''Betty'' is the third studio album by Australian-American singer

Betty Who Jessica Anne Newham (born 5 October 1991), known by her stage name Betty Who, is an Australian musician and singer. After independently releasing her debut single, "Somebody Loves You (Betty Who song), Somebody Loves You" (2012), and her debut ...

, released on 15 February 2019. The album was preceded by the singles " Ignore Me", "Taste", " Between You & Me", and "I Remember". It is Who's first studio album under the independent record label

AWAL AWAL (shortened from Artists Without A Label) is a global recording business that claims to serve as an alternative to the traditional record label, offering deal structures that provide artists with the resources and expertise of a global label ...

, after previously being signed to

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

for most of her early career. ''Betty'' has been described as a

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

and

dance-pop Dance-pop is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit ra ...

album.

Background and recording

On 19 January 2018, Who released " Ignore Me", her first single as an independent artist after parting ways with

in 2017. She felt it was a necessary step, as the sometimes lagging and slow-paced corporate nature of record labels prevented her from releasing music at the pace she wanted to. 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 Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

reboot '' Queer Eye''. A music video was released featuring the cast of ''Queer Eye'' and Who. On 14 November 2018, " Between You and Me" was released as another new single. It was the first single from her then-forthcoming album that had not been previously released on the album's precursory 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. She performed "Language" on '' Full Frontal with Samantha Bee'' in August 2019. A music video was for "The One" was released on 20 February 2020.

Release

''Betty'' was released on 15 February 2019 to all major digital music stores and streaming platforms. The album saw a physical release on both CD and

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

on 5 April 2019 and 3 May 2019, respectively. It peaked at number 24 on the US

Independent Albums The Independent Albums chart (previously titled Top Independent Albums) ranks the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays (EPs) in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by '' Billboard'' mag ...

chart and number 86 on the Top Current Albums charts.

Critical reception

''Betty'' received generally positive reviews from critics, with ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

'' praising the album's exploration of '80s synth-pop as well as comparing it to the works of

Carly Rae Jepsen Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After studying musical theatre for most of her school life and while in university, Jepsen garnered mainstream attention after placing third on the fifth season of ...

Robyn Robin Miriam Carlsson (; born 12 June 1979), known professionally as Robyn (), is a Swedish singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. Her 1995 debut album ''Robyn Is Here'' produced two Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 top 10 single ...

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Cultural impact of Brit ...

and

The 1975 The 1975 are an English pop rock band formed in Wilmslow, Cheshire, in 2002. The band consists of Matty Healy (lead vocals, guitar, primary songwriter), Adam Hann (lead guitar), Ross MacDonald (bass), and George Daniel (drums, primary produ ...

Track listing

Charts

''Betty, Pt. 1''

''Betty, Pt.1'' is the fourth extended play by Australian singer

. It was released on 15 June 2018 to digital retailers. The songs "Just Thought You Should Know", "Taste", and "Ignore Me" would later appear on Who's third studio album ''Betty''.

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 2019 albums Betty Who albums AWAL albums Albums produced by Zak Waters