Betty Who

Jessica Anne Newham, known professionally as Betty Who, was born on 5 October 1991 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She began cello training at age four and relocated to the United States in 2007 to attend Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. She is also self-taught on piano and guitar, wrote her first songs at fourteen, and began performing as a singer-songwriter at sixteen. Her stage name derives from a song she wrote at that age about unrequited love. After attending Ascham School in Sydney and Frensham in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, she enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she met producer Peter Thomas during her first semester. The two collaborated over the following two years to develop her songwriting into a more anthemic production style.

Who launched her recording career by independently releasing the single "Somebody Loves You" on 30 November 2012, co-written and produced with Thomas. A music video followed on 22 January 2013, and her debut EP, The Movement, was released on 17 April 2013. The EP's online success generated major label interest, and Who signed with RCA Records on 15 September 2013. The profile of "Somebody Loves You" rose further after a viral YouTube video posted on 11 September 2013 featured the song in a flash mob marriage proposal at a Salt Lake City Home Depot, pushing the track to number 44 on the overall iTunes Charts and number four on Spotify's viral songs chart. The single reached number one on Billboard's Dance/Club Play Songs chart on 8 March 2014.

Her debut studio album, Take Me When You Go, was released on 7 October 2014 and contained thirteen tracks, four carried over from previous EPs. The album's track "All of You" became her second number one on the US Dance chart, peaking on 21 February 2015. A second EP, Slow Dancing, released in April 2014, reached number one on the iTunes pop charts, and its lead single "Heartbreak Dream" appeared over the end credits of the 2015 film Pitch Perfect 2. During this period Who also supported Katy Perry on part of the Australian leg of The Prismatic World Tour and Kylie Minogue on part of the Kiss Me Once Tour. She made her American television debut performing "Somebody Loves You" on Watch What Happens: Live in 2014.

Who released her second studio album, The Valley, on 24 March 2017. Its standout track was a cover of Donna Lewis's "I Love You Always Forever," originally released on 3 June 2016, which became her third number one on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart and reached number six on the ARIA Singles Chart in Australia, marking her commercial breakthrough in her home country. After parting ways with RCA Records in 2017, she released "Ignore Me" on 19 January 2018 as her first independent single. That year she also released a remixed version of Widelife's "All Things (Just Keep Getting Better)" as the theme for the second season of the Netflix series Queer Eye, accompanied by a music video featuring the show's cast. Her third EP, Betty, Pt. 1, followed on 15 June 2018, and her third studio album, Betty, was released subsequently, preceded by additional singles including "Between You & Me" and "I Remember." In September 2020 she made her acting debut in the comedy-drama film Unpregnant, portraying a character named Kira Matthews.

Who made her Broadway debut in Hadestown at the Walter Kerr Theater, beginning her run as Persephone on 5 September 2023 and concluding on 4 February 2024. In 2024 she appeared as a guest performer in the children's television production Yo Gabba Gabbaland, playing the character of the Wind and performing the song "I Am the Wind."