‘Doin’ the Do’ all over again as Betty Boo heads to Cambridge
Can it really be 35 years since we were all ‘doin’ the do’ along with Betty Boo (admit it, the song’s in your head now!)? Well, it has indeed been that long – but happily, Betty’s back and about to embark on her very first UK tour.
The tour, which includes a Cambridge date, comes three years after the London-born pop star’s return to music, when she released her third album, Boomerang, which featured contributions from Chuck D and David Gray.
That was followed in 2024 by another acclaimed long-player, Rip Up the Rulebook, which, like its predecessor, was co-written and co-produced by a “great collaborator”, Andy Wright, known for his work with the likes of Simple Minds and Simply Red.
“It’s taken me a while to do it!,” says Betty, whose real name is Alison Clarkson, of the tour. She was speaking to the Cambridge Independent from her home in Wiltshire.
“I’m celebrating 35 years of Boomania, which is my first album, and I thought, well I hadn’t done a tour before, I’ve got to get out there and do it and celebrate it [the album] and just reconnect with everyone who liked my music back in the day – and also anyone that’s discovered me recently, because I’ve been bringing out new music.
“I feel I’ve got my job back!”
A hugely successful artist in the early 90s, Betty was set to sign to Madonna’s fledgling record label, Maverick – becoming its second big-name signing after Alanis Morissette – but the offer coincided with her mother being diagnosed with cancer.
The singer, who had lost her father a few years earlier, decided to quit music and focus on looking after her mother.
“I did take a long time away from it all,” Betty says now, “but now I just can’t imagine not doing it.
“I really love making music and I just want to keep going until… one day, if I don’t enjoy it anymore, then that’s the day to give up, I think.
“But I feel like I’ve just started again, so it’s great.”
Betty’s first two albums, Boomania (1990) and GRRR! It’s Betty Boo (1992), were reissued in March and are available on coloured vinyl, CD and cassette.
The albums contain Betty’s biggest hits, including Doin’ the Do, Hey DJ – I Can’t Dance (To That Music You’re Playing), Where Are You Baby? and Let Me Take You There.
The colourful pop performer will be singing all of these timeless, feelgood anthems, plus cuts from her comeback album Boomerang (2022) and 2024’s top 40 smash Rip Up the Rulebook, at 15 venues nationwide this summer.
“I don’t know where the time has gone,” admits Betty, a platinum-selling Brit and Ivor Novello Award-winning singer, songwriter and rapper.
“But when I perform my songs, they still feel fresh to me. Also, I wrote them in my bedroom when I was living at home with my mum, when I was a teenager, so it’s great to celebrate it all.
“In fact, I think it’s an absolute privilege to be able to go out there and do it, because actually, if I’m honest, my parents died before they were 50, so when I got to 50 I thought, ‘I’ve really got to do this or else I’ll never do it’.
“So I’m just embracing life and really enjoying it.”
Why hasn’t Betty, who describes her music as “pop with a bit of edge”, ever toured before?
“In the old days, with the sort of music I was doing, it was like crossover dance rap pop music… and nobody really toured back in those days, unless you were Bros or something like that,” she replies.
“But what I did instead was loads of PAs at clubs all around the world, so that was not touring as such but that’s how I performed.
“And it’s only since I got back into writing music again that I realised that this is what you do when you make music, is get out there and perform it to anyone who wants to see you.
“But now I can’t really imagine not doing it.”
Betty, who is half-Scottish and half-Malaysian, adds: “It still sounds fresh today, the stuff that I did before, people still enjoy it…
“Also, they love rapping along to Doin’ the Do, which is a very fast rap, and I’m very impressed when I hear people rapping it back at me!”
In her years away from the spotlight, Betty worked as a songwriter for other artists.
“Yes, I was asked to write for people like Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who actually featured on one of my records – my comeback album, Boomerang,” she notes. “She’s on a song called Shining Star.
“I did a lot of writing with other artists – Paloma Faith, Girls Aloud, even Rod Stewart! So it’s a real mix.”
A very well-known song that the skilled tunesmith had a hand in writing was the number one smash Pure and Simple, recorded by British pop group Hear’Say, winners of the TV talent competition, Popstars, in 2001.
“I co-wrote that with two other guys, Tim [Hawes] and Pete [Kirtley],” recalls Betty, “and that was a song that we’d written for another girl group.
“And Simon Cowell, who was the A&R guy at the time, years and years ago – before anyone knew who he was – he hated it so much he threw it out of the window!
“Then when Popstars came along, the new TV format, Hear’Say needed a song and they chose Pure and Simple.
“And then there it was; it was performed by them and it was the fastest-selling song of all time, at the time.
“It beat Candle in the Wind and it won an Ivor Novello, which is even more surprising really.
“But that’s the thing with songwriting, you just don’t know where songs will take you, and in fact I perform it at my show sometimes because it’s quite a good song to get everyone together and singing along – a bit like a school disco!”
Betty Boo will be bringing her Boomania 35 tour to The Portland Arms on Friday, 27 June.
Tickets, priced £29.20 in advance, are available from theportlandarms.co.uk/wp/. For more on Betty, go to officialbettyboo.com.
