For three decades, Betty Boo shunned the spotlight for a career behind the scenes, but turning 50 prompted the pop icon back into the studio and kickstarted a second run for the ’90s icon, which continues with her new album ‘Rip Up The Rulebook‘.
Arriving on the back of 2022’s superb ‘Boomerang‘, the new LP – her fourth overall – reunites the singer and rapper with co-writers and producers Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg on what stands out as her most diverse body of work to date.
She was on a roll with her previous record, with the title song and single Shining Star originally for a follow-up before being squeezed onto the set, and after taking a break from the studio to promote singles such as Miracle (feat. Chuck D) and Right By Your Side (feat. David Gray), she set about on a new body of work.
“If you’re writing an album you think: ‘Where do I start?’,” she tells RETROPOP. “But what you have to do is just turn up every day, get inspired and figure out what’s on your mind. So the first song I did was Rip Up The Rulebook, which was inspired by the ‘Boomerang’ album, the impact it had and how well it was received.
“I thought, ‘Maybe it isn’t a coincidence that I’ve completed these albums that are really good – they’re everything I wanted them to be – and it gave me that faith in what I do.”
She adds: “If I’m really honest, without being sad about things, I didn’t think I was going to make it to 50 because both of my parents didn’t make it to 50. So I decided I was really going to go for it and Rip Up The Rulebook became my mantra and gave me the confidence to write the rest of the album – and it ended up being a joy.”
From the pure-pop opener Barbarella – the last song to be written for the album and added days after an intimate playback session of what was, at the time, the finished product – to hip-hop empowerment anthem Am I Dreaming?, disco jam Spotlight, EDM stormer Bring On The Summer, new wave ditty Good Night Out and trance-leaning Hypnotic, ‘Rip Up The Rulebook’ is a showcase of the sonic spectrum that makes up the Betty Boo sound.
Since her first record ‘Boomania’ (1990), the artist has always been heavily involved in the production of her music, of which she reflects: “Back in the day, not many females were writing and producing their own records and I would say I was probably one of the first ‘DIY artists’, because I had all the equipment and made songs in my bedroom.
“I can’t think of many other artists that did that, because they would rely on going into studios and finding producers to work with and to complement them as artists. But I just thought that’s what you do – you make your own music.
“I’m not saying I had to prove myself, but I just wanted to get the message across that I’m not a puppet. I’m not stupid. I’m not a dolly!”
From a young age, she knew her own mind and wasn’t afraid to speak out – a trait that didn’t go down well at school. “My granny hated Margaret Thatcher so in our house it was always, ‘She’s a witch’,” she recalls of the former British Prime Minister, who was first elected in 1979, when the Doin’ The Do star was just nine years old.
“When she came into power and it was all over the news, the teacher sat us down and said: ‘Now, did you hear that we’ve got a new Prime Minister? Does anyone know what her name is?’ I said: ‘Yeah, it’s Mrs. Thatcher and she’s a witch!’ – and she slapped me across the face!”
Her determination to work in the music industry on her own terms was a reaction to another school teacher who tore up her poetry, refusing to believe she had written it.
“I remember being in primary school and it was Bonfire Night. We were asked as homework to write a poem about Bonfire Night, so I wrote this little poem – about eight lines long or something – and [the teacher] didn’t believe that I wrote it,” she recalls.
“She humiliated me in front of all the children and took it away, ripped it up in my face and said: ‘You didn’t write that!’ And it always stuck with me because I thought: ‘Is this what life’s gonna be?’
“It really affected me but I was determined to show everybody that I could achieve things. It spurred me on to really try and write and produce my own things.”
It was, as she says, unusual back in the day for female artists to be so hands-on in the creative process and while equity in the music business is far from a done deal today, she’s hopeful that things are looking up.
“It’s cool, because if you think about it even the young artists, like RAYE, are going, ‘I don’t need labels telling me that I can’t make this music – I’m gonna do it my way!’,” Boo grins. “She’s a trailblazer for the young generation and for anyone who feels like they’re different.
“Because if people don’t get you, well, that’s their problem…”
It’s reflective of her own attitude in returning to the industry at this stage in her life and career, but for an artist who has been breaking the rules since she was a teen a mindset she soon found herself channeling as she returned to her first love.
“When you get a bit older, sometimes you can listen to the voices in your head that say you can’t do it,” she admits. “It’s like: ‘Who do you think you are? Don’t be stupid. What are you doing still making records?’ But then I think: ‘Well, you can do it because you were breaking the rules years ago – so what’s changed?’
“That’s the energy that I bring to everything that I do and it’s all in there, somehow. It’s a philosophy that I have – and this can be for anybody – to not let anybody tell you that you can’t be who you want to be.
“Being an outsider is good. It’s great – I love it!”
