[SONG OF THE DAY] BENEE - "Glitter"

photo credit: Some Kind of Awesome

On Friday Auckland alt-pop angel BENEE dropped her debut EP, FIRE ON MARZZ, which features a collection of songs that yours truly got to witness in the flesh a couple of weeks ago at Mercury Lounge. I remember as I went over the bridge on the J train that evening shooting “Evil Spider” over to a friend accompanied by the following text, “I’m heading into the city to check out this singer right now. I need to confirm that she’s real.”

Gonna be honest, I was completely blown away by BENEE. Not only is her soul-soaked voice 1000% authentically just her and not a ton of tweaking in a studio, but she’s so effortless with this set of pipes she’s got that she just skips and dances playfully around stage, having the time of her life. Without a doubt this is one of the most fun shows I’ve been to in awhile. In addition to delivering a stellar energetic performance, she’s also so down to earth and personable on stage that you go from casually interested to completely invested in between songs.

I really admire her ability to write really compelling and catchy songs about all sorts of wonderfully random things. One unreleased song, “Monster”, is about her moving out of her parents house and being convinced that a monster was lurking somewhere while she as alone in her new place. Another song, “Afterlife” is a diss track to someone who tried to kill her in her dreams. My favorite story, which would come to no surprise to anyone who follows me on Twitter or Instagram, was the one for “Glitter”, which was inspired by a night out at a gay bar in downtown Auckland where she came across a big thing of glitter and proceeded to dump it all over herself. Definitely ✨my aesthetic✨.

Definitely give LIFE ON MARZZ a whirl if you haven’t already, it’s 20 minutes of glittering pop perfection.

Pics from the set at Mercury Lounge below. SHE WAS SO MUCH FUN TO SHOOT IT WAS HARD TO NOT POST LIKE 100 OF THESE FOR REAL.