Betty Who Returns with Two Anthemic New Singles

Australian-born, American-based pop singer-songwriter Betty Who admits things worked out well for her from the start of her career. She had a hit out of the gates with 2014’s “Somebody Loves You,” an infectious, Katy Perry-like pop tune.

“In your career, there are these moments when the stars align,” she says via Zoom from New York, where she was “running around” and visiting partners such as Peloton. Betty Who performs at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24, at House of Blues. “You hope that everything you will do will be like that. I got a taste of it early in my career and then the stars seemed to stop aligning. I think that’s how it works. I wanted to be a pop star and have people know my music and come to my shows. It just happened, but there was still a ton of effort.”

The hits have not come quite as easily since then, and Betty Who took a bit of a break pursue another dream — Broadway. She recently made her Broadway debut as Persephone in Hadestown.

“People spend every day going to auditions,” she says when asked about Hadestown. “That’s not my world. As much as I thought it would be so fun to be on Broadway, I never expected it to happen. To get that call, I was jumping up and down for the first time in a long time. It was good for morale. I think it’s so important to take yourself out of your comfort zone and try something that makes you vulnerable. It makes you feel so alive.”

She says the musical turned out to be the perfect vehicle for her talents.

“It’s an excellent show,” she says. “I’m not sure if I could have done a different show. It’s written by a singer-songwriter, so I felt comfortable singing the songs. I have now met some of my best friends. Being in that building gave me some of the people. Solea Pfeiffer, who played Eurydice, became a friend. I feel like I have known her from kindergarten.”

For Betty Who, who’s just released two new singles, the jittery pop tune “Run!” and the funky, synth-pop number “Sweat,” taking a break from music made her appreciate it all the more as she began to write and record once more.

“It’s only natural to spend a decade doing something and then try to figure out who you are without that thing,” she says. “I don’t think it was as self-aware at the time. I just knew I needed to re-evaluate and re-explore and have some new experiences that could open me up again. Now, I definitely feel like I’m returning to music and falling back in love with it. It’s something I started doing when I didn’t know how to do it. I’ve been fumbling around in the dark trying to figure out my process and my approach to it.”

In addition, acting in a Broadway play and hosting the Amazon dating show, The One That Got Away, have given her new experiences that she can draw upon.

“Now, I can take everything I learned doing these other things and come back and stare at the blank slate and go, ‘Cool. Who do I want to be now? How do I want to make music and what is it for?’” she says. “Music can be very self-serving. That’s how it felt when I was younger. It was about me and what I wanted. I wanted to be on stage, and I wanted people to clap for me. Now, I feel so much less connected to those ideas. So now, what is it for if it’s not just about me and my ego? How do I approach it if it’s about community and providing a space for people to feel joy and let loose and dance and be inspired? My favorite artists are the ones that make me feel those things, and I’m trying to figure out how I can step into that world.”

An LGBTQ+ advocate, Betty Who says she thinks of her concerts as safe spaces where fans can take refuge from a hostile world.

“I think it is important to find spaces with chosen family especially when [negativity] is so much louder,” she says. “In these moments when you see so much legislation against gay and trans people, it’s important to create spaces where we can feel joy and safety and love for one another. In my tour, I take a moment, and I share stories from people in the crowd who have overcome things that are hard and sad. I get everybody clapping for each other. If you feel less-than in the outside world, in this room, you get to be whoever you want to be, and we love it for you. That’s what I’m trying to do now when those spaces are fewer and farther in between.”

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