He is the younger brother of Dean Saunders who on 22 January 2011, won the title of the third season (2010–2011) of the Dutch music competition Popstars, notably only a day after Ben's victory on The Voice.

[2] Brothers Ben and Dean Saunders both started applying to talent competitions early like for the series Daddy's Wish.

In 2000, Dean and Ben Saunders both took part in RTL 4's Alles voor de band: Follow that dream.

They performed the song "Stand As One"[3] in the third heat under the name "The Brothers" getting just 10 points and finishing with 3% of the popular vote as seventh out of 8 participants.

[4] In the final, he sang his number one single, his cover version rendition of "If You Don't Know Me by Now" and duetted with Welsh singer Duffy on her song "Warwick Avenue" and won by 59% of the votes against runner-up Pearl Jozefzoon.

[citation needed] Before applying to the competition, Ben Saunders worked as a tattoo artist.