Bebe Rexha talks NME through her ‘Firsts’

“The first thing I’m going to do after my album is released is take a trip and never come back,” laughs Bebe Rexha in the latest instalment of NME’s Firsts. “I’m joking,” she quickly adds, “the first thing I’m going to do is celebrate. It’s been three years in the making and a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I’m just gonna have a good time.”

Rexha’s latest single ‘Sacrifice,’ taken from forthcoming album ‘Better Mistakes’, lives up to the celebratory mood. Marking a change in direction from the darker, emo-pop-infused territory of her 2018 debut ‘Expectations’, ‘Sacrifice’ is an all out dance-pop belter, with deep-diving hooks and a distinct good time feel.

After being pushed back last summer until the world was “in a better place,” ‘Better Mistakes’ — dropping next month — has been long awaited. But Rexha is no stranger to taking her time and honing her craft, and the New York artist has been making music since she was at high school.

“The first band I was in was a girl band and our name was Allura,” she says. “It was just three of us and we would stay after school writing songs, thinking up concepts and outfit ideas. I would stay after school for hours and we would just write and write and write, and record ourselves on these little tape recorders.”

Rexha has been writing poems since the age of eight, and was 16 when she wrote her first (admittedly slightly melodramatic) song. “It had a long-ass title,” she says, “it was called ‘Boy You Know I Love You’. I was really into neo-soul at the time and I had this piano that I bought from Costco; but literally I was 16, what did I know about love?”

For the latest edition of NME’s Firsts (which you can watch in full above), Bebe Rexha sat down to discuss the first CD she bought, her first concert and the first band she was ever in.

– ‘Better Mistakes’ is out May 7