The Mysterious Man Behind All The Biggest Hits

By Rebecca Pedersen

If you had asked me, back in 2017, to describe what Benny Blanco looked like, I would have been one big question mark. It was not until he released “Eastside” in 2018 as his first single as a lead artist, that he gave his millions of fans a chance to put a face on the producer they had been listening to for years. Today, I would be able to tell you that he’s a 35 year old, curly-haired guy with a calm demeanour, who is in no rush whatsoever. Things will happen, when the time is right. Take “Lonely” for example, co-produced by FINNEAS, and handed over to Justin Bieber as part of his Justice album. FINNEAS and Blanco spent multiple days and hours in studios all over, but never once forced a song to be created. Instead they hung out and waited till inspiration struck, sat down by the piano and created the ballad we all know as "Lonely".

If there is one thing Blanco is, it’s honest about music. Back in the day, at a session in Sweden, he was working alongside Max Martin for the first time on the Katy Perry album “Teenage Dream”. Blanco got into an argument with Martin about the bridge of one of the songs. Martin didn’t like the bridge Blanco had produced, and Blanco, who had little to no clue who Martin was, challenged him back on the point of keeping the bridge as he produced it. This ended up sparking a great teamwork between the two of them.

When Blanco produced “Diamonds” alongside Stargate and Kuk Harrell, he first intended it to go to Kanye West. For years, he’d even kept a computer folder labeled “Kanye drums” just in case. He did end up working on two songs off his album “Ye” in 2018 though. He recalls how Sia, co-writer of the song, came up with the melody and lyrics all within 15 minutes: "It was before Uber times, and she had 15 minutes before her car pulled up."

But what makes Benny Blanco so successful? One thing he never did was take no for an answer. By an early age he was spamming artists on Myspace from his school library, and took weekend trips to New York, where he slept in a Times Square McDonald’s and tried to land meetings. He even pretended to be Jay-Z’s lawyer just to get in touch with labels. Luckily, all the hard work paid off, as in 2013 it was announced by The Songwriters Hall of Fame that the then 25-year-old would receive the Hal David Starlight Award.

In an industry that is so ever-changing, it is important to have good people around you. For Blanco, ever since he collaborated with Ed Sheeran on "Don't", which became Sheeran's first US top 10 single, they have been great co-workers and even better friends. On a bus ride home from a crazy release party with Drake in Canada, Blanco and Sheeran wrote “Love Yourself”. Though, when they played the song for a couple of people, no one seemed too stoked about it. Nonetheless, it ended up in Justin Bieber’s hands, and went on to become one of the biggest songs in Justin’s career. It is currently on 2.1 billion streams on Spotify alone.

It seems as if Benny Blanco has found the perfect recipe for a successful career that is not directly in the spotlight.