"Supalonely" is a song by New Zealand singer Benee featuring American singer

Gus Dapperton Brendan Patrick Rice (born March 11, 1997), better known by his stage name Gus Dapperton, is an American singer and songwriter from Warwick, New York. History Dapperton has received particular attention for his fashion style, consisting at som ...

, released through

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

on 6 December 2019 as the third and final single from her second extended play '' Stella & Steve'' (2019). It also appears on Benee's debut studio album, '' Hey U X'' (2020). The song gained immense popularity on the online video-sharing platform

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

in March 2020, gaining more than 6.9 billion plays for the month. It peaked on the top 40 in over 25 countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands and New Zealand, earning a gold certification in its second week in the latter. ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was established ...

'' also credited the success of "Supalonely" to be owed to those who resonated with the song's themes at the height of the

COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions colloquially known as lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions) have been implemented in numerous countrie ...

, which were ongoing at the time of the song's popularisation.

Background

"Supalonely" was written during a month-long trip to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. It was inspired by her breaking up with her boyfriend, and was written as a song where she could mock her own sadness. The song "Blu" from '' Stella & Steve'' was recorded the day after "Supalonely" during the Los Angeles trip, and was inspired by the same break-up. Up to three versions of the song exist: the explicit version, the clean version which omits the f-word and replaces the b-word with "chick", and another that completely omits Gus Dapperton's verses and skips straight to the outro after the second chorus.

Composition

The song is composed in the key of

G major G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable compositi ...

with a tempo of 129 beats per minute.

Music video

The song's music video clocked 70 million views in June 2020, four months after its initial release. The song's music video was described as "dreamy" and "colourful" by ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

''. Emily Rose of ''

Ones to Watch Ones to Watch is an American music blog primarily aimed at showcasing new talent. The website was created independently by House of Blues Entertainment (a division of Live Nation Entertainment) in October 2013, before becoming a collaborative ...

'' dubbed the music video as "a technicolor dream" and wrote that Benee "shows off some killer dance moves while proving that you can still have a great time all on your own." Rose Riddell of ''Coup de Main'' simply wrote that the music video features Benee "dancing around a house and chilling in a bathtub" before shouting out the lyric "Now I'm in the bathtub crying." The singer herself said on the video, "It starts with me being a lonely teen at home then turns into this weird dreamscape, where I end up dancing around with Gus."

Critical reception

On his

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

show,

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

described "Supalonely" as a "smash record", and further described Benee as "an amazing young artist" who "writes really brilliantly". Ariana Marsh from '' i-D'' wrote that the "sunny pop" song "turns your typical breakup song on its head". The song was described by Glenn Rowley of ''

'' as "a quirky, knowing ode to the art of loneliness". ''Billboard'' also ranked "Supalonely" at number 17 on their list of "The 100 Best Songs of 2020".

Commercial performance

The song was certified Gold on its second week on the

New Zealand Top 40 Recorded Music NZ (formerly the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ)) is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell recorded music in New Zealand. Membership of Recorded Mus ...

, when it rose to number two, from its debut at number three the week before. It peaked in the top 10 of many other countries including Australia, Canada, Norway, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as in the top 40 of countries such as the UK, the US, France, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Finland and Denmark.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Acoustic version

In May 2020, Benee released an acoustic remix of the song, entitled "Lownely". This "dreamy" version of the song was recorded at Golden Age Studio in

Morningside, Auckland Morningside is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It lies four kilometres south-west of the city centre, close to Eden Park and Western Springs Reserve. The residential suburb lies between the suburbs of Grey Lynn, Kingsland, Sandringham, an ...

on 25 March, a few hours before the national lockdown for the

COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand The COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first case of the disease in New Zealand was reported on 28 February 2 ...

began.

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2019 singles 2019 songs Benee songs Gus Dapperton songs Republic Records singles Songs about loneliness Songs written by Benee Songs written by Gus Dapperton Songs written by Jenna Andrews Songs written by Josh Fountain Song recordings produced by Josh Fountain