Initially known as the smoky voice of K's Choice, Sam Bettens' music ranges from that band's cathartic rock to the sultry acoustic performances and electro pop of his solo career. Bettens first experienced international fame with K's Choice's 1996 brooding smash hit "Not an Addict" from their platinum-selling second album Paradise in Me. With solo efforts like 2005's Scream and 2007's Shine, however, he pursued a more poised style that highlighted the subtleties in his voice and songwriting. As K's Choice became a fixture on Belgium's music scene in the 2010s and 2020s, Bettens continued to strike out on his own, introducing his electronic-based project Rex Rebel with 2020's Run and paying tribute to his brother and bandmate Gert Bettens with 2021's "Brother."

Born in Kapellen, Belgium, Sam Bettens' musical career got off to an early start: Along with his brother Gert, he grew up playing music in Antwerp and was part of a band named the Basement Plugs in his teens. The group's performance brought Sam to the attention of a label, and he recorded covers of songs for film soundtracks, including a 1992 version of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" that became a hit in Belgium. When Sam was offered a record contract, he and Gert formed the band the Choice, which became K's Choice when they learned of an American group with the same name. Their second album, 1996's Paradise in Me, was their breakthrough: Featuring the brooding international hit single "Not an Addict," it was a success not only in Europe -- it was certified gold in Belgium, platinum in the Netherlands, and charted in several other countries -- but in the U.S. as well, where it reached number 121 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. For the rest of the decade, K's Choice recorded and toured consistently, issuing 1998's more lighthearted Cocoon Crash (another platinum-seller in Belgium and the Netherlands) and 2000's melancholy, intimate Almost Happy.

When K's Choice went on hiatus in late 2002, Sam Bettens embarked on his solo career. His debut EP Go arrived in mid-2004, and several tracks from it appeared on his 2005 full-length Scream, which took a more polished approach than the cathartic alt rock of K's Choice. In 2007, Bettens issued a digital EP through the Fuzz label. Later that year, his second album, the Brad Wood-produced Shine, was distributed with the Flemish newspaper De Morgen; that edition of the publication sold 180,000 copies, nearly doubling its usual circulation of 95,000 copies. The album's success led Bettens to win an EBBA (European Border Breakers Awards) for its reach outside of Belgium. His tour supporting Shine was documented on 2008's Never Say Goodbye, which featured largely acoustic renditions of Bettens' solo work and K's Choice songs.

Gert Bettens' band Woodface supported Sam on the Shine tour, and in 2009, K's Choice reunited. The band spent much of the 2010s releasing albums like 2010's Echo Mountain and 2015's Alain Johannes-produced Phantom Cowboy, but Bettens continued to pursue his own projects. These included 2016's "All I Want," a collaboration with Niels Geusebroek, and the following year's "Mob Wife" with Amsterdam-based band A Balladeer. Alongside K's Choice's 2018 album Love = Music and its accompanying tour, Bettens debuted his electronic pop project Rex Rebel, which also featured K's Choice keyboardist Reinout Swinnen and drummer Wim Van der Westenthe; the group's debut album, Run, appeared in early 2020. That year, Bettens reunited with A Balladeer for the single "Hat in Hand." He continued to balance his duties in K's Choice with his own music, embarking on another extensive tour with the band in 2021 and issuing the single "Brother," a song in honor of Gert. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi