Was the first time you heard of Benny Blanco when musician Selena Gomez opened up about dating him in 2023? It wouldn’t be a surprise if most of you said yes, as the music producer mostly chooses to stay away from the limelight. However, we have all vibed to some of the best Benny Blanco songs, probably without even knowing he was behind them. Besides some of the best Selena Gomez numbers, his discography also features chart toppers by the likes of Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Ed Sheeran, Rihanna and Britney Spears.
The American songwriter and music producer, whose real name is Benjamin Levin, started his career under hitmaker Dr Luke (aka Lukasz Gottwald). Dr Luke got him onboard in his company, Kasz Money Productions, and since then, Benny Blanco has collaborated with numerous A-list musicians and singers. One of Blanco’s early endeavours with Dr. Luke was Britney Spears‘ 2008 hit “Circus”, followed by Kesha’s “Tik Tok”, and many more.
In 2018, Blanco appeared on the Zach Sang Show and acknowledged that he learnt producing from Gottwald and Swedish producer Max Martin.
Long before Benny Blanco started dating Selena Gomez, he worked with the actor-singer on several occasions. He co-produced two of her hit tracks, “Same Old Love” and “Kill Em with Kindness”, from her 2015 album Revival. Four years later, the pair collaborated on J Balvin’s 2019 song “I Can’t Get Enough”. Blanco featured in its music video as well, and in 2025, the song was included in their first joint album, I Said I Love You First, which came out on 21 March.
Speaking with Interview magazine in February 2025, Blanco said, “When she started putting out music, I was so into it. I feel like she was the original sad girl.”
Throughout his career, Benny Blanco has earned 11 Grammy nominations in the Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Producer of the Year, non-classical categories. He has also won five BMI Songwriter of the Year awards, was iHeart Radio’s producer of the year in 2017, and received the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013. Talking about his profession during his 2024 appearance on the Behind the Wall podcast with host Daniel Wall, Blanco commented: “Being a producer sometimes is like being a spotter at the gym.”
As fans tune into the latest songs from I Said I Love You First, check out some chart-topping, popular hits that Benny Blanco created or wrote for other artists.
Popular songs you would be surprised to know were produced or written by Benny Blanco
“Circus” — Britney Spears (2008)
This hit by Britney Spears marked one of Blanco’s early works with Dr. Luke. They wrote with fellow producer and songwriter Claude Kelly. “Circus” reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 2008.
“Tik Tok” — Kesha (2009)
Another of Benny Blanco and Dr Luke’s hit songs is Kesha’s “Tik Tok”. They worked on the lyrics and produced the song. It was certified 12x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has garnered over one billion streams on Spotify.
“Teenage Dream” — Katy Perry (2010)
By now, it is clear that Benny Blanco’s music repertoire has some of the best and most popular songs we all love to vibe to, including some Katy Perry bops.
He told the Behind the Wall podcast that it took eight days to finalise the lyrics. Recalling the creative process, he shared, “There’s a version that says like, ‘Before you know it, you’re just a mom in a minivan,’ and it was all about like coming of age. We just changed it like a million times.” Not only Blanco, but Perry, Bonnie McKee, Dr. Luke and Max Martin were also songwriters on the project, while Blanco, Dr. Luke and Martin produced it.
“Teenage Dream” became a certified Diamond recording by the RIAA and was Perry’s second-consecutive No. 1 single after “California Gurls,” which Blanco also helped produce.
“Moves Like Jagger” — Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera (2010)
One of Benny Blanco’s first collaborations with Adam Levine and Maroon 5 came in 2010 with “Moves Like Jagger”.
However, there was a time when the song was almost not released. Blanco, a songwriter and producer for the track, had to convince the band’s record label executive to drop the song they were promoting on the radio and instead let Levine perform “Moves Like Jagger” on The Voice. Blanco’s instincts proved right, and the song soared to the top spot on iTunes.
“Diamonds” — Rihanna (2012)
Did you know that one of the many Benny Blanco hit songs is Rihanna‘s “Diamonds”?
Blanco told The Howard Stern Show in 2024 that they originally had a different idea in mind for the song written by Sia: “But then, once Rihanna sang it, I was like ‘Oh my God, this is something.’”
However, finishing the song was a huge task. In October 2012, he told The Source, “We had one day to finish it. We didn’t even have her vocals yet. We had to finish all the music around it without even having her vocals, and I was like ‘There’s no way this is happening.’ Then, we get the song the next day, we had to mix the song the same day and master it, and then it was out like a few days later.”
“Diamonds” was released in September 2012 as the lead single of Rihanna’s seventh studio album, Unapologetic. It soared to become her 12th No. 1 single and was certified Diamond by the RIAA.
“Payphone” — Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa (2012)
After the overwhelming success of “Moves Like Jagger,” Benny Blanco teamed up with Maroon 5 again in 2012 for “Payphone”, featuring Wiz Khalifa. In 2013, Maroon 5 front man Adam Levine told The New York Times, “It’s almost as if [Blanco] has the Midas touch in putting the right people together at the right time to create a musical moment. He’s about the collaboration. And he’s so good at nailing down who does everything best.”
“Payphone” was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
“Don’t” — Ed Sheeran (2014)
A major hit from Ed Sheeran’s X (Multiply) album, this song marks the first Benny Blanco and Ed Sheeran collaboration. The song is a classic example of the singer’s deep sense of lyrics and shows Blanco’s calibre as a producer and songwriter.
Interestingly, the two wrote the song in under two hours on the very first day they met in person.
“Happier” — Ed Sheeran (2017)
Benny Blanco is a key collaborator on Sheeran’s third studio album, Divide (2017), which boasts music hits like “Shape of You,” “Castle on the Hill”, and “Happier.”
Reportedly, they started making “Happier” with OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, and later, Blanco and Sheeran continued to write and produce it on a cruise ship from New York to London, since Blanco has a fear of flying. The process is captured by Murray Cummings in his 2018 documentary Songwriter, showing Sheeran and Blanco recording vocals and brainstorming lyrics in a studio on the ship.
“Love Yourself” — Justin Bieber (2015)
Did you know Sheeran wrote a song for Justin Bieber? While working on Divide, Blanco and Sheeran wrote “Love Yourself”, which was eventually recorded by Bieber for his fourth studio album, Purpose. Blanco and Sheeran conceived the song on a tour bus from Canada to the US and were inspired by the latter’s disinterest in talking about his personal life in a song.
Later, Blanco also collaborated with Bieber as a songwriter and producer on “Lonely”, which is a part of his 2021 album Justice.
“Same Old Love” — Selena Gomez (2015)
Although the song was mainly written by fellow pop star Charli XCX and Ross Golan, when Benny Blanco and Stargate stepped in as producers, they contributed to the lyrics, too. By then, the tumultuous Bieber-Gomez relationship was over, yet retrospectively, it’s quite interesting that Gomez’s future fiancé would work with her ex and her in the same year.
This also marked the first time Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco worked together.
“Now Or Never” — Halsey (2017)
In 2017, Halsey spoke with iHeart Radio about creating “Now or Never”, the lead single from her album, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. The song was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA, and the following year, Halsey was a part of Blanco’s debut single as a lead artist, “Eastside” with Khalid.
“Issues” — Julia Michaels (2017)
In 2017, Julia Michaels appeared on Billboard‘s How It Went Down series and revealed that she wrote “Issues” with Justin Tranter, Benny Blanco and Stargate just after an hour of getting into a fight with her boyfriend. “I just thought, well, I’ve got issues and he’s got ’em, too, and it’s really crazy that nobody’s written a song like this because everybody goes through something like this,” she said.”It was the first time in my life that I kept a song for myself,” Michaels added.
Blanco and Stargate produced the track, which was nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys in 2018.
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“Lonely Together” — Avicii feat. Rita Ora (2017)
“The Nights” crooner Avici was no stranger to chart-topping numbers, and his 2017 track “Lonely Together” is one of the best Benny Blanco songs. A part of the Swedish DJ’s fourth studio album Avīci (01), Benny has helped write and produce it.
Unfortunately, this remains the last single from the final album released before Avicii passed away in 2918.
“I Can’t Get Enough” — Selena Gomez, J Balvin (2019)
Benny Blanco produced one of his best songs and collaborations with Gomez when he partnered with Tainy and J Balvin for this track. It was originally released as a single in 2019, but later got included in her latest 2025 album, I Said I Love You First.
The adorable yet funny music video shows Gomez and Blanco playfully dancing around a giant bed clad in silk pyjamas.
“Special” — SZA (2022)
A part of the R&B artist’s 2022 album, SOS, “Special” is one of those soulful songs that shows her prowess over lyrics. Blanco not only contributed to the writing but also produced the track along with another popular song, “Nobody Gets Me”, in the same album.
He has also appeared in the music video for her song “Snooze” in 2023.
(Hero and featured image credit: Selena Gomez/ @selenagomez via Instagram)
