Today’s artist is singer/songwriter Benny Tipene. He is another suggested to me.Benny was a contestant on the first season of New Zealand’s version of X Factor. He came third. Since then, he’s spoken disapprovingly of the premise behind such contests.
His first single was "Walking on Water" (LISTEN), which was released digitally last July. It reached Number 2 and also went Platinum.
In December of last year, Benny’s second single, "Make You Mine", was released. The video for the song (below) was released in January. It reached Number 15 on the singles chart and went Gold.
In February, Benny’s debut EP, Toulouse, was released. It contained “Make You Mine”, and the digital version contained “Walk on Water” as a bonus track. It also contained his third single, “Lonely” (at the top of this post), which was released last month. The song has reached Number 26 on the NZ singles chart. His debut album is due to be released in September.
This month, it was announced that in July Benny would tour the North Island with Anika Moa (who was the artist on Day 13). The tour is called So Good They Named It Twice, and they’re playing in “double name” towns: Mimi, Kihikihi, Matamata, Ramarama, Hora Hora, Poroporo and Katikati. I think that’s a clever idea, in addition to bringing live music to towns that most artists don’t visit.
I didn’t watch the NZ X Factor, so I really didn’t know anything about Benny before this project, though I do remember seeing people talk about Benny on social media. I also remember hearing “Walk on Water” on the radio, which is significant considering how little I listen to the radio. There much more to come from him.
2 comments:
Damn, can't see top video in US. Like the other one, though. If I had thought of it earlier, i would have commented on all the groups. there were some group with women I REALLY liked, a couple weeks back.
I wonder why one would be geoblocked, but not the other? Weird. There are two versions of it on YouTube, but I preferred this one (partly because it's less overtly commercial). They were both funded with NZ On Air money, and would've thought that meant they wouldn't be geoblocked.
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