Niclas Benjamin Peltonen (born 15 April 1997), known mononymously as Benjamin, is a Finnish singer and songwriter. He originally gained recognition through his
Instagram
Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
profile, created in 2012.
In May 2014, Peltonen signed a record deal with
Warner Music Finland
Warner Music Group (WMG) owns, has a joint share, or is associated with the record labels listed here.
Flagship labels
*Atlantic Records
*Elektra Records
*Parlophone Records
*Warner Records
Atlantic Music Group
* 1st & 15th Entertainment
* A ...
.
Career
2014–2017: ''Square One'' and ''Fingerprints''
Peltonen's first single "Underdogs" was released on 8 September 2014.
It peaked at number ten on the official singles chart in Finland.
In March 2015 the song was added to the playlist of the Spanish radio channel
Los 40 Principales
Los 40 (stylized as LOS40, formerly ''Los 40 Principales'', ) is a Spanish Top 40-themed music radio station that broadcasts current and recent music, primarily focusing on genres such as pop, dance, electropop, Electro Latin, and Reggaeton. Th ...
.
Peltonen released his second single "Unbreakable" on 19 December 2014. His first
extended play
An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
''Square One'' was released in May 2015, including both prior singles and three new songs, including third single "Young and Restless".
A 20-part documentary series about Peltonen entitled ''Naked Diary: Benjamin Peltonen'', was aired on Yle Areena in the spring of 2015.
A longer documentary of the same name was aired on
Yle TV2 on 3 May 2015.
Peltonen announced a brand-new single called "Body" for release on 4 March 2016, which will precede his debut album. Benjamin's debut album ''Fingerprints'' was released in April 2016, including all previous singles, and the entire ''Square One'' EP. It debuted on the Finnish album chart at number 17
and the Spanish album chart at number 3. "Man on the Moon", featuring Spanish girl group Sweet California, was the fifth and final single released from the album on 8 July 2016. He released the single "Bad Luck Love" on 8 March 2017.
2018–present: Transition to music in Finnish and
In 2018, Peltonen started releasing music in
Finnish. The first release "" featuring Finnish rapper
IBE IBE or Ibe may refer to:
* Chidiebere Ibe, Nigerian medical illustrator and student
*, Belgian singer; see '' The Voice van Vlaanderen''
*Identity-based encryption
*Inference to the Best Explanation
*Intercultural bilingual education
* Internet Boo ...
was released on 10 August 2018. Another single "" was unveiled on 16 November 2017. Its official music video, directed by Karim Saheb and shot in Germany, premiered a day later. More singles followed through 2019: "" on 22 February, "" on 7 June 2020 and "" on 23 August.
On 24 January 2020, a song about his parents' divorce "" premiered along a short prologue video and an upcoming album was teased. Preceded by singles "WWW" and "TikTok", Peltonen's first album in Finnish, , was released on 25 September 2020.
On 11 January 2023, Peltonen was announced as one of seven participants in , the Finnish national selection for the
Eurovision Song Contest 2023
The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Liverpool, United Kingdom, as , the winner of the with the song "Stefania (song), Stefania" by Kalush Orchestra, was unable to host the eve ...
.
His entry "" was co-written with Atso Soivio and Iivari Suosalo, and was released on 13 January 2023.
In the final, he finished in seventh place with 66 points (32 points from the televote and 34 points from the juries).
On 11 December 2023, he was revealed as one of the hosts of , alongside and
Viivi Pumpanen.
Personal life
Benjamin came out as gay during a live TV concert at
Helsinki Pride
Helsinki Pride is an LGBT pride event in Helsinki, Finland. The event takes place during the last week of June.
The event is a week-long event that takes place the week after Midsummer
Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer, tak ...
in July 2021. He wrote about it on his Instagram afterwards: "It feels so crazy to write this text. To write publicly about something I've been hiding for so long. But now I was ready. I'm gay. It feels "quite" liberating to say it out loud."
Discography
Studio albums
Extended plays
Singles
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benjamin
1997 births
Living people
21st-century Finnish male singers
Finnish LGBTQ singers
Finnish gay musicians
Gay singers
21st-century Finnish LGBTQ people