Bebe Rexha says 2016 is going to be her year. After a tour with Nick Jonas and several big gigs in Europe and on Warped Tour last year, the 26-year-old Brooklyn-based pop singer is ready to make a big name for herself. And Bebe Rexha’s latest collaboration with Nicki Minaj certainly won’t hurt her cause.
According to Spin , Rexha is best known for her start with Pete Wentz’s ska-dance band Black Cards. She is also a successful songwriter, co-writing songs for Iggy Azalea, Eminem, and Rihanna. Yes, the latter duo’s Grammy-winning duet, “The Monster,” is a Bebe Rexha tune. But even that didn’t make her a star. In an interview with Elle , Bebe said she didn’t even get to meet Eminem and Rihanna after they recorded the chart-topping hit single, and she was a little disappointed that as one of the songwriters, she didn’t get a piece of the Grammy love.
“I got so excited about it. I was like, ‘Yes! I won a Grammy!’ And then my manager was like, ‘No, you did not win a Grammy. You were part of a song that won a Grammy. Rihanna won a Grammy.’ And I was like, ‘Aw, man! Can I get one of those little statue things?’ And he was like, ‘No, but if you pay 50 bucks you can get a little certificate.’ I was like, ‘This sucks!’
Maybe that will change with “No Broken Hearts.” For her new song, Bebe Rexha lets Minaj start the show with a spoken intro.
“This is a star studded-collaboration…I’m Nicki Minaj, this is Bebe.”
But the song is all Bebe, and it’s finally getting her noticed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv1LCS4CLew
In an interview in January with Fuse , Bebe Rexha predicted that she will dominate in 2016, and she already seems to be getting off to a good start.
“I’m gonna be one of the breakout artists of 2016 because…I’ve just been hearing what people are doing too and it’s just not as hot.”
Rexha is all about girl power. Her songs scream female empowerment, although parents of her younger fans may want to keep an eye on the language in her edgy lyrics. Rexha told Fuse that “balance” is key as she heads into her big career year.
“I want people to be happy. Life is hard, it is. And it’s like, I don’t want anybody feeling any pain. I just want us to all have a good time and to party and enjoy this life, because it’s too short. It’s too short.”
Of course, “No Broken Hearts” isn’t Bebe Rexha’s first project with Nicki Minaj. Bebe previously teamed up with Minaj and Afrojack on David Guetta’s hit song “Hey Mama,” so you’ve probably heard her vocals before even if you didn’t know it was her.
Last year, Bebe Rexha told Billboard she was bothered by the fact that she wasn’t initially credited alongside Minaj and others as a featured artist on the chorus of Guetta’s smash dance club hit.
“We talked about it — I actually emailed Guetta about it… What ended up happening was that it looked like a lot of names on the title, so they wanted to keep as many low features as possible. That’s what I was told, and it makes sense to me. I guess more than two [featured] names don’t look good on the radio…It’s tough hearing your voice on the radio, on a chorus, and knowing that people think it’s another artist.”
Take a look at the video below to see Bebe Rexha poking fun at her anonymity, which may no longer be applicable now that she has dropped her breakout single, “No Broken Hearts.” (Note: The video has language that’s NSFW.)
[Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images]
