Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images
By
January Nelson
If you were near a speaker in 2011, you heard its voice. He was the one who counted “one, two, three” before the whole world lost its mind with “Party Rock Anthem.” Now his colleagues who have been making music with him for years are the ones who have to say goodbye.
“Party Rock Anthem” spent 6 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went Diamond in the US, and Bennett’s featured vocals covered every second of it.
His surviving GRL teammates, Natasha Slayton, Emmalyn Estrada, and Paula van Oppen, announced his death on Instagram. They wrote: “It is with great sadness that we share the passing of our beloved Lauren. “Our hearts are broken, and we cannot begin to express how much you mean to us.” No reason has been made public, and the family is keeping the exact date private.
Born in Meopham, Kent, she made the final 12 on “X Factor” before being sent home, and that appearance led to a new girl group being called in front of Interscope’s Jimmy Iovine and Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin. He made the cut and moved to Los Angeles at age 17. That group became the Paradiso Girls, her 2009 Patron Tequila with Eve and Lil Jon hit No. 3 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart before Interscope dropped them.
Antin then folded into GRL, who landed on Pitbull’s 2014 single “Wild Wild Love” and released “Heartbreak” that same year, a top 20 hit in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The group went on hiatus after the death of Simone Battle in 2014, changed in 2016 with Bennett among the returning members, and confirmed new music in 2021.
She has been open about mental health, writing her song “Hurricane” in response to her loss and raising money for mental health issues.
He was 37 years old.
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