Betty Who

Betty Who is the stage name of Jessica Anne Newham, an Australian singer-songwriter and musician from Sydney. She is born in 1991 and lives between Australian and US identity, holding dual citizenship of Australia and the United States. She describes herself as a queer, bisexual woman.

Early life and training

Newham grows up in Sydney until her mid-teens. She trains as a classical cellist from the age of four, and later teaches herself piano and guitar. She writes her first songs at 14 and begins performing as a singer-songwriter at 16. In 2007 she moves to the United States to study at Interlochen Center for the Arts, then goes on to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Collaboration and early releases

At Berklee, she meets producer Peter Thomas during her first semester. The pair work together on developing her sound, pairing her songwriting with a more dreamy, anthemic production style. Their collaboration continues over the next two years and remains central to her early recordings.

Her debut single, “Somebody Loves You,” is first issued independently as a free download and gains attention online after being premiered by pop music blogger and then-official Grammy blogger Arjan Writes in late 2012. A music video follows in January 2013, and an official remix by FM Attack appears in March 2013. The song later reaches number one on Billboard’s Dance/Club Play Songs chart in March 2014.

EPs, major-label signing and debut album

Betty Who’s debut EP, The Movement, is released in 2013 after initially circulating as a free-download independent release. Its online success brings major-label interest, and she later signs to RCA Records. Her second EP, Slow Dancing, arrives in 2014 and reaches number one on the iTunes pop music charts. Its lead single, “Heartbreak Dream,” is used over the end credits of the film Pitch Perfect 2.

She signs to RCA Records in September 2013. In late August 2014 she announces her debut full-length album, Take Me When You Go, which contains 13 tracks, including four songs from earlier EPs. The album includes “All of You,” which becomes her second US Dance chart number one in 2015.

Later releases and independent work

In 2016 she releases a cover of Donna Lewis’s “I Love You Always Forever,” which becomes her third number one on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart and her breakthrough hit in Australia, where it reaches number 6 on the ARIA Singles Chart. Her second album, The Valley, is released in 2017.

After leaving RCA Records in 2017, she releases “Ignore Me” in 2018 as her first single as an independent artist. She also releases a cover of Kylie Minogue’s “Come Into My World” for Amazon Music’s Made in Australia compilation, and a remixed version of Widelife’s “All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)” as the theme for season two of the Netflix reboot Queer Eye. Later in 2018 she releases Betty, Pt. 1, her third EP, which includes “Ignore Me,” “Look Back,” and “Taste,” plus the previously unreleased songs “Just Thought You Should Know” and “Friend Like Me.”

She follows this with the singles “Between You & Me” in November 2018 and “I Remember” in January 2019, both connected to the album Betty. In June 2020 she launches a Patreon to fund new music and offer exclusive content to supporters.

Style and influences

Betty Who works mainly in pop, with her music associated with dance-pop, electro house, electronic, indie pop, nu disco and power pop, as well as synthpop and electropop. She says her writing combines older musical influences with her own lived emotions. Her cited influences include Katy Perry, Robyn and Miley Cyrus. She and Peter Thomas share a long-running approach to production based on the idea that making something good is easy, while making it right is the challenge.

Live work and recognition

She supports Katy Perry and Kylie Minogue on parts of the Australia legs of the Prismatic World Tour and Kiss Me Once Tour. In 2014 she makes her American television debut on Watch What Happens: Live. During 2013 and 2014, media coverage around The Movement and her growing profile includes praise from outlets such as Idolator, All Things Go, Popjustice, ELLE and TIME, which names her as one of its musical acts to watch for 2014.

Personal life

Betty Who begins dating photographer Zak Cassar in 2014. They announce their engagement in 2017 and marry in 2020.