Who is Betty Who? The music star taking NYC by storm with pop and circumstance
New York, New York - If you have to ask "Who exactly is Betty Who?" there's a chance you haven't been paying attention.
Betty Who has been in the music game for a decade, bringing catchy pop synth vibes to her loyal fanbase. And she's welcoming those who are new to the party.
Armed with her latest album BIG!, she's fresh off a European tour and is kicking into high gear with a US leg.
Betty sat down with TAG24 NEWS to chat about the Who's Who of her musical inspo, what's changed in her process, and what to expect at this Saturday night's show at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City – her biggest Big Apple stage to date.
"I'm really excited," she said of her BIG! tour. "Ultimately, this is what I love to do so much, to make a show and perform and tighten up. To show up and be the best version of myself and try to create a space for people. So I'm itching!"
"New York is one of the big ones," the 31-year-old added. "It's been the city that has shown up for me since the very beginning."
Born Jessica Newham in Sydney, Australia, Betty played her first-ever show in NYC, and noted it's one of the first places fans embraced her artist alter-ego.
"To be playing Hammerstein feels very surreal," the singer said. "It's the place that no matter what, I want to bring my best. I want to bring the highest energy. And it's going to be a night to remember."
"There are few shows that you have to really fight for. And I think I will always, always fight for New York."
Betty has always had the spirit of a fighter. Her self-described "super fun" tunes have become a beacon for self-acceptance, anthems for the queer community, and a guidepost for anyone still figuring themselves out.
"The music is a conduit to get you to come see the show and be a part of the community," she said. "We show up and make a lot of noise and be ourselves. That's the kind of thing we're trying to inspire in people."
This community she's fostered for others has, in turn, inspired something equally powerful in herself.
Betty Who: The Creator
While Betty's biggest hits, like Somebody Loves You and I Love You Always Forever, have been staples in the dance world and TV theme songs for shows like Netflix's Queer Eye, her fourth album BIG! marks a shift in tone and approach.
"The first half of my career, if not more, I was trying to give the people what they want," she said.
"Before this album... I thought that my struggle – with identity, my fear, any of my insecurity – all had to go away, and I had to pretend to be the best version of myself so that everybody will like me and look up to me and think that I'm doing something special."
"I was trying to be the thing everybody wanted me to be," she continued, "when I realized this time [around] that everybody just wanted me to be myself."
BIG! differs from her past albums more lyrically than in sound. She hits on the pressure she's put on herself, and it's resonated. Writing has become her therapy.
"This record was really difficult to pull out. It was quite painful, in fact."
Songs like the album’s first single Blow Out My Candle prove the point: "This song is about being yourself regardless of the fact that it's not working at times. And being like, 'It doesn't matter. This is my whole point of my journey on this planet Earth: to find the most me version of myself. And I'm going to stumble along the way and nobody's gonna get it. Until everybody gets it.'"
Fans are certainly getting it, as BIG! has become a larger story than just her own.
"I see people screaming it in the audience. People really feel this one inside of them. It's the first record I've ever made that when I'm performing it, I feel really shocked by how people respond to the music. I forget that it's my story and I see all these people singing it... I feel really grateful for the impact a message like that can have."
"It's a real gift," she insisted. "It gives me 'goosies.'"
Betty Who: The Songwriter
Speaking of that larger story, in a recent Instagram post, Betty told fans, "You may have noticed my shift into more gender-neutral (if not entirely masculine) silhouettes."
She pointed to an ongoing journey of trying to find herself and "pumping light into a world that can be so dark for so many of us."
The pop star has become an icon among LGBTQ+ artists, having explained in the past that she's "straddled the line in both my sexuality and gender. I like men and women. I feel both masculine and feminine."
This "dichotomy," as Betty puts it, is infused in her songwriting and inclusive lyrics.
"I like to leave my songs a little open so that anybody of any gender, or anybody of any experience can hear it and relate to it in some way," she told TAG24.
Case in point: I Can Be Your Man, her favorite track off her new album, which cleverly bends the lines between gender, friendship, and flirtation.
"I think we all have such similar human experiences in the end. We think we're so different and we're so not."
Opening up about finding her identity has helped her "connect with people in a totally new way."
"I think it's much more relatable, and maybe it's just a changing of the time and culture. I happened to come to this awareness within the zeitgeist ... We used to be perfect and filtered and FaceTuned on Instagram and now we're ugly in our sweatpants on TikTok. I think culturally, we've really moved closer towards that authentic expression of who we really are. Which is ultimately all f***ed up."
Accepting and reveling in vulnerability has helped her turn a corner in her songwriting and her creativity.
"None of us actually have it all figured out," Betty pointed out. "And the more I pretended to have it all figured out, and wrote from that place, the less people connected to it."
"That's maybe the whole point that I was missing for a long time. Now I don't know if I could turn back from that kind of messaging."
Betty Who: The Dreamer
Besides being a creator, Betty is also a dreamer, who's turned her self-proclaimed pipe dream into reality.
"A 6-foot-2 Australian cello player wanting to be a pop star is like a Great Dane wanting to be a Chihuahua," she recently joked.
Yet, against those odds, she's cemented her place in the music scene, been nominated for this year's GLAAD Media Award's Outstanding Music Artist, and finally dropped a standout album she calls "the art she really wanted to make."
So what would she tell others trying to harness their dreams?
"Being young and confused and having a tough time is going to be the fuel and the most fun of your life. So make all the mistakes. Do all the crazy stuff. Take care of yourself. Trust your intuition. And know that it only gets weirder as you get older. And you're doing just fine."
Betty has big plans for what's next. Right now, she's listening to and gaining musical inspo from '80s rock greats like Kenny Loggins, Survivor, and Journey. But her dream collaborations would be to record with or write for The 1975 or BLACKPINK, who she's "genuinely obsessed with."
Her next bucket list goals might come as a surprise: to be on Broadway, and to compose for musical theater.
"I started singing because I loved Broadway," Betty spilled, noting one of her earliest performing memories was singing a song from Pippin at a musical theater camp at age 11. "I think my Broadway performance debut is imminent. I'm speaking it into existence."
For now, she's focused on the dreams she's living in every day, as she continues her biggest tour to date.
"It's good for everybody to look around every now and then and be like, 'I've spent my whole adult life trying to work towards something like this and now I'm doing it.' How cool. My dreams are coming true."
So who exactly is Betty Who? With many more big things to make happen, the answer is still being written.
Betty Who's New York stop on the BIG! Tour is Saturday, Mach 11 at Hammerstein Ballroom at 8 PM.
Cover photo: Courtesy: BMG / Artwork: Jenna Cavaliere