Betty Who Gushes Over a Collab With Miguel

What's up, Young Hollywood? We are here in the studio with Betty Who.

Hi.

Thank you so much for coming.

Thanks for having me.

We're so excited to have you.

I'm excited to be here.

Well, we've heard a couple of new songs from you this year.

Yes.

They're all bangers.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Yeah, I'm super excited. We're putting out an EP in June, so we're just kind of ramping up towards that and I'm playing a lot of pride festivals and and festivals this summer.

And then you also have the Life Ball in Vienna coming up this year as well, right?

Vienna, yeah. So that's um kind of actually my so one of my dancers, uh Joshua, who's one of my best friends in the world, was telling me a couple years ago. He was like, "If you don't play Life Ball soon, like we have to he was like, "Even if you're not playing it, we have to go. You would die to be there." And we were literally talking about it a couple months ago being like, "Oh my God, we have to go to Life Ball one year." And then they called and were like, "Do you want to play?" And I was like, Isn't that amazing how life works like that? I love I love doing things not even for me that make like other people side. Like I knew that when we did Life Ball, it would make my like Joshua was going to die. So I was like, "Okay, great." It's like if I ever got us to do like a like a race car like an anthem at a race track, like my dad would love that, you know. I don't even care, but I'll do it for him.

You have to make everyone in your life proud.

Totally.

I feel like that's like a big trajectory for you as an artist. Like the activism and really putting yourself out there in that way.

My entire like purpose as an artist is to create a space that's like safe and joyful and and, you know, uh, kind of an escape from maybe regular life for a for a night.

Absolutely. I think empowerment is such a huge theme in all of your work. Is that going to be featured on this new EP as well?

Yeah, you know, I think um, I think a lot of the new sort of sounds and like music musicality that I'm playing with right now, uh, is very um, it's new for me and different for me and really exciting to me. And so I think having the space and freedom to really go for it and do what I want to do, uh, and and make music that maybe I would have been a little too afraid to put out or like what if people don't like it, and it's really different for me. Like, I'm not thinking about any of that right now, which is really like freeing and exciting. Like liberating, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Totally. Of course. For sure. Yeah. It's 2018. We're all liberated.

Yes.

I'd love to hear more about how this new music is a departure from your past work.

Right. So like, you know, I just put out a song Taste, which is one of my favorite songs. I'm so excited to do it live. I love it. I thank you. I cannot wait. Um, I really love this song. And so I when I wrote it, I remember being like, it's kind of rock and roll a little bit. It's like, It is. It's really different. You know, I don't even tour with a guitar player. So it's like, it's sort of um, it felt when I wrote it, I was like, "I don't know how this would fit into my my world, my life, my sound. You know, I don't know how this works." And um, when I started thinking of the music I'd already written and stuff I wanted to put out uh, on this EP, I remember listening to Taste and being like, yeah. This kind of set the mood for the rest of it. This is really different. That's exactly why I should do it. You know, it's like if it scares me a little and makes me go like, "I don't know how people are going to react." Like, good.

I want to do a couple of quick fire questions with you, if you have the time.

Quick fire questions. Okay, amazing. Let's do it.

Okay, great. First question, your ideal collaboration.

Oh, Miguel. Miguel. Oh, my God. He's so I mean, he's like five-foot nothing and I'm a a trillion feet tall. So I feel like I'm

You feel me? I'm on the tall. I feel you on the tall.

Be really funny. Like we could we could never make a music video. But I really want to sing a song with him. I know. So that'd be awesome.

You should make a music video. Um, who is your dream dinner party guest?

Harry Styles.

Okay.

Yeah. I'm pretty sure he would wear a really fabulous suit that I wish that I would owned.

Of course. Actually, I really want to raid his closet to be honest with you.

Me too. The flares I think wouldn't work for me so much though. Maybe he can keep he can keep the flares.

Yeah. They'd come up to the ankles.

Yeah. Same with me.

Favorite show on TV right now.

I restarted Will & Grace.

Okay. I've never seen Will & Grace.

I know. I know.

Wow.

I know. I've

Wow. Um, We need to get on that clearly.

Yeah. It's like it is such a, you know, it was such a cultural um, kind of uh, shift, I think, when Will & Grace is the first show of its kind.

Absolutely. That's true.

Talked about gay culture in a way that literally had not been talked about on national television ever before. Um, so re-watching it. I want to I haven't seen the new season because I wanted to watch all the old ones because I grew up on it, but I haven't seen it all in one go.

Go-to karaoke song.

"Wildcard" by "He Had It Coming" from Chicago. Let me explain, though.

Okay. Okay, let's hear it.

Because who goes to karaoke with like without a group of people, right? And so everybody like when you you put it on, everyone's like, who's the kid to put this theater song on? And then literally five mi like five seconds later, "He had it coming!" Everybody's like screaming. So it's always a crowd hit.

Amazing. I would love to see that.

It's really fun.

You should play that on tour. Do a cover.

Yeah. Sure. All right. Done.