NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2026
Up and coming pop star Benee (aka Stella Rose Bennett), like many young artists nowadays, started by uploading her music online when she was just in high school. Her offbeat funky style gives me early Lily Allen vibes, very apropos since she ended up supporting Lily Allen on her New Zealand tour stop in 2019! She released her sophomore studio album Ur an Angel I’m Just Particles in November 2025 with a planned North American “Particles” tour kicking off in February. Having already headlined as well as opened for acts such as the Wallows, Olivia Rodrigo, and Tate McRae, Benee was bound to make big waves on this side of the pond. On March 13th, she made a stop at Electric City in Buffalo.
The opener during this tour is New York based electro pop singer BAYLI (aka Bayli Mckeithan). She started out as lead singer for the rock band, The Skins, and transitioned to a solo career when they disbanded in 2018. Her latest EP No Re-Entry, was also released in November 2025.
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Benee kicked off her set with “Sad Boiii”, the first single off her latest record. She’s such a great storyteller, whether the song is about relationships or her struggles with her mental health. Either way, her songs make these topics enjoyable (ok, not always). She followed up with “Cinnamon” and “Vegas”, also from the same record, before going back a bit with “Beach Boy” from her 2022 EP Lychee, then all the way back with “Wishful Thinking” and “Soaked” from 2019’s Fire on Marzz. Up to this point, the lighting was extremely dark with most of the light coming from the visuals on the back screen, leaving everyone’s faces in shadow. When Benee started to introduce the band, I thought “Great! Now we’ll get some light!”, but it was not to be and the band members remained in the dark. Interesting choice.
As we progressed through the extensive twenty song set, I was amazed that she already had so many songs in her catalogue. It seemed like she was going to treat us to her whole discography, which was just fine with me. The only negative for me was that it seemed like she was singing or lip-syncing to a track for almost the whole show. I’ve come to expect that from many pop acts but, somehow, it still surprises me when it happens. Since she does use Auto-Tune effects for some of her songs, I suppose it’s just the next step for live shows.
My favorite performances of the night were probably the ballads in the middle of the show, “Heaven” and “Doesn’t Matter”, as well as “Supalonely”, the song that originally introduced me to Benee. She closed out the show with the super popular “Green Honda”, prompting the whole crowd to dance and jump around the floor, getting them nice and sweaty before they had to walk out into the cold night. Regardless of the lip-syncing, Benee is an exciting young artist and one you should definitely check out!
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