Dance diva Betty Who, on her music, her gay fans & ‘Queer Eye’
When I ask how she’s doing, Betty Who replies unhesitatingly with one simple word: “Tired!” We speak on the telephone as a driver whisks her to the airport. The pop princess is traveling from her home in Los Angeles to New York for concert rehearsals with her band. In just a few days, Who kicks off a summer mini-tour.
“I’d say tired is definitely how I’m feeling right now, but, you know, in kind of like a good way,” Who says, her native Australian accent detectable even though she has lived stateside for many years. “[I’m exhausted] in a way that I’ve never really experienced before. I’ve never literally been this tired in my entire life, but I’ve never liked it so much.”
Fortunately, Who’s fatigue is remediable. And, truth be told, she also likely has never felt more energized. After recently separating from a major record label, the singer-songwriter is free once again to produce and release music entirely on her own terms. It is a prospect which, at the moment, both frightens and invigorates her.
“For the first time in a long time, I feel like I have a lot to prove right now,” Who says. “It’s actually exciting and satisfying. I hate feeling like I’m trapped or [that] I don’t have an opportunity to show off what I know I can do. I feel like I was in a position that made me feel that way for a long time. On the other side of it, I feel very much like, ‘Here I am! I’m ready to go! I’m gonna fuck some shit up!’”
One week ago, Who dropped her latest musical effort, an independent EP entitled Betty Pt. 1. She considers the release — her first EP in five years — a re-introduction to her fans and, in many ways, to herself. Its five tracks, all catchy pop tunes, are songs that make a collective statement about Who’s newly-regained creative freedom.
“I wanted to show that this next part of my journey is dictated by me,” Who says. “It is curated by me. The choices that are being made were made by me. I feel really connected personally to everything that I’m making right now.”
Even before the EP dropped, though, Who was on the rise. She was recently asked to retool the Queer Eye theme song “All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)” in a video promoting the second season of the Netflix series (see stories on Pages 20 and 22). The songstress, already a big fan of the show, was as surprised as anyone when the unexpected opportunity arose. Who says that working with the Fab Five was nothing short of serendipity.
“I really love the universe sometimes when I feel like there are things I’m super excited about and am connected to and love,” Who says. “When those things that I personally think are amazing cross into my career… that’s one of the cooler things about my life.”
A longtime LGBT ally, Who has always held a special fondness for her gay fans, a community she considers early adopters of her music. One gay man, in fact, used Who’s breakout single “Somebody Loves You” as the soundtrack to a flash mob wedding proposal five years ago. The video went viral and helped to propel the single. Who, of course, heartily approved of its use. The song remains one of the pop star’s favorites to perform to this day.
“It’s the only song in my whole career that I never get tired of singing,” she says. “There is such a community around it. The story of the song was really beautiful. I think people who love the song a lot of the time love it for a really nice reason and are connected to it in a way that [makes it] more than a pop song. There is heart to it. There is so much love in that song… in the fabric of it.”
In addition to touring, Who is currently creating Betty, Pt. 2, a follow-up EP, which she plans to release later this year. More importantly, perhaps, she also intends to take a well-deserved break to be with family and friends. Who feels that giving up personal time, moments that otherwise might have been spent with loved ones, is the biggest sacrifice she has made for her career.
“I think it’s a part of what you give up to do this,” she says. “You sort of sell your soul to the devil if the devil is the music industry. You hope it will all pan out the way you want it to. I kind of feel like I had to grow up really fast, so I had to be like, ‘All right, you are going to get to hang out with all your friends and family eventually, but not right now.’ I guess that’s a hard thing to come to terms with. Once I got my head around it a little bit, I was like, ‘I can do this. It’s OK. That’s how being a grown up is.’”
Making connections with her fan base, however, is an upside to the pact. In fact, it keeps Who doing what she loves to do.
“I really am so in love with my fans,” she says. “The people who come to the shows, they deeply, deeply inspire me when they share their stories with me and talk to me about the songs they love specifically and tell me their stories. The part of me that connects with them… I don’t know how to say it… I stay shook at the fact that I’ve had an impact on anybody’s life. [They are] beautiful, smart impassioned people. To be a part of their lives, even remotely through their headphones, is the coolest part of my life.”
— Scott Huffman
For more information, visit bettywhomusic.com.
