At the beginning of last December, Selena Gomez (Grand Prairie, Texas, 31 years old) posted an ephemeral photograph on her Instagram profile in which she appeared curled up on a man’s torso. He could not be seen clearly, but the followers of the singer and actress already knew who it could be, because their relationship had been rumored for some time: it was the musical producer and composer Benny Blanco (Reston, Virginia, 36 years), well known within the music industry, but unknown to the majority public. This changed for him overnight, although it was not the first time for him.
“I had no contacts or anywhere to sleep. “I slept in the parking lots of some McDonald’s, like the one in Times Square,” Blanco confessed about his origins in the podcast And The Writer Is... Since he won a competition for children at the age of nine that allowed him to enter a recording studio for the first time, he knew that music was his thing. The son of a middle-class Jewish couple from Virginia (USA) outside the world—his father works in the intimate fashion industry and his mother works in a center for dependent people— Blanco grew up without contacts, but with notable ambitions. So after graduating from high school, and after asking for friendship from all possible producers through the defunct social network MySpace, he went to New York to try his luck.
In a 2018 interview with The New York Times, recognized that 75% of his success is due to his people skills and not so much to his talent: “I couldn’t sit down and play music for you or surprise you with any instrument. What I can do is get to know an artist, know what kind of song I think we should do and be their therapist, make everyone feel comfortable.” In addition to that, and although in interviews he is modest about his abilities, Blanco seems to have a sixth sense for great songs, as his resume supports and critics confirm, which refers to him as “the creator of hits”.
Since starting out in music in 2007, he has co-produced and co-written I Kissed a Girl and Teenage Dream, by Katy Perry; Tik Tok, by Kesha; Circus, by Britney Spears; either Diamonds, by Rihanna, which he composed with the singer Sia. And later he has worked in the production of singles, amassing up to 29 number ones on the charts alongside artists of the stature of Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey, Halsey, Camila Cabello and, yes, Selena Gomez, whom he met for work reasons. In 2014, she founded two record labels under the Interscope Records umbrella: Mad Love Records and Friends Keep Secrets. In addition to producing and composing, Blanco released his first album, Friends Keep Secretsin 2018, in which artists such as Justin Bieber, Calvin Harris and Halsey collaborated.
“I think that once or twice in my entire career, perhaps, I have made a song with someone who was not my friend,” he revealed to the New York newspaper. Among Blanco’s friends is Ed Sheeran: “We got drunk one night and had a great time. At some point, we said, ‘Hey, we should try to make a song,'” the producer said. The result was nothe first single in it top 10 of Sheeran in the United States. His friends also include Jay-Z and Beyoncé, with whom he moved in for a month, in the company of fellow singer and songwriter Sia, while they were preparing the pop diva’s fourth studio album, Beyoncé. He was also a long-term friend of Justin Bieber, for whom he composed his hit Love Yourself (along with Ed Sheeran and Ishaan Bharadwaj) and who produced the song Lonely. Currently, and because Selena Gomez was Bieber’s partner for years, a relationship that did not end, precisely, amicably, the American media claim that Blanco and Bieber are no longer friends.
Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco have known each other since approximately 2015. That year, he appears in the production credits of the song Kill Em with Kindness. In 2019, they collaborate again, this time on the song I Can’t Get Enough, along with J Balvin and Tainy. In fact, Blanco himself appears in the song’s video clip. In August 2023, they collaborate again, this time on the song Single Soon. And, from there, is when the romance rumors begin that Gomez would end up confirming in December (she revealed that they had been dating for around six months). Since then, their relationship has evolved like that of any anonymous couple: through comments, photographs, mentions and winks on social networks, as well as public appearances. Gomez and Blanco no longer hide from the cameras.
The composer has seen how, since December, interest in him has skyrocketed. Dating a celebrity like Gomez (the woman with the largest number of followers on Instagram; 428 million – he has 1.6 million) has placed him on the front line of the universe of fame, a world that, to date, he had seen from a comfortable background. Despite this, he seems to be surfing this wave. Recently, Blanco presented his first book. It’s not about music, but about recipes. A passion that he shares with his current partner, who has his own cooking show Selena + Chef.
Open Wide: A Cookbook for Friendsthe book signed by Blanco, is a recipe book of curious titles (such as Five dishes to go to bed with someone and another for the morning after) and a guide to receiving people at home: “I like things that seem difficult, but that, in reality, are very easy,” he explained in a recent interview in the Wall Street Journal about his gastronomic tastes and his book. “I love to entertain and please people. Doesn’t everyone want to be taken care of, whether it’s your friend, your lover, or his family? Doesn’t it feel good when someone prepares something for you? In that same interview, he was baptized as “the perfect boyfriend.” He composes, produces and seems to also cook.
