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.
High Society
Betty Who Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Baby turn your collar up
There ain't nobody dancing
Who looks better down and out on their luck
Run away to a little place with me
Where everybody thinks we're royalty
Think of how easy life could be
Eh eh
Forget the jet, call us a car
It doesn't matter where we are
Won't you carry me away
After endless ballroom dreams
With you starting every day
We'll be high society
We'll drink Chardonnay through the day
'Cause we say so
A silk lapel suits you well baby you know
With you each and every day
We'll be high society
You never sleep late on Sunday
'Cause that's how it's done in Monaco
Except for when you came stateside
You never let me sleep late alone
Let's sneak into a country club and when
We can't get in slip them a ten
Isn't it fun to play pretend?
Eh eh
Find somebody else that we can blame
For all the things we do that cause us pain
Keep keeping on like life's a game
Won't you carry me away
After endless ballroom dreams
With you starting every day
We'll be high society
We'll drink Chardonnay through the day
'Cause we say so
A silk lapel suits you well baby you know
With you each and every day
We'll be high society
There ain't nobody dancing
Who looks better down and out on their luck
It's in our blood
We're above the highest penthouse
Tell me the world is ours
We'll be high
Won't you carry me away
After endless ballroom dreams
With you starting every day
We'll be high society
We'll drink Chardonnay through the day
'Cause we say so
A silk lapel suits you well baby you know
With you each and every day
We'll be high society
The song High Society by Betty Who is a song about escaping reality and living in luxury with someone you love. The song begins with lines, "Look it's almost morning, Baby turn your collar up, There ain't nobody dancing, Who looks better down and out on their luck." The song suggests that the two people in the song are living a life that is below expectations, and they want to escape to a place where they would fit in better. They want to run away to a little place where everybody thinks they're royalty. Betty Who suggests that life could be easy this way. They want to forget the reality of where they are now and escape to a place that's not far away.
Betty Who repeats the phrase, "We'll be high society," multiple times throughout the song, suggesting that they want to live luxuriously. Even though they want to escape reality, they still acknowledge that they are living a life that's not up to par. They also suggest that they don't care about the consequences of pretending to be something they are not. The lyrics "Isn't it fun to play pretend?" show that they are willing to be high society even if they are not rich. Betty Who also sings, "Find somebody else that we can blame for all the things we do that cause us pain, Keep keeping on like life's a game." This suggests that they are willing to escape their problems by pretending that they are someone else, and they are willing to blame others for the consequences.
Line by Line Meaning
Look it's almost morning
It's nearly dawn
Baby turn your collar up
Pull up your collar
There ain't nobody dancing
No one is dancing
Who looks better down and out on their luck
We look good even when we're struggling
Run away to a little place with me
Let's escape together to a small hideaway
Where everybody thinks we're royalty
We can pretend we're of noble birth
Think of how easy life could be
Imagine how simple life would be
Eh eh
N/A
Run away to a place that isn't far
Let's leave somewhere nearby
Forget the jet, call us a car
Ignore the plane, get a car for us
It doesn't matter where we are
The location isn't significant
Won't you carry me away
Take me with you
After endless ballroom dreams
Following countless fancy dance fantasies
With you starting every day
With you by my side every morning
We'll be high society
We'll act like aristocrats
We'll drink Chardonnay through the day
We'll have Chardonnay all day long
'Cause we say so
Because we decide it
A silk lapel suits you well baby you know
You look great in a silk lapel, you know
With you each and every day
Every day with you
We'll be high society
We'll continue to act like aristocrats
You never sleep late on Sunday
You never oversleep on Sunday
'Cause that's how it's done in Monaco
That's how things are in Monaco
Except for when you came stateside
Except for when you visited the United States
You never let me sleep late alone
You never let me oversleep by myself
Let's sneak into a country club and when
We should sneak into a country club sometime
We can't get in slip them a ten
If we can't get in, bribe them with a ten dollar bill
Isn't it fun to play pretend?
Isn't it enjoyable to pretend?
Find somebody else that we can blame
Let's find someone else to blame for our problems
For all the things we do that cause us pain
For all the actions that hurt us
Keep keeping on like life's a game
Keep going like life is a game
There ain't nobody dancing
No one is dancing
Who looks better down and out on their luck
We look good even when we're struggling
It's in our blood
It's part of our nature
We're above the highest penthouse
We're better than those in the top penthouse
Tell me the world is ours
Say the world belongs to us
We'll be high
We'll be elated
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Written by: BETTY WHO, PETER THOMAS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@thomasgooden
#danthemanplaylists
LYRICS:
Look it's almost morning
Baby turn your collar up
There ain't nobody dancing
Who looks better down and out on their luck
Run away to a little place with me
Where everybody thinks we're royalty
Think of how easy life could be
Eh eh
Run away to a place that isn't far
Forget the jet, call us a car
It doesn't matter where we are
Won't you carry me away
After endless ballroom dreams
With you starting every day
We'll be high society
We'll drink Chardonnay through the day
Cause we say so
A silk lapel suits you well baby you know
With you each and every day
We'll be high society
You never sleep late on Sunday
Cause that's how it's done in Monaco
Except for when you came stateside
You never let me sleep late alone
Let's sneak into a country club and when
We can't get in slip them a ten
Isn't it fun to play pretend?
Eh eh
Find somebody else that we can blame
For all the things we do that cause us pain
Keep keeping on like life's a game
Won't you carry me away
After endless ballroom dreams
With you starting every day
We'll be high society
We'll drink Chardonnay through the day
Cause we say so
A silk lapel suits you well baby you know
With you each and every day
We'll be high society
There ain't nobody dancing
Who looks better down and out on their luck
It's in our blood
We're above the highest penthouse
Tell me the world is ours
We'll be high
Won't you carry me away
After endless ballroom dreams
With you starting every day
We'll be high society
We'll drink Chardonnay through the day
Cause we say so
A silk lapel suits you well baby you know
With you each and every day
We'll be high society
@heretowatchcats2978
It's been 9 years and I still listen to this song. You are amazing.
@kylecoffman5415
I'll still wake up some mornings and will have this stuck in my head. It's grand. Been there, done that. Keep it real, Ms. Newham.
@lougentile5485
She is a star and has resurrected the 80's. I met her before a concert. She is great with her fans.
@devonrinaldi1200
I still don't understand how this is not everywhere!! Can someone please get it on the radio. Betty deserves more with this song! Has always been my favorite song especially when I saw her perform it live and she took my phone and started recording herself singing on my phone mid-show! 💙💙💙💜💙💜💜💜💜💜💜
@lupecruz8314
Betty's voice is perfect and so is this song
@otaddiction
god I'm typing this in December 2019 listening to this again and remembering the past few years. I'm going to miss the 2010s so much. I almost feel like crying, and it's not easy for me to get emotional
@henri898
hi
@lisazoria2709
Yep.
@joseph-zoramcbride4029
Don't worry, man, the 2020s are gonna be fuckin' awesome. Nothing pandemic-or-fascist shaped on the horizon! :/ :) :P
@kylethenerd1
This girl needs to be a huge star. Easily one of the best Pop songs of 2013. Better than anything out on Top 40 radio right now.