Many know Benny Blanco as Selena Gomez’s sweet, devoted fiancé and new musical partner. But before all of that came a long list of songwriting and production credits with some of the biggest and best artists: Sia, Britney Spears, The Weeknd, Wiz Khalifa, Kanye West, and Justin Bieber.
Here, we look back to when we spoke to Blanco in an interview with @NIGHT host Mr. D about their then-recent release, Lonely. The song was featured as a single on both Bieber’s album Justice and Blanco’s debut Friends Keep Secrets, co-written by FINNEAS. Blanco said, “We all wanted to work with each other. Like Justin loves Finneas. I love Finneas. I love Justin. Finneas loves me. Yeah, we got a whole little thing!”
Recording this song felt vulnerable for Bieber in a way he had never experienced before. “It was one of those songs that was like a rocky road,” Blanco says. “He’s like, ‘man, do I put this song out? I’m just so happy that he was brave enough to put it out because I think it’s so important to people.”
The song went two times platinum in Canada.