Benny Blanco Quietly Produced So Many Hits. The World Is Finally Paying Attention. ~ VOUX MAG

Benny Blanco Quietly Produced So Many Hits. The World Is Finally Paying Attention. Story By Joel Calfee, Photograph by PhilipDaniel Ducasse; Styling by Gabriella KarefaJohnsonAugust 19, 2025 at 6:02 AM How Benny Blanco Became a Hitmaker PHILIPDANIEL DUCASSE "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commi...

- - Benny Blanco Quietly Produced So Many Hits. The World Is Finally Paying Attention.

Story By Joel Calfee, Photograph by Philip-Daniel Ducasse; Styling by Gabriella Karefa-JohnsonAugust 19, 2025 at 6:02 AM

How Benny Blanco Became a Hitmaker PHILIP-DANIEL DUCASSE

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Jacket, bow sleeves, and pants, Dior Men. Serpenti Viper necklace (second from top), bracelet, and ring and Tubogas bracelets, Bulgari. All other necklaces, his own. PHILIP-DANIEL DUCASSE

Name a colossal hit from the last 20 years and there's a good chance that Benny Blanco had a part in it. "Diamonds" by Rihanna, "Tik Tok" by Kesha, and "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera are just a handful of the number-one tracks that he's helped produce (all of which were released before he even turned 30). Like a musical chef who knows just what ingredients to add, Blanco has an ear for constructing inescapable hooks, and his songs have an almost alchemical ability to bring people together.

Perhaps that's because Blanco connects easily with people. When he calls me from his Beverly Hills home in mid-June, I quickly gather that he's the type of person who becomes best friends with anyone he meets. Toward the beginning of our chat, I hear him tell someone in the background to have a nice day. Later on, he surprises me when he asks about my upbringing and my favorite artists, even saying "I love you" at the end of our call—and sounding like he means it.

This hunch is backed by his friend Matty Matheson, the Canadian chef and restaurateur who starred alongside Blanco in the YouTube series Matty and Benny Eat Out America. "Benny is the greatest human I've ever met," Matheson says. "He is pure love and shows me how to live a life that's beautiful and meaningful. I love him a lot it seems."

Benny Blanco and Selena Gomez on their album, I Said I Loved You First Petra Collins

Blanco's ability to make anyone in the room feel special is surely part of the reason why he has become one of the foremost songwriters and record producers of the 21st century.

"I feel like my mind and a 15-year-old girl's mind are very similar in what we like, musically," he says. "I've just always been drawn to having fun and making stuff that makes me feel good. If it winds up being something that other people like, then that's cool to me. If it doesn't, then that's also cool to me. I think being iconic is not giving a fuck."

Born Benjamin Joseph Levin in 1988, Blanco grew up in Reston, Virginia, visiting music stores with his older brother and pasting tracks together on his Mac desktop computer. In high school, he would make secret trips to New York for DJing gigs and opportunities to pitch himself to labels—and on these excursions, he would sometimes end up sleeping in parks or train stations.

According to Blanco, the impulse to produce was born of not only a love of music but also necessity. "There was literally nothing to do whatsoever where I grew up," he says with a laugh. "We had no choice but to make music."

Still, most bored teens don't harbor such an innate talent for making music, nor do they have the ambition to act on it. It was Blanco's drive that got him signed before he was even 20 to the label Kasz Money Productions, where he spent years being mentored by the controversial hitmaker Dr. Luke. Over time, he would get to work with some of the industry's most unstoppable pop songwriters and producers, like Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, Shellback, and Cathy Dennis.

It's easy to fantasize about the kind of magic that was happening in the studio when Blanco helped craft so many of the hits that have earned him four BMI Pop awards for Songwriter of the Year and the coveted Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Blanco swears it's not so mysterious.

"I had no idea my career was gonna be what it was gonna be," he says. "When we were making 'Teenage Dream' [with Katy Perry], we didn't know it was gonna be this iconic song people are gonna talk about forever. We were just making a song and having fun and getting drunk. It's not rocket science. Sometimes you happen to be in the right spot at the right time."

But Blanco is not above using a crystal or two to ensure things go smoothly. "I'm like woo-woo, put patchouli all over me and stick a rabbit's foot up my butt. I'm totally down to go on that journey," he says. "I believe in fate, karma, energy."

Was it fate that brought Blanco and his fiancée, Selena Gomez, 33, together? The two were introduced when Gomez was around 17, trying to get her music career off the ground, and Blanco was in his early 20s, still establishing himself in the industry. He would end up becoming the perfect partner, helping to produce some of Gomez's biggest radio hits, like "Same Old Love" and "Kill Em With Kindness." Almost a decade later, the pair discovered they had great chemistry outside of the studio, and they unveiled their relationship with a few casual Instagram posts thrown up in December 2023. The next year, they announced their engagement.

Halsey, Benny Blanco, and Khalid perform onstage during the 2018 American Music Awards Getty Images

The couple haven't had much time to start planning their nuptials, though. Only three months after Blanco popped the question, they released their first collaborative studio album, titled I Said I Love You First, which they promoted while Gomez was filming the fifth season of her Emmy-nominated dramedy, Only Murders in the Building.

Like Blanco's first solo studio album, 2018's Friends Keep Secrets, the record features a couple of high-profile guest stars, including Gracie Abrams and the Marías. But the majority of the tracks spotlight Gomez, who croons over Blanco's atmospheric beats, from the confessional "Younger and Hotter Than Me" to the smitten "Sunset Blvd."

"You know, Selena makes it very easy to write songs about 'cause she's the best," Blanco says. Dating one of the most famous people in the world comes with no small amount of gossip and speculation. However, Blanco cautions that people shouldn't always read so closely into his lyrics. "Songs have multiple meanings," he notes. "Sometimes I've written songs and people think it's about a woman [I'm dating], but it's really about my relationship with my mother."

Benny Blanco with Matty Matheson at The Bear's Season 3 premiere party Getty Images

At 37, with so many hits already under his belt, along with a wedding in his near future, what's next creatively is a bit of a question mark. He's been public about wanting to have kids, and he's clearly thought about what kind of dad he wants to be. When I ask, he's got a list of parenting ideas ready: "Always let your child explore. Love them unconditionally. Follow the vision and don't give up, but also teach your kid great foundational tips on how to treat themselves, how to treat women and men, and respect and just love and, you know, all the things.…"

He has also begun to explore projects outside of music, including releasing a comfort-food recipe book, titled Open Wide: A Cookbook for Friends, with food writer Jess Damuck last year. But there's no carefully calculated marketing strategy or playbook. "I'm just trying to have the best time I can and make something that touches people."

When I bring up the word icon again, Blanco seems almost uncomfortable with the association. He reconsiders the notion and finds something he feels more comfortable with. "I feel like I try to live every day and have that day be my best day ever, and something iconic could happen on that day," Blanco says. "Sometimes it's like, you're finishing the best album in the world. Sometimes you meet RuPaul. Sometimes you have the best damn egg sandwich you've ever had in your life."

Hair: Evanie Frausto for Redken; makeup: Kennedy for Dior Beauty; manicures: Marisa Carmichael for Essie; grooming: Christine Nelli for Bumble and Bumble; casting: Anita Bitton at the Establishment; production: Day Int.; set design: Bette Adams

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