Bebe Rexha Artistfacts

August 30, 1989
Bebe Rexha is of Albanian descent. Her father Flamur moved to Brooklyn, New York US when he was 21 and worked menial jobs to support the family. "Mum and dad worked really hard but they never let me know that we had no money," she recalled to The BBC.
Bebe's family moved to nearby Staten Island when she was six. Their home was strict and music was seen as bad. She recalled: "My dad was like, 'That's the devil's career.'"
Despite her father's misgivings, Bebe decided at the age of eight to take up the trumpet. She later taught herself to play guitar and piano. After joining the Tottenville High School school choir, she discovered that her voice was a coloratura soprano.
In 2010, with Fall Out Boy on hiatus, the band's bassist Pete Wentz was cutting some experimental tracks with songwriter-producer Sam Hollander (Gym Class Heroes, Katy Perry) in a recording studio. They recruited Rexha as a vocalist after overhearing her auditioning in the next room for a different project. The band, which called themselves Black Cards, played a variety of live shows and released several singles and remixes.
In 2013, Rexha signed with Warner Bros. Records as a solo artist. She also begun writing for artists and found huge success with "The Monster," which became a worldwide hit for Eminem and Rihanna. Her own solo career was also taking off and in 2015 she hit #1 both on the Billboard Pop and Rap charts with her G-Eazy collaboration "Me, Myself & I." Rexha explained to ABC Radio how it was those two songs that really put her on the map.

"'The Monster'" with Eminem and Rihanna was first, because that gave me respect in the music business," she said. "But it also put me in a position where I was able to live on my own and move to LA and afford an apartment."

"And then 'Me, Myself & I' really put my name out there," Rexha added. "I couldn't have been happier about putting out that record with G."
There's no formula to Bebe Rexha's songwriting – she just goes with the flow. She told OfficialCharts.com:

"I start off by just writing the song. I'm the most anti-structural/formulaic person. I like structure, but only when it comes naturally or instinctively. I can't sit there doing formulas. The second I've worked with anyone and they've said 'This part is too slow, this bit needs to be sped up, the next part has to be more rhythmic, this bit needs to be higher but not higher than the chorus…' then I'm out of the room. I'm done. For some, there's actual scientific things that people use when songwriting, but I can't do that. For me, it's just a case of writing and picking whichever you think is the best. I write the songs and send them to my team – they figure the other stuff out."
Bebe Rexha revealed to fans in April 2019 that she's been diagnosed as bipolar, which leaves her feeling unwell some days and unable to work. "For the longest time, I didn't understand why I felt so sick," the singer explained on Twitter. "Why I felt lows that made me not want to leave my house or be around people and why I felt highs that wouldn't let me sleep, wouldn't let me stop working or creating music. Now I know why. I'm bipolar and I'm not ashamed anymore."

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