Background and career
Bleta "Bebe" Rexha ( BEE-bee REK-sə; born August 30, 1989) is an American singer and songwriter. She began her mainstream recording career as a vocalist for the pop band Black Cards in 2010, during and after which she was credited with co-writing releases for other artists—such as Eminem's Grammy Award-winning single "The Monster". She signed with Warner Records to release her debut extended play (EP), I Don't Wanna Grow Up (2015), which failed to chart domestically, but spawned the moderate international hit "I'm Gonna Show You Crazy". Rexha released two additional EPs in 2017: All Your Fault: Pt. 1 and All Your Fault: Pt. 2, both of which spawned the singles "I Got You" and "The Way I Are (Dance with Somebody)" (featuring Lil Wayne). Rexha saw further success with her collaborations such as "Hey Mama" (with David Guetta, Nicki Minaj and Afrojack), "Me, Myself & I" (with G-Eazy), "In the Name of Love" (with Martin Garrix), and "Meant to Be" (featuring Florida Georgia Line)—the latter peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 61st Grammy Awards. Rexha's debut studio album, Expectations (2018), peaked at number 13 on the Billboard 200 and yielded her a nomination for Best New Artist that same year. Her second and third albums, Better Mistakes (2021) and Bebe (2023), both entered the Billboard 200—the latter included the single "I'm Good (Blue)" (with David Guetta), which peaked at no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in twenty-two countries. Her fourth studio album, Dirty Blonde, was released in 2026. Throughout her career, Rexha has been nominated four times at the Grammy Awards and has won several accolades, including one Academy of Country Music Award, one MTV Video Music Awards, three Electronic Dance Music Awards and two Billboard Music Awards.
Bleta Rexha (Albanian: [ˈblɛta ˈɾɛdʒa]) was born on August 30, 1989, in Brooklyn, New York City to Albanian parents from North Macedonia. Her father, Flamur Rexha, was born in Debar, North Macedonia when it was part of Yugoslavia and emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 21. Her mother, Bukurije, was born in the United States to an Albanian family with roots in Gostivar which is northeast of Debar and separated by Mavrovo National Park. In the Albanian language, bletë means "bee". She said, "My parents are Albanian, and people started calling me 'Bebe' for short." She and her family moved to nearby Grasmere, Staten Island when she was six. Rexha has a brother named Florent. Rexha initially taught herself trumpet and later taught herself to play guitar and piano. She attended Tottenville High School on Staten Island. Rexha sang in the choir there and took part in a variety of musicals. While in high school choir, she discovered that she is a coloratura soprano. As a teenager, Rexha submitted a song to be performed at the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences' annual "Grammy Career Day" event. Rexha earned the "Best Teen Songwriter" award; about 700 were in the competition. As a result, she signed a contract with talent scout Samantha Cox, who encouraged her to enroll in songwriting classes in Manhattan.
Rexha had a short-lived deal with Island Def Jam, which they canceled. In 2010, she met Fall Out Boy's bassist Pete Wentz and began working with him at a recording studio in New York City. She became a member and a lead vocalist of Wentz's new experimental project called Black Cards. The band played a variety of live shows and released several singles and remixes. However, in January 2012, Wentz announced that Rexha had left the band to pursue other endeavors. Bebe Rexha was awarded the Abe Olman Scholarship for her contributions as a songwriter later that year.
In 2013, Rexha signed with Warner Bros. Records as a solo artist. On March 21, 2014, Rexha released her debut single, "I Can't Stop Drinking About You". The song peaked at number 22 on the US Top Heatseekers chart, while a music video was released on August 12, 2014. On May 12, 2015, she released her debut extended play, I Don't Wanna Grow Up, through Warner Bros. Records. The EP featured the single "I'm Gonna Show You Crazy" and the song would later go on to trend on social media platform TikTok in 2019 and 2020. In March 2016, Rexha released her single, called "No Broken Hearts" featuring Nicki Minaj. In April 2016, the music video was released, directed by Dave Meyer.
On October 28, 2016, Rexha released "I Got You", which peaked at number 43 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and at number 17 on the US Pop Songs chart. The music video was released on January 6, 2017. Direction changed from a full studio album to a multi EP project and "No Broken Hearts" was scrapped, making "I Got You" the first and only single from All Your Fault: Pt. 1, released on February 17, 2017. The EP peaked at number 51 on the Billboard 200. In March 2017 in Dallas, Rexha began her first solo headlining tour, promoting the EP across North America and Europe, named the All Your Fault Tour, with a total of 29 dates. On November 6, 2016, Rexha hosted the 2016 MTV Europe Music Awards, at Rotterdam, Netherlands and performed multiple songs throughout the night, such as her single, "I Got You". In May 2017 she featured on the MTV The Ride documentary series. On July 21, 2017, One Direction member Louis Tomlinson released the single "Back to You", with Rexha and Digital Farm Animals as featured artists. The song peaked at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. "The Way I Are (Dance with Somebody)" featuring Lil Wayne was released as the first single from All Your Fault: Pt. 2 on May 19, 2017. On June 12, Rexha performed the song at the Ubisoft E3 press conference, before announcing Just Dance 2018, on which the song appears. The second EP as part of the project was released on August 11, 2017. In support of the EP and American singer and songwriter Marc E. Bassy's debut album, Rexha planned to go on a co-headlining tour across the United States: the Bebe & Bassy Tour, in October 2017. The tour was short-lived due to an infection putting Rexha on strict vocal rest, with Marc E. Bassy eventually going on a solo US tour in March 2018. On October 24, 2017, "Meant to Be" with Florida Georgia Line was released as the second single from All Your Fault: Pt. 2, with the music video premiering a day earlier. The song peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent fifty weeks at number 1 on the US Hot Country Songs chart, breaking the record previously held by "Body Like a Back Road" by Sam Hunt.
In September 2017, Rexha began teasing new songs for a third installment in the All Your Fault series, with her manager going on record about its release. However, it appeared plans had changed, as Bebe revealed through a tweet in November 2017 that her next project would be called Expectations. Rexha revealed the cover art for this debut studio album on April 8, 2018, and the album was released on June 22, 2018. Previous singles from All Your Fault, "I Got You" and "Meant to Be" appear on Expectations as well. On April 13, 2018, "Ferrari" and "2 Souls on Fire", the latter of which features Quavo of Migos, were released as promotional singles along with the pre-order. On June 15, 2018, "I'm a Mess" was released as the first single from the album. On November 20, 2018, "Say My Name" was released which featured David Guetta and J Balvin. In December 2018, Rexha was nominated for Best New Artist at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. On January 26, 2019, Rexha performed the songs “Me, Myself & I” and “Meant to Be” on stage at the SAP Center in San Jose, California as part of the festivities for the 2019 National Hockey League All-Star Game. On February 15, 2019, Rexha released her single "Last Hurrah". Later that month, it was announced that she would serve as the fifth coach for The Voice's Comeback Stage for season 16. Rexha tweeted in April 2019 that she has twelve songs ready for her second studio album, and that her new music is inspired by Britney Spears. On May 1, 2019, it was announced that Rexha will be one of the opening acts of the Jonas Brothers' Happiness Begins Tour. On May 31, Rexha and the Chainsmokers released "Call You Mine". The song is the Chainsmokers' third project using Rexha's voice, following their remixes of "Take Me Home" by production trio Cash Cash, and her debut solo single, "I Can't Stop Drinking About You".
