Betty Who's New Single "I Remember" Gets So Freaking Real About Relationships — EXCLUSIVE

For Betty Who fans around the world, 2018 was a pretty great year — and 2019 is about to be even better. Last January, Who broke ties with her record label RCA and released her first independent single "Ignore Me." In June, she gave fans an amazing independent EP entitled Betty Pt. 1 and covered the theme song for Queer Eye's phenomenal second season. And on Jan. 10, she drops a red-hot new single, "I Remember." Betty Who's "I Remember" lyrics are brazenly honest about the peaks and pitfalls of love, and the song is the perfect prelude to her first independent studio album Betty dropping on Feb. 15.

In her new single (listen here), she gets super honest about how relationships aren't always a walk in the park like one might expect. Her new single winds up to the chorus with the vulnerable line:

We got lost in the light now we’re stumbling through the dark / And sometimes I wonder why we have to work this hard / But here we are.

Who tells Elite Daily that this speaks to the experience of working through conflict with someone whom you are committed to being with no matter what. The chorus rings out that familiar reminder that the right person is worth fighting for:

I remember nobody loves me like you do / I remember I don’t want perfect, I want you.

This single reflects Who's experience with working hard with her fiancé, photographer Zak Cassar, on their relationship and remembering why it that work is so worth it. "I have learned a lot about how all of that hard work is what makes it worth it and also what makes you stronger and better partners to each other," she says.

"I wanted to write a song about how sort of alienating love can make you feel," Who tells Elite Daily. "I think there's this misconception that if you're with the right person it's supposed to be so easy and great and nothing ever goes wrong and you never fight. And you see these perfect couples on Instagram or in movies, and you think that's what it's supposed to be like." Similarly to her most recent single, much of Who's music draws on this thrill of love, attraction, as well as the complicated nature of partnership and commitment.

Much like her career, Who's personal life has also seen a lot of change over the past year since she announced her engagement in November 2017. She tells Elite Daily that there are many inspirations for her new work including her partnership, friendships, environment, and other artists.

"My roommate and my fiancé and I just moved into this new house that's kind of the old-school Hollywood 1930s house," she says. "It's amazing and has this gorgeous, cute, old kitchen, and my roommate has got super into Italian cooking. So we've been cooking while listening to jazz music and making a lot of hearty bolognese."

Part of Who's pop magic is that she always manages to simultaneously stay true to the bright, vulnerable music she wants to make while continuing to reimagine her sound in new ways. "I know what I love, and I know what I am good at," Who says of her talent for creating "unapologetic pop." "The thing that I have loved more [than] anything in my whole life is pop music. I grew up listening to it... Britney and *NSYNC influenced this album because that's what I grew up on and that was what made me the happiest and still to this day."

Beyond Britney Spears and *NSYNC, Who's influences are both old school and contemporary. "This year I've been listening to a lot of Ariana Grande. It seemed to be her year in 2018; I spent a lot of time listening to her this year. She was my top artist on Spotify," she says. When she makes an album, though, she says that she tries not to listen to a lot of music or else it gets in the way of her work a little bit. "A lot of the music I listened to this year was like jazz or old school music, like a lot of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra."

Who has made some amazing career moves in the past year, and will continue to do so in 2019. She tells Elite Daily that her favorite highlight of 2018, aside from releasing music as an independent artist for the first time, was working on the Queer Eye season two theme song and video. She will continue to carry her 2018 momentum into the new year with a new single in January, tour, and her first independent, self-titled album. Another long-time source of inspiration has been Panic! at the Disco. Who, a fan of the band and frontman Brendon Urie, will tour with them from Jan 10. until Feb. 20.

When asked if astrology is important to her and, if so, what she loved about her sign, she had a lot say (which is, endearingly, very much like a Libra). To this she said, "Oh my god, I love astrology, I read my January horoscope today. I'm a Libra. I identify with how we're a performers, social butterflies. We're big ideas people but maybe not great at the nitty gritty details." For Betty Who and Libras everywhere, hopefully their horoscopes anticipate a year full fireworks and soaring to new heights.