Singer ‘gets’ Tramlines gig

A SINGER-songwriter from Penistone has been shortlisted to play at this year’s Tramlines festival in Sheffield, writes We Are Barnsley.

Bethany White, 23, said that she was brought up around a musical environment and wrote her first song when she was 12 after losing her grandad.

“I studied music at school but didn’t pursue it until I moved to London at 19 for university,” she said.

“I was going through all sorts of emotions at the time living alone and I couldn’t quite physically talk about them so I decided to start writing lyrics and put my emotions into a creative form – it’s the only way I know how.”

Bethany started rapping when she was 19 but decided that wasn’t her go-to.

Her music now is typically R ‘n’ B, soul and jazz but she explained how she would be interested in doing a dance track at some point.

She added: “I released an EP in 2021 called Emotions –that EP is like a snippet of the journey of my life growing up to 21.

“During the pandemic I lost a lot of inspiration so that project helped me massively.

“It definitely came as a shock to have been shortlisted to play at Tramlines – I feel like as a musician you are your own worst critique because you always want whatever you make to be perfect and for people to enjoy it.”

Bethany was selected out of 1,578 applicants and was picked alongside 84 others – an opportunity she said she feels ‘extremely privileged’ for.