Stella Rose Bennett was born and raised in the suburb of Grey Lynn in Auckland. She grew up in a "really musical"[8] family with parents who would expose her to the catalogs of Radiohead, Björk and Groove Armada. From the age of eight, Benee began taking guitar lessons in primary school before starting saxophone lessons in high school. Eventually, Benee dropped all music in order to prioritise water polo. She claims it "was [her] life" and that she at one point hoped to represent New Zealand competitively. Benee later became interested in writing and recording music at the age of 17, after deciding that she did not want to pursue a career in water polo. Benee attended an all girls Catholic school, St Mary's College, where music was compulsory for four years. Benee began her music career by posting covers to SoundCloud, and began making her own music in her final year of high school. After dropping out of a communications degree at the Auckland University of Technology after two weeks, during what she called "a quarter-life crisis", she decided to enter the music business professionally. Her music caught the attention of Josh Fountain, a producer and member of the band Leisure, with whom she worked on both her 2017 debut single "Tough Guy" and her 2018 single "Soaked". As Bene, she earned her first career entry on the Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2018 with "Soaked" at #58