Betty Who

Jessica Anne Newham (born 5 October 1991), known by her stage name Betty Who, is an Australian singer and songwriter. After independently releasing her debut single "Somebody Loves You" (2012) and her debut extended play The Movement (2013), she signed with RCA Records and later released her debut studio album Take Me When You Go (2014). Her second studio album The Valley (2017) saw the commercial success of her cover of "I Love You Always Forever", which peaked inside the top ten in Australia and reached the top of the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in the United States.

Jessica Anne Newham was born in Sydney, Australia, where she lived until her mid-teens. Trained since the age of four as a cellist, she moved to the United States in 2007 to attend Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.

Newham is also self-taught on piano and guitar, wrote her first songs at age 14, and began performing as a singer-songwriter two years later. Her stage name comes from the title of a song she composed at age 16 about unrequited love.

After school at Ascham in Sydney and Frensham in the Southern Highlands, NSW, Newham attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, studying with singer-songwriter Charlie Puth. During her first semester, she met producer Peter Thomas who was also attending Berklee. Thomas suggested pairing Newham's songwriting with a more dreamy, anthemic production style. The two began writing new material together and developed Newham's sound over the next two years.

2010–2013: Career beginnings, "Somebody Loves You" and The Movement

As Betty Who, Newham's debut single "Somebody Loves You" was initially released independently as a free download, and was premiered by pop music blogger and at-the-time official Grammy blogger Arjan Writes on 30 November 2012. Co-written by Newham and Thomas, and produced by Thomas, the song garnered immediate praise, spreading quickly online and being featured by other well-known outlets including Socialite Life, Pop on And On, and Popservations. A music video, directed by Evan Savitt, was released on 22 January 2013, and an official remix by acclaimed indie pop producer FM Attack was released on 11 March 2013.

Newham's debut EP, The Movement, was released on 17 April 2013. An independent, free-download release initially, the EP's huge success online helped lead to a large amount of major label interest, before she ultimately signed with RCA Records. It premiered on Billboard on 9 April 2013, one week prior to its official release date.

On 11 September 2013, Spencer Stout uploaded a YouTube video of him proposing to his boyfriend Dustin in a flash mob dance routine at a Salt Lake City, Utah Home Depot. The video, which featured "Somebody Loves You" became a viral hit online. The attention of the video coupled with the track's official iTunes release, led to the song debuting at number 44 on the overall iTunes Charts, as well as debuting as the number 4 most viral song on Spotify.

Who signed to RCA Records on 15 September 2013.

2014–2017: RCA record deal, Slow Dancing, Take Me When You Go and The Valley

On 8 March 2014, "Somebody Loves You" reached number one on Billboard's Dance/Club Play Songs chart.

In April 2014, Who released her second EP, Slow Dancing, which made it to number one on the iTunes pop music charts. The first single from that EP, titled "Heartbreak Dream", was released on iTunes and Google Play on 18 February 2014. The song is used over the end credits of the 2015 film Pitch Perfect 2.

Who has praised Katy Perry, Robyn and Miley Cyrus as influences. She told Variance Magazine in 2014 that they "make pop that's generational. They're making the pop music of our generation that's going to stick around. People are going to look back and be like, 'Oh my God, it's Robyn's Body Talk album. That's one of the best pop albums of the last 10 years.'" Who supported Katy Perry and Kylie Minogue on part of the Australia leg of The Prismatic World Tour and Kiss Me Once Tour respectively. In 2014, Who made her American television debut when she performed "Somebody Loves You" on Watch What Happens: Live.

In late August 2014, Who made the announcement that her full-length debut album, Take Me When You Go, would be released on 7 October 2014. She also released the track list with the announcement. Thirteen songs, four of them being taken from her previous EPs, appeared on the album.From the album, the track "All of You" was her second number one on the US Dance chart, peaking at number one on 21 February 2015.

On 3 June 2016, Who released a cover of Donna Lewis' "I Love You Always Forever". It became her third number one on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, and proved to be her breakthrough hit in Australia, reaching number 6 on the ARIA Singles Chart.

On 24 March 2017, Who's second album, The Valley was released.

2018–present: Independent and Betty

On 19 January 2018, Who released "Ignore Me", which is Who's first single as an independent artist, after parting in 2017 with RCA Records. On 16 February 2018, the singer released a cover of Kylie Minogue's "Come Into My World" for Made in Australia compilation by Amazon Music. In 2018, Who released a remixed version of Widelife's "All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)" to be used as the theme song for season two of the Netflix reboot Queer Eye. A music video was released featuring the cast of Queer Eye and Who.

On 15 June 2018, Betty, Pt. 1, Who's third EP, was released containing the singles "Ignore Me", "Look Back" and "Taste" as well as two other previously unreleased songs: "Just Thought You Should Know" and "Friend Like Me".

On 14 November 2018, "Between You & Me" was released as another new single. It was the first single from the new album Betty that had not been previously released on the Betty, Pt 1 EP. With the release of this single, Betty Who used different shades of blue and photos of herself on her social media profiles to release lyrics to the song. The lyrics that were revealed were "You've got one hand on the wheel", "Sitting at the red light, tensions are high, vibe you could cut with a knife", and "just between you& me, I can feel something here, wondering if you do too". An Instagram post by Betty Who on the day after the release showed that the single already had 22,310 streams on Spotify, and had risen to 31,000 streams two hours later. By 12 December 2018, streams had surpassed 500,000. The music video for this song dropped on 28 November 2018, in which Betty Who plays herself as well as her own love interest. On 10 January 2019, "I Remember" was released as the fifth single from the album, with the music video for the song being released on 24 January.

In June 2020, Who launched a Patreon to fund new music and give fans access to exclusive content.

In 2014, Who began dating photographer Zak Cassar, son of director and producer Jon Cassar. The couple announced their engagement on 21 November 2017.

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Album appearances

Remixes

Music Videos

Notes

Headlining

• The Convertible Nights Tour (2015)
• Party in the Valley Tour (2017)
• Betty: The Tour (2019)

Co-headlining

• Kiesza – Sound of a Woman Tour (2015)

Opening act

• Katy Perry – Prismatic World Tour(2014)
• Kylie Minogue – Kiss Me Once Tour(2015)
• Panic at the Disco - Pray for the Wicked Tour (2019)