Her beautiful spirit touched so many lives
Bennett was a featured voice on Party Rock Anthem, Billboard's fifth most successful song ever with 2.5bn YouTube views. She later joined G.R.L., a Pussycat Dolls reboot, which disbanded in 2015 after member Simone Battle's suicide.
- Lauren Bennett, 37, British singer on LMFAO's 2011 Party Rock Anthem
- Party Rock Anthem ranked fifth most successful song ever by Billboard; music video has 2.5 billion YouTube views
- Joined G.R.L. in 2014, a Pussycat Dolls reboot; group disbanded in 2015 after member Simone Battle's suicide
- Cause of death not disclosed
Lauren Bennett, British singer known for LMFAO's 2011 hit Party Rock Anthem, has died aged 37. Her cause of death remains unclear as her former group G.R.L. mourns her passing.
Lauren Bennett, the British singer whose voice helped anchor one of the defining pop songs of the 2010s, has died at 37. Her former bandmates in G.R.L. announced her death on Monday through Instagram, their statement spare and heavy with grief: "Our hearts are broken, and we cannot begin to express how much she meant to us." No cause was given, and representatives for Bennett did not respond to requests for details.
Bennett's widest reach came through Party Rock Anthem, the 2011 collaboration with electronic duo LMFAO that became a cultural fixture. The song spent six weeks at number one on Billboard's Hot 100 and has since been ranked the fifth most successful song of all time by the publication. Its music video, which featured Bennett alongside the LMFAO members, has accumulated more than 2.5 billion views on YouTube—a measure of how thoroughly the track embedded itself in the digital landscape of a generation.
But her career extended beyond that single moment. In 2014, Bennett joined G.R.L., a pop group conceived as a reboot of The Pussycat Dolls. The lineup included Paula Van Oppen, Natasha Slayton, Simone Battle, and Emmalyn Estrada. The group released their most recognizable single, Ugly Heart, that same year and collaborated with rapper Pitbull on Wild Wild Love. The project seemed positioned to establish Bennett in a new chapter of her career.
That chapter was brief. G.R.L. disbanded in 2015 after Simone Battle died by suicide, a loss that fractured the group's momentum and trajectory. Bennett's work in music continued in smaller ways—she sang on soundtracks for the films Date Night and 21 Jump Street—but she did not return to the kind of mainstream visibility that Party Rock Anthem had provided.
The statement from G.R.L. on Monday focused on Bennett's presence in their lives rather than her chart history. "We will forever cherish the love, laughter, and countless memories she gave us," the group wrote. "Her beautiful spirit touched so many lives, and she will be deeply missed and forever loved." The words suggest a person whose impact extended beyond what any streaming number or view count could capture—someone whose absence would be felt most acutely by those who knew her directly. As details about her death remain unclear, what remains is the record of a voice that mattered, and the grief of those who worked alongside her.
Notable Quotes
Our hearts are broken, and we cannot begin to express how much she meant to us.— G.R.L. bandmates, statement on Instagram
We will forever cherish the love, laughter, and countless memories she gave us. Her beautiful spirit touched so many lives, and she will be deeply missed and forever loved.— G.R.L. bandmates, statement on Instagram
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Party Rock Anthem is everywhere—it's been everywhere for fifteen years. Did Lauren Bennett know that song would outlast almost everything else she did?
Probably not in the way it actually happened. You make a song, you hope it connects. You don't imagine it becoming the fifth most successful song ever recorded. That kind of permanence is strange to live with.
She was part of G.R.L. for only a year before the group fell apart. That must have been devastating—to find a new project, a new identity, and then lose it so suddenly.
And not just lose it. Lose it because another member took her own life. That's not a normal band breakup. That's a trauma. You can't just move forward from that the same way.
After that, her profile seemed to shrink. Soundtrack work, smaller projects. Do you think she wanted to stay in music, or was she ready to step back?
We don't know. The statement from G.R.L. talks about her spirit, her laughter, her presence in their lives. It doesn't tell us what she wanted next, or whether she was at peace with how things had gone.
The cause of death is still unclear. Does that absence of information change how we understand her story?
It leaves the story incomplete. We know she was here, we know she mattered to people, we know she made something that will outlive us all. But we don't know how or why she's gone. That uncertainty sits underneath everything.