Artist Biography

The story of betty donelly

betty, at age seven, started out on the violin and caught the stage bug already..until at age 14 she got tired of her very strict female teacher... betty donelly grew up without rock and roll or popsongs whatsoever...her father strictly forbid it to be played in the house...only classical music and jazz, and a couple beatles singles were allowed alongside records of cliff richard..and django reinhardt...the rest was all classical...brbrso when betty was about 16 years old she got a hard reality check when everyone was suddenly a hard rocker or a punk or a disco freak...for the first time she discovered music of the new generation..one day when she was at home and listening to her brother's cassette she suddenly heard this magickal music coming out of the speaker...betty was really stunned when she heard that voice for the first time...it was let's go to bed from the cure...."i felt such a connectedness with that person i did not know...instantly...it never grew away again..."

brbrin the last year of high school she decided she wanted to play in a band after seeing some friends do the same...it didn't work out well for the other band after having them stripped of their guitarist..anyways, THE FEAR created a local buzz and a small following but after a fight with the guitar player the fear split..brbrbetty donelly immediately formed another band, a foursome this time just before the early nineties..."we played in venues that had like 500 people in there and were a big success every time we gigged..."brbrin the mean time betty was going to school as well...in fact she studied three different things all at once: social re-adaptation sciences, rock school for musical stage arts and business manager at some point it all became too much and that was the end of THE ELEPHANTS..you can still listen to those live oldies -brbrbut then disaster struck betty on her day job as a civil servant..."i guess it all became a bit too much for me...maybe i couldn't handle all the stress from the 3 schools and my job and the elephants in between...so i went bananas and lived through a psychosis...over the next years i've had a couple of them but the more recent they occurred the less severe they became and the psychosises transitioned into manic euphoric symptoms...im still good", betty donelly says.brbrin 2004 betty recorded two songs and started digitising some cassettes and thus created her first web presencebrbrthe next two years were filled with writing new material, recording at home without drums...to the point where she is now ready to perform...solobrbrbetty: "i'd rather play in a full band but if no one is willing or if i haven't met the right people yet i will play solo"brbrbetty donelly is a transgendered indie musician from belgium brbrupdate 3 june 2008: betty donelly is currently wrapping her first free mini tour 2008 with two more appearances to go at the end of june..brbrbetty started an intense myspace marketing campaign which will last at least three months...brbrplans are underway to continue gigging locally and gradually expand on territory, mainly to refine her actbrbra possible deal with a non professinal booker is also lying on thetable... the booker in question is my professional dance coach who has more than one foot in the door of theather venues and cultural centers throughout belgium..brbrkeep your eyes peeled on betty donelly!

Artist Mission

Music Influences