Words by Zack Anthony Curran
NZ superstar BENEE just dropped the vid for her current single ‘Snail’. Reflective of her personality, it pops off as her biggest and boldest video to date. For the visual, BENEE and director Anita Fontaine deliver a lush and larger-than-life fantasy befitting of the track. In the colorful clip, she wakes up to feed her giant snail room-mates and slides around their slime trails before heading to work in her secret elf lab. Soon, she’s cycling out a concrete replica of her own head into a storm. After being struck by lightning, our heroine turns into an elf and cruises through a mushroom wonderland under the glow of an aurora borealis-style blanket of colours across the sky.
Of the inspiration behind the video, BENEE says, “I knew I wanted the vid to be a weird fantasy story involving snails! I said to Anita that I wanted to be an elf with long braids riding a bike & have giant mushrooms somewhere in the vid... She came back with the treatment & I loved ittttttt! Her imagination is supa whacky in the best way and I’m so happy with how Snail turned out.”
BENEE is proving to be one of the busiest artists in the world right now! Amidst a sold out national tour in New Zealand, and while preparing for the imminent announcement of her debut album, the 20 year old has somehow found the time to launch her very own record label, Olive. The announcement of Olive comes alongside the reveal of her first singing, Muroki, a 19 year-old Raglan artist who is accompanying her on tour this month. The Kenyan-New Zealander caught BENEE’s ear with his self-released debut ‘Better or Worse’ last year. Muroki’s new single ‘Light Me Up’ is out now via Olive.
“I was listening to the track every day at one point. I love his voice so muchhhh – it’s so smooth and soulful. Then I met him at 121 Festival in March. Muroki’s such a sweet and genuine guy, just the sort of artist I’d like to work with,” she explains, adding, “Already I’ve loved being able to connect Muroki with people. I playlist his song whenever I can and played it to Elton John when I met him on his radio show. It is great to bring him out on tour in front of my supporters cos I know they’re gonna love this guy, his band and his music.”
Behind the scenes on Olive, BENEE is building a tight knit team with a fresh approach to music. Joining BENEE are label manager Trieste Douglas, formerly A&R for Universal NZ, and Poppy Tohill, from BENEE’s management team at CRS.
Currently on her sold out headline tour across New Zealand, BENEE yesterday revealed she’ll be treating fans around the world to a very special livestream event. Streaming live from her sold out concert at New Zealand's Spark Area, the livestream event will be available to ticket holders on Saturday 17 October at 7:20pm AEDT (9.20pm NZDT, 9:00am BST, 10am CEST). A full replay of the show will then be available for fans globally on Sunday 18 October from 7:00am AEDT (9:00am NZDT, Saturday 17 October 9:00pm BST, 10:00pm CEST).
Ticket holders will then be able to access the stream on-demand for 48 hours following the performance. Tickets are available now HERE.
