Bebe Rexha Burns Down the Asylum

“You’re going to gag,” Bebe Rexha says, squinting in the glare of late afternoon sunshine as she scrolls through her phone.

A moment earlier, the singer was juggling her laptop as she flipped over the edge of her hot pink bikini top to proudly show her publicist her tan lines. Bebe has brought her computer out onto a balcony overlooking Ibiza — a work from home setup fit for a pop star. Now she’s on her phone, hunting down a photo she took on set the day of her PAPER magazine shoot. It’s taking her a minute, but she’s determined. Then her face lights up as she finds what she’s looking for. Bebe holds her phone up to her computer camera. “I have a picture of me burning down the asylum,” she beams.

The proverbial in-patient program in question is The Khia Asylum, named perhaps unfairly after the rapper Khia, whose 2003 hit “My Neck, My Back (Lick It)” peaked just outside top 40 but lives on in infamy via this piece of pop terminology, used to describe any whiff of commercial under-performance. Since pop fans started using the term a couple of years ago, prior residents like Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX and Zara Larsson have all graduated from perceived flopdom, thus breaking out of the asylum. Could Bebe Rexha be next?

The 36-year-old Brooklyn-born, Staten Island-raised singer and songwriter has an unlikely CV for a flop: she’s written megahits, including Eminem and Rihanna’s enduring smash “Monster,” plus songs for Selena Gomez and Nick Jonas. She’s collaborated with everyone from Dolly Parton to Snoop Dogg, Cardi B, Doja Cat and Pitbull. And she’s got her own hits, too – four top 10s and five songs with more than one billion streams, including her most recent to join the billions club, a 2022 EDM smash with David Guetta, "I'm Good (Blue)."

But Bebe’s often been seen more as a voice on a hook than a superstar in her own right. Now she’s trying to change that. Early this year, Bebe announced her exit from Warner Records after three albums and more than a decade, instead striking a deal with an independent label and distributor, Empire. Then she started dropping dance floor fillers like “New Religion,” a searing EDM song built around a sample from the nineties dance classic “Insomnia” by Faithless and the propulsive “Çike Çike,” which sees Bebe embracing her roots by singing in Albanian. Finally, in June, she dropped her fourth studio album, Dirty Blonde, complete with a music video for every song.

So far, Bebe’s bet on herself has paid off: Dirty Blonde debuted atop the Billboard Top Dance Albums chart, having moved 19,000 album equivalent units its first week. On Spotify, she currently has 43 million monthly streams and not long after the album release she was one of the 100 most streamed acts on the platform. And she’s in Spain for a major moment — she joined David Guetta to sing their latest collab together, “Sad Girls” for 80,000 screaming fans.

PAPER catches up with Rexha shortly afterwards, fresh out of burning down the asylum for this very cover story. The pop phenom talks to PAPER about Dirty Blonde, going independent and having a party girl moment in her thirties.

Read our latest cover story below.

How’s Ibiza?

It’s gorgeous. It’s amazing. I performed with David Guetta the other night and I got to watch his show. I was on stage with him mid-way through the show, so I got to go into the crowd to watch after. I was like, wow. This motherfucker is amazing. The whole show was amazing, like top to bottom, wow.

Congrats on Dirty Blonde topping the Billboard dance chart.

Thank you. I was like, “Oh, shit. That’s cool!”

You were with your old label for more than a decade. How does it feel to be independent?

It feels great. It feels refreshing being with a group of people who believe in me and want the best for me and see my vision and help me execute it. It’s a rebirth. Music feels exciting again and for a long time it didn’t feel exciting.

You recently said you were mourning the way your career had drifted. What had been frustrating you?

I was always scared of making the wrong decision. I was always worried about making everyone else happy and chasing what could be a hit. I feel like I lost my DNA. I wanted to be successful for everyone around me, you know? But what I learned is, even when I did have success on some songs, it didn’t even make me happy. I was like: this is not who I am. I am really grateful for “Meant To Be” and the way the country community accepted me, that was really nice. I was happy and I love “Meant To Be” but I didn’t feel like it was a reflection of my artistry even though I wrote it.

I thought your last album, 2023’s Bebe, was underrated. It was kind of slept on. “Call On Me” should have been a hit.

I love that album too. But you know what a lot of people say to me about that album? They’ll be like, “I didn’t even know you had an album out.” I was like, damn. Maybe I should have pushed it more. But I was also in a funk. I knew where I stood with my label and I knew I wasn’t a priority. I had kind of already given up.

Earlier this year, you posted that video of you running on the treadmill, joking about trying to exit the Khia Asylum. Do you feel like you’ve now broken out?

I’m the type of person who just likes to create music. I’m such a Virgo – I’m trying to celebrate that the album went number one on the dance chart, but I’m the type of person who is like, “Oh my god, I could still write better songs. I could do more.” More, more, more.

Every day, I don’t wake up being like, “Did I break out of The Khia Asylum?” I’m doing my thing. Once I hit a stride, I’ll know and it will feel good, but I still feel like I’m in the building stages of what I’m trying to build.

In terms of your stats, your streams are way up, Dirty Blonde moved 19,000 album equivalent units in its first week. The response to this record feels good. Does it feel good to you?

It feels good to me. Look, compared to where I was at, for a long time I was – I don’t want to say dead in the water, because that’s very dramatic – but I didn’t feel the energy. With this album, Dirty Blonde, the energy is different this time. It hasn’t felt like this in a long time.

The industry has changed so much and now you can get a big moment years into your career, like Charli XCX and Zara Larsson. What has it been like to watch those women have big moments?

It’s extremely inspiring. I’ve been in the industry for quite some time now and I’ve heard the things people have said about other artists and they’re not always nice. People always want to count women out, say “They’ve already had their chance,” or “They’ve already been signed before, they’ve had a certain number of singles.” What I’ve seen with Charli and Zara is they’re work horses. They never stopped.

To see them do what they’re doing is fucking awesome.

You chopped your hair off right before the start of this era. Did getting a blonde bob change everything?

Long hair is sexy. I get it. I love having a good extension in, you know what I mean? It makes you feel like Rapunzel. But for me personally, I’ve tried so many hair colours. I was trying to find my identity in hair colors and all these lengths. What I really like, when I feel the most me, is when my hair is a blonde bob. When I first dyed my hair, everybody said, “No, no, no.” I booked the appointment, went to the salon, spent 14 hours and everybody was like, “Oh my god, this looks unreal.”

I want to die blonde. Please, make sure my hair is blonde. No roots when I’m in my casket.

Let’s talk about “New Religion” with Faithless and what it took to get that sample cleared. I heard you had brunch with Sister Bliss.

I did. It took me a very, very long time to get that sample cleared. I didn’t know if I was going to get it cleared. I wrote some other songs with them. I spoke to Rollo, I spoke to Sister Bliss. I had brunch with Sister Bliss. I got to know her. She’s really cool, she’s very smart.

The original is such an amazing record. I feel really lucky they allowed me to use their sample.

You wrote and recorded this album while globetrotting from one nightclub to another, from Ibiza to London to Tokyo. What brought you out to the clubs?

I was never a party girl. Even though I’m in my thirties, I feel like it’s never too late. I feel like there’s a resurgence in partying in your thirties now. I was in Zurich and it was my birthday the next day…I went out that night and I went out the night after. I was up until like four in the morning. I was the last person in the club. Literally the last person. It was me, some random girl who was drunk and these two guys and I somehow ended up in the back of the DJ booth. It was so fun.

I love that your songs have big vocals. With so much pop music today, the vocals are restrained, they’re smaller. I love that you’re a singer’s singer.

I hope that actually comes back, because I agree with what you’re saying. We’ve gone into this world of small singing. It is beautiful, I actually love it, but I just feel like what I’ve noticed is that with my songs, they have big hooks and that’s what people love about me most. I guess maybe it makes them feel something. I’ve been noticing that more than ever at my shows and in my writing session, everybody always wants that big moment, they love when I hit the octave, it’s big, high choruses.

The only thing about that I don’t love is when I do it live, it’s like, you’re having all these songs that are super high. And I’m like, ah, shit, at the end of the show, I’m like “Why the fuck are the songs so high?” I literally had my music director look at me and go, “I guess talk to yourself?” I was like, shit. I need to start writing these songs a little lower.

You asked your fans on Twitter if they could find you a man. Were there any strong contenders?

No.

None? Still single?

Single as a Pringle! There’s nothing happening. I always think about Cher’s quote about her not needing a rich husband.

“Mom, I am a rich man.”

Ya! “Mom, I am a rich man.” I’m in Ibiza right now and I was trying to find somebody to get a yacht for me, just to be on the yacht. I was like, let me see what the vibe is. I came to a point where I was like, “I’m working so hard, I’m going to get the fucking yacht myself.” I did what I wanted to do with nobody else and that was so much more fulfilling than being on somebody else’s dime, on somebody else’s yacht.

I love how you embraced your Albanian heritage on, “Çike Çike.” Do you have any theories on why so many pop girls are Albanian?

There’s a hardness to Albanian women, but in the best way. We’re fighters. All the women that I’ve met who are Albanian, they’re crazy hard workers. They won’t take no for an answer. Insane work ethic. When I was getting to know Dua and Rita, they both had an insane work ethic. Not stopping, very hungry, focused energy.

You need a lot of tenacity to be a pop star.

I would say so. You have to be very strong mentally.

The lyrics for “I Like You Better Than Me” are very vulnerable. What type of experiences led to that song?

Being in the music industry and struggling, even when I was thinner, I always struggled with my image. Being on the red carpet, I always felt off or not good enough. And beyond the red carpet, it could be pictures people take of you on stage or being around other female artists in the industry who seem to always have it together. That gets to you. Comparison is the thief of joy, it really is.

Is it true you used to offer songs to artists but only if you could sing the hook?

Yeah, of course. I didn’t know that in the beginning. After I’d written a couple big songs for other artists, then I was like, “Sure, you can have this song but I have to stay on it.” I call it the power of the pen!

You clearly could stick to working behind the scenes, you have the talent to be a songwriter. Diane Warren has done it her whole career.

And she’s rich!

And she’s rich! What drives you to continue in the pop game, pursuing your own career as a pop star?

I really, really love performing live. I love feeling a crowd’s energy, I love when they sing along.

Are you still writing songs for other people?

I really want to but I really don’t have time. People ask me all the time. I’d love to write some more K-Pop songs, it’s really fun. What I love about K-Pop is there’s so many different melodies and you can be more fun and kitschy with the titles.

Do you have plans for live shows to support the album?

Yes. We’re working on it. Everybody keeps asking. Nothing is set yet but we’re working on it. I definitely want to tour Dirty Blonde.

Chief Creative Officer: Brian Calle
Executive Creative Director: Jordan Bradfield
Fashion Director and Executive Producer: Angelina Cantú
Senior Editor: Joan Summers

Photography by: Diego Bendezu
Story by: Russ Martin

Styling: Joyce Esquenazi Mitrani
Makeup Artist: Colby Smith
Hair Artist: Sky Kim
Production Designer: Lana Boy

Digital Technician: Natalia Ormeño
Photo Assistants: Brandon Abreu & Alexis Merino
Props: Mary Jo Bono-Thibodeaux
Set Decorator: Bianca Hernandez
Art Assistant: Danny Rothchild
Stylist Assistants: Jess Suarez, Sal Lee, & Alana Powell
Production Assistant: Katherine Kramer

Extras: Peter Demas & Brandon Abreu

Graphic Design: Composite Co