Imogen WilsonIn early March, before COVID-19 locked down the world, breakout singer Benee got to meet the legendary Elton John when he came to her native New Zealand on his farewell tour, and featured her on his Rocket Radio Hour Apple Music radio show. Benee shares the best advice that the iconic singer gave her during their chat.
“We talked about how I write my lyrics, and he said a lot of people, you know, they just get people to write the lyrics for them,” the “Supalonely” singer tells ABC Audio. “And he, I don’t know, he just went on about how cool it is that I write my own lyrics and…I appreciated that coming from him.”
“And he was like, you know, ‘Keep doing it because…a lot of people can’t,'” she adds. “And I’m like, ‘Damn! That’s awesome! I will!'”
It’s interesting to note that Elton himself is one of those people who can’t write lyrics: The words to the majority of his hit songs were written by his musical partner, Bernie Taupin.
While Benee says she was thrilled to receive a compliment from Elton, she was just amazed that he even knew who she was.
“Just being able to meet him and him kind of showing interest at all in what I’m doing was insane!” she admits. “I just don’t even understand! But he is such a sweet human who just genuinely cares so much about new music and low-key artists, which is really awesome.”
In other Benee news, she’s announced a tour of New Zealand for October; presumably, live performances will be allowed there at that time as a result of the success the country has had with limiting the spread of COVID-19.
Elton John raves about 'amazing' Benee, is 'crazy about' Six60 https://t.co/w209OKjS7y pic.twitter.com/iBPbE2aOUy
— Newshub (@NewshubNZ) March 5, 2020
By Andrea Dresdale
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