 5, but instead Benny promised a different track.
‘I said, “Let me give you another song, I have an idea” … I had no idea,’ he revealed. ‘I’m like in a hotel room going back and forth trying to make it happen.’
The idea ended up being Moves Like Jagger, but the radio stations weren’t convinced at the time with Maroon 5 already having Never Going To Leave This Bed ready to launch.
So the band’s manager sneakily swapped the tracks on the launch show for The Voice, creating an instant hit.
‘We wake up the next morning, it’s number one in 83 countries,’ Benny laughed. ‘Never looked back, that started such a great journey with me and Maroon 5.’
While Moves Like Jagger remains one of Benny’s biggest hits it is by no means the only one he has written.
What has Benny Blanco said about his secret fame?
Until now, Benny’s been a name for people in the know, big music fans and industry heavyweights.
He told the Sydney Herald in 2022, ‘When we made Tik Tok or when we made Dynamite, I had no idea they’d stand the test of time the way they did. I was just making songs.’
On fame, he added: ‘I spent most of my life behind the scenes, and I had the best job in the world: I was known enough to get into nice restaurants, but not known enough to get stopped on the street.
‘Once I became an artist and that changed, I definitely had so much more respect for being an artist and a celebrity and stuff. I didn’t really get it until I was put in that position.’
His recent album and relationship with Selena pushed him to the forefront for the first time since his own hit Eastside in 2018.
Speaking about his career on Daniel’s channel, Benny shared: ‘I started out, I thought I was going to be the biggest rapper in the world. I wasn’t the biggest rapper in the world but you know what I ended up in a pretty cool job.
‘Don’t be so precious, you can reinvent yourself a million times,’ he advised. ‘Do something that sounds like you, just be original.’
What number ones has Benny Blanco written?
Over the course of his career so far, Benny is credited with writing or producing almost 30 number one hits globally.
Here are all the number ones he’s landed in the UK:
- Love Yourself – Justin Bieber (written with Ed Sheeran)
- Perfect – Ed Sheeran
- Cold Water – Major Lazer
- Diamonds – Rihanna
- Payphone – Maroon 5
- Dynamite – Taio Cruz
- Tik Tok – Kesha
- California Gurls – Katy Perry
- Freaky Friday – Lil Dicky ft Chris Brown
- I Kissed A Girl – Katy Perry
- Me and My Broken Heart – Rixton
- We R Who We R – Kesha
- Eastside – Benny Blanco with Halsey and Khalid
- Señorita – Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello
- Shape of You – Ed Sheeran
- Teenage Dream – Katy Perry
Other top 10 UK hits:
- Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5 (peaked at 2)
- Castle on the Hill – Ed Sheeran (peaked at 2)
- 2002 – Anne-Marie (peaked at 3 – written with Ed Sheeran)
- Lonely Together – Avicii and Rita Ora (peaked at 3)
- Hot n Cold – Katy Perry (peaked at 4)
- Don’t Wanna Know – Maroon 5 and Kendrick Lamar (peaked at 5)
- Happier – Ed Sheeran (peaked at 6)
- Die Young – Ke$ha (peaked at 7)
- Don’t – Ed Sheeran (peaked at 8)
- Supermarket Flowers – Ed Sheeran (peaked at 8)
- Eenie Meenie – Sean Kingston and Justin Bieber (peaked at 9)
- Issues – Julia Michaels (peaked at 10)
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