Behind The Bennett (Sally Bennett album)

Behind The Bennett is the third studio album released by Irish recording artist, Sally Bennett. The album was released on April 21, 2014 through Sally's own independent record label, Bennett Recordings. The album received mainly positive reviews from critics with many citing the uniqueness of the album concept and the unusual creativity as the best traits of the album. The album was a commercial success, peaking at #1 in every country it charted in and has already sold over 50,000,000 copies worldwide and has since become one of the best selling albums in history.

Background
Following the cancellation of The Sister Act Tour, Sally went into temporary hiatus and secretly began work on her next album. After months of speculation, Sally announced the new album through a newsletter posted on her official website on January 31, 2014:


 * "Its been a while.....ino i shudnt av kept u waitin...BUT AM ERE NOW :L x u acc daftehs x 


 * Anyways acc luv me lil bennetts so boy av i got a surprise for yaz...........AM JUST PUTTING THE FINISHIN TOUCHES TO ME NEW ALBUM (BEHIND THE BENNETT) WHICH WILL BE RELEASED VERY SOON!!!!! ITS SOOO DIFFS TO WOT AV EVER DUN AND THE FIRST SINGLE, "ARABIAN PRINCESS", IS OUT NOW!!!!!!!AND CAN BE BOUGHT WHEN U PREORDER THE ALBUM ON ITUNES!!! GET IT NOW!!!


 * But aye just letting youz know the craic b4 it hits the newstands n thaat xx Love u lil bennetts n make sure u click "sign up" (below) so that ur the first to preorder at least 50 copies of me new album....Ciao and piece out xxxx 


 * - Sally Louisa Franklin Bennett x

After the newsletter was published, Sally's website crashed due to high volumes of traffic. iTunes also had several server problems following the high preorder demands - iTunes recorded that over 720,000 preorders were made in the first 10 minutes of listing, becoming the most preordered album in music history. The first single, "Arabian Princess", was released alongside the album preorder and was banned in several countries, such as United Kingdom, United States, France and Israel, due to its racist lyrics. Sally Bennett spoke up about this matter and claimed the song was not racist and was simply inspired by baby monkeys at the zoo and not Arabian women. Despite this, the song managed to go #1 in the countries it was banned in based on imports from other countries.

Sally revealed the album cover through her Twitter page on February 10, 2014. The album cover was controversial with many claiming Sally was mocking the muslim religion. Others, however, claimed the album title was a dig at her twin sister, Charlotte Bennett. It had been revealed that not long before the album's promotional shoot that the twin sisters had an argument regarding the death of their dog, Jipla. Reports suggest that Charlotte blamed Sally for her death thus leading Sally to tweet "I'd like to see the real girl behind the Bennett one day" which some claim ultimately inspired the album's concept. Sally had no comment on the accusations.

Commercial performance
The album broke the record for the most preorderd album in music history, with iTunes reporting a total of 720,000 copies preordered in the first 10 minutes of listing. Following the release of the album, it was reported that Behind The Bennett had sold over 20,000,000 copies in its first week worldwide despite the album not receiving much promotion due to Sally's television ban following her dispute with ITV. The album was a global success and topped the chart in every country in the world and is currently the best selling album of 2014.