If you need to know anything about Australian-American pop trailblazer Betty Who, it’s that she is a survivor. Born Jessica Newham in Sydney, Australia, Betty has experienced practically every dimension of the pop culture visibility zeitgeist: going viral on the bombastic strength of 2014 single “Somebody Loves You,” soundtracking Netflix’s Queer Eye reboot with “All Things,” forming deep ties with foundations like GLAAD and the Trevor Project and becoming an LGBTQ+ icon due to her infectious, always-inclusive artistry. Moving on from the rigid major- label machinery to rediscovering her power as an independent artist, Betty Who is primed to kick off her latest, most triumphant chapter on her fourth studio album, Big.
Big is not only a story of endurance, but it brims with self-love, acceptance, and an invitation for fans to embrace the things that make them stand out. "I have spent so long running away from my size. I'm six foot two. That's capital ‘T’ tall,&rdqu
If you need to know anything about Australian-American pop trailblazer Betty Who, it’s that she is a survivor. Born Jessica Newham in Sydney, Australia, Betty has experienced practically every dimension of the pop culture visibility zeitgeist: going viral on the bombastic strength of 2014 single “Somebody Loves You,” soundtracking Netflix’s Queer Eye reboot with “All Things,” forming deep ties with foundations like GLAAD and the Trevor Project and becoming an LGBTQ+ icon due to her infectious, always-inclusive artistry. Moving on from the rigid major- label machinery to rediscovering her power as an independent artist, Betty Who is primed to kick off her latest, most triumphant chapter on her fourth studio album, Big.
Big is not only a story of endurance, but it brims with self-love, acceptance, and an invitation for fans to embrace the things that make them stand out. "I have spent so long running away from my size. I'm six foot two. That's capital ‘T’ tall,” laughs Betty, who wrote every track on the album. “I've always been the big goofy girl who's making the jokes. It's always been a source of pain or insecurity for me. And a huge part of that is tied into my gender identity and how I've been playing dress-up in a five-foot-two, hundred-pound woman's world for my entire life. I hit six feet when I was 12 years old. But it's not about just being tall – it's about being different. So now I'm just trying to make music for that girl, ‘cause she really needed it.”
Together with longtime friend and collaborator Martin Johnson (Boys Like Girls), who also worked on Betty’s 2014 debut Take Me When You Go, Betty began mapping out Big’s tracklist soon after the release of her independently released 2019 album Betty. Initially, Betty wrote songs about a series of major changes in her personal life, intending them to appear on her fourth album. But then, when COVID-19 lockdown hit, Betty, suddenly unable to perform live, decided to pivot. Saving the first song collection for a still in-the-works musical movie project, she went back to square one. And thus, Big was born.
“I think after spending all of this time in quarantine where I wasn't on the hustle and I wasn't planes, trains, and automobiles-ing my way across America like I had been for 10 years, I was stuck at home with myself,” Betty adds. “And I was like, ‘Cool, what do I wanna say?’”
Trained in classical music from an early age, Betty spent her formative years playing cello, guitar, and piano. A versatile multi-instrumentalist, she attended Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and Berklee College of Music in Boston. Later, as a burgeoning pop singer with a major record deal, Betty focused her energies on honing her dance skills and overall stage presence. In quarantine, however, she realized that it was time to get back to basics. “I think I am still who I've always been since I was 14,” Betty says. “Now I need to be in the service of that 14-year-old girl for the first time in my entire adult life. My stage name is Betty Who, but my real name is Jessica Newham. I truly feel like this record is for Jessica Newham.”
On Big, Betty sings with as much pop exuberance as she has on previous projects, but her latest is the most open-hearted and personal work she’s ever produced and written. The pulsing, high-energy “I Can Be Your Man” is an ode to female friendship, with Betty offering love
and support to her closest girlfriends. “I have a group chat with my best girlfriends, and one of them had been out on a date that went horribly,” she expands. “It’s annoying to me – these garbage boys don't deserve your time in the first place. I was like, ‘I will take you out on the town and treat you like a queen. Any day I will literally be a better boyfriend than any of these boys!’”
Betty’s hard-won transition from major-label to independent artist also finds its way onto Big, particularly on “She Can Dance” and “Blow Out My Candle,” which Betty calls “survivor stories.” Over sparkling harp chords and booming percussion, Betty gets especially vulnerable on “She Can Dance” as she introspectively surveys the last several years of her career: “Couple records come and gone/ Never thought it’d take this long/ Sometimes I wonder who the hell I’m foolin’/ Got no trophies on the shelf/ Record deal went straight to hell/ I swear to god I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Meanwhile, the ‘80s-inspired “Blow Out My Candle” is a triumphant return to form. Mirroring Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark,” a song about persisting in the face of career pressure, Betty promises that she, too, will persevere against obstacles, promising: “You can blow out my candle, but you’ll never put out my fire.”
“I've been a girl who's had big dreams my entire life and have achieved some of them,” says Betty, who is also preparing to host an upcoming reality dating show on Amazon Prime called The One That Got Away later this year, among other creative endeavors. “And I’ve totally crashed and burned in others. I’m coming to terms with that myself. This journey takes a lot of work that goes unnoticed by many people, and that's okay. I would do it all over again to end up here.”
