Jessica Anne Newham, known as Betty Who (born 5 October 1991), is an Austra… Read Full Bio ↴Jessica Anne Newham, known as Betty Who (born 5 October 1991), is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. Newham was born in Sydney, Australia, where she lived until her mid-teens. Trained since age four as a classical cellist, She moved to the United States in 2007 to attend Interlochen Center for the Arts, whose alumni include Norah Jones, Rufus Wainwright, and Josh Groban.
Newham is also self-taught on piano and guitar, and wrote her first songs at age 14, and began performing as a singer-songwriter at age 16.
After high school, Newham attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. 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.

Betty Who'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 November 30, 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 January 22, 2013, and an official remix by acclaimed indie pop producer FM Attack was released on March 11, 2013.

Betty Who’s debut EP The Movement was released on April 16, 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 April 9, 2013, one week prior to its official release date and continually received rave reviews from countless major blogs and magazines throughout 2013. Upon release, Idolator described the EP as "A spine-tinglingly euphoric 80's pop nugget," indie pop blog All Things Go claimed she was "charting new musical territory," and the famous UK outlet Popjustice called it "the best proper EP so far of 2013". Press continued to organically build throughout the year, with ELLE calling her "Your Next Pop Obsession" on August 5, 2013 and TIME hand-picking Betty as one of 14 Musical Acts To Watch In 2014.

She’s described her sound as, “taking influences from [past] music and mixing it in with the emotions I’m actually living through. We’re all secretly wrecks and we’re all in love and all being heartbroken. Combining those things for me has been a huge tool to get the sound I want.”
So far, her music has been crafted in collaboration with producer Peter Thomas. The pair operate under the motto that “making something good is easy, the challenge is making it right.”
Betty Who signed to RCA Records on September 15, 2013.

On 8 March 2014, "Somebody Loves You" reached number one on Billboard's Dance/Club Play Songs chart.[15]

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.

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, Betty 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.

Betty Who describes herself as a "queer, bisexual woman". In 2014, Who began dating photographer Zak Cassar, son of director and producer Jon Cassar. The couple announced their engagement on 21 November 2017. They were married in 2020. Betty Who is a dual citizen of Australia and the United States.

Better
Betty Who Lyrics

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You look a lot like forever
I'm made of yesterdays
Even if you don't believe me
I couldn't be less afraid

Sometimes you kiss me goodbye
Like it's the end of all days
Please don't walk away

Do you hear me when I say
I'm making every single day
A little bit better, better, better
You're making it better, better, better
You're asking me to stay
Begging me not to run away
But I could never, never, never
I would never, never

It's the way you make love to me
It's the the way you look after me
What do want from me
Do want to make love?

I hate you most when you're silent
Why won't you talk to me?
You hate me most when I've gone away
Just when you're near to me

I wanna' kiss you goodbye
I wanna' kiss you goodbye
Like it's the end of all days

Do you hear me when I say
I'm making every single day
A little bit better, better, better
You're making it better, better, better
You're asking me to stay
Begging me not run away
But I could never, never, never
I would never, never

It's the way you make love to me
It's the the way you look after me
What do want from me
Do want to make love?

It's the way you get through to me
When you think that your cruel to me
Do you want to be mean to me
Do you want to make love?

Oh oh

Then you kiss me again
Then I'm forever your friend

Do you hear me when I say
When you kiss me again
Then I'm forever your friend

It's the way you make love to me
It's the the way you look up to me

What do want from me
Do want to make love?

Overall Meaning

The song "Better" by Betty Who is about a complicated relationship where the two people involved are struggling to communicate effectively. The first few lines of the song describe the singer's feeling that the other person could be the one they've been waiting for, but they themselves are weighed down by their past mistakes. Despite their hesitation, they are not afraid of the relationship itself. As the song progresses, the two take turns being the one to want to hold on and to let go. They kiss like it's the last time, but plea not to walk away. The singer wants the other person to try to understand how hard they are working to improve the relationship while the other person is consistently pushing for the relationship to continue.

In the chorus, the singer initially disregards the other person's efforts to make them happy, but then gives in to the idea that the other person is indeed making their life better. The bridge is perhaps the most telling part of the song, as it explores the theme of miscommunication. Both people are unsure of what the other wants, and they both may be giving mixed signals. The repeated line of "Do you want to make love?" highlights the miscommunication and their desire to understand each other better.

Overall, the lyrics of "Better" paint a picture of a complicated and emotionally charged relationship where both people are struggling to communicate and understand each other.

Line by Line Meaning

You look a lot like forever
You have a timeless quality about you

I'm made of yesterdays
I have a past, but it doesn't define me

Even if you don't believe me
Even if you doubt me

I couldn't be less afraid
I am not scared at all

Sometimes you kiss me goodbye
Occasionally you say farewell with a kiss

Like it's the end of all days
As if it's the end of times

Please don't walk away
Don't leave me

Do you hear me when I say
Are you listening to me

I'm making every single day
I am improving every day

A little bit better, better, better
Gradually but surely better

You're making it better, better, better
You're contributing to the improvement