Content Guide
Dirty Blonde review: When Bebe Rexha walked away from Warner Records in January 2026, it felt like the end of something. Instead, it turned out to be the beginning. With Dirty Blonde, released June 12 through Empire Distribution, she’s delivered what might be the most honest project of her career. This is Bebe finally doing things her way, and you can hear it.
The album concept alone is a statement. Rather than betting everything on a single lead track, she shot thirteen music videos for thirteen songs. Every track is treated like it matters. That might sound simple, but in an industry that’s obsessed with the one breakout hit, it’s honestly refreshing. She told SiriusXM that Diplo inspired the whole visual approach by creating “The Super Dirty Cut,” a four minute megamix that samples every song on the album. “Back in the day, they had hip hop mixtapes,” she explained. “I went to Diplo and I was like, could you make me a megamix of all the best parts?”
The Sound of Freedom (Dirty Blonde Review)
Walking into Dirty Blonde, the first thing that hits you is how much this album sounds like Bebe finally exhaling. In conversations leading up to release, she’s been candid about her time at a major label. To Billboard, she said “When you’re signed to a major, it’s a little bit stressful because you’re trying to always make everybody else happy.” The songs she’s released from this project so far prove that point. They’re the kind of tracks that probably spent years sitting in her computer, rejected by label executives who wanted her to be someone else.
The album lives almost entirely on the dance floor. We’re talking progressive house, big room, electropop, and even hyperpop. Country and hip hop touches supposedly live somewhere in the back half, but the singles have established a clear sonic palette. This isn’t the pop star trying to prove she can do everything. This is the pop star saying she wants to exist in the club, in the dark, surrounded by bodies moving to the same beat.
Çike Çike: Bringing Home to the Club (Dirty Blonde Review)
The cultural centerpiece of the album is “Çike Çike,” the second single and one of the most deliberately personal tracks here. Working with DJ Snake, she built a bass driven house anthem around what started as improvisation. The title is Albanian slang for “hey girl, hey girl,” something from her childhood. In the music video, she’s surrounded by older men in plastic chairs, a visual callback to how she actually grew up. For an artist who’s spent over a decade being told to fit certain molds, this song feels like reclamation.
“I’m so proud to be Albanian,” she told Telegrafi. “Growing up, it sometimes felt like the goal was to fit into the all American mold. But as I’ve grown, I’ve realized that the things that made me feel different are actually my superpowers.” The song works because it never feels like a check box. DJ Snake’s bassline is genuinely thrilling, and hearing Bebe sing in Albanian over that synth work feels earned rather than performative.
New Religion with Faithless: The Turning Point (Dirty Blonde Review)
“New Religion” is the album’s lead single and its biggest moment so far. Built from a sample of Faithless’s “Insomnia,” it could have felt like a cash grab nostalgia play. Instead, it became one of the most respectful interpolations in recent memory. Faithless are credited as featured artists, and the video interweaves footage from the original 1995 “Insomnia” video. By the week of May 9, 2026, the song had hit number one on Billboard’s Dance and Mix Show Airplay chart and the U.S. Dance Radio chart.
What makes the song work is emotional specificity. Bebe explained her thinking to People: “I was in a dark place when I wrote it, and I realized music had always been the one thing that never left me. Even in a tough industry and a heavy world, music had my back. When the bass hits, you feel it in your chest and suddenly you feel alive again.” She performed it on Jimmy Kimmel Live in March and celebrated the chart victory with an Instagram post that included footage from the day Warner Records told her they were parting ways. “Going independent was so scary,” she wrote. “I honestly thought it was over for me. Now I’m free.”
The Vulnerability of i like you better than me (Dirty Blonde Review)
The project opens musically with its most fragile moment. “i like you better than me,” released in February and stylized in all lowercase, is a confessional that hits harder the more you sit with it. The lyrics are directobservations of her own insecurity. “I wish that I could fit in those size two jeans. My God, just look at that face. I hate myself for feeling this way.”
In interviews, Bebe connected this to time spent around other pop stars who seemed to have it all figured out. To Elvis Duran she said “I would just see them and they’re so tiny and like they’re so happy all the time. I feel like they have their things together and I’m looking at them and I’m like why can’t I just be that person?” What could have been a cringey moment instead becomes the album’s thesis statement. She’s not pretending to be okay. She’s admitting she isn’t. And something about that honesty makes the whole project feel true.
Hysteria: All Night Energy (Dirty Blonde Review)
“Hysteria,” released in April, is the project’s wildest moment. It’s hyperpop adjacent, high BPM, the sound of 4 AM in a packed club when everyone’s just trying to feel something. Euphoria magazine compared it to Sia’s “Chandelier” but with more frenetic energy. FEMMUSIC described it as a “sharp sonic shift” into the hyperpop territory that’s been dominated by artists like Charli XCX and Kesha.
The auto tune is heavy. Like, really heavy. Some critics noted it could feel like too much, but there’s a reason it works. “Hysteria” is supposed to sound hysterical. The production team of Boaz van de Beatz, Jean Baptiste, Karl Rubin, Ryan “DJ Replay” Buendia and Victor Thell created something that sounds like the moment when the night completely takes over. As Bebe described it, it’s “that moment when the night completely takes over. You’re lost in the music, the lights are flashing, and nothing else matters. It’s messy, euphoric, and a little chaotic.”
What’s Still Coming (Dirty Blonde Review)
With nine unreleased tracks, the full picture won’t come into focus until June 12. The song titles suggest different moods. “Sad Girls,” “Nobody’s There,” “One Day,” “Tokyo,” and “Drink and A Little Love” give off different vibes. She explicitly denied rumors of a BLACKPINK collaboration in March, and she shut down speculation about a song called “Fit For” being on the album, saying it was written long ago.
From the Super Dirty Cut megamix snippets, you can piece together some clues. “$hit” has a line about being “the s—.” “Tokyo” opens with “Kiss from a girl in Tokyo, where did she come from?” The production credits suggest Karl Rubin, Jean Baptiste, Ryan Buendia and Victor Thell are all over the album, which means the sonic direction of the singles should continue through to the end.
The Independence Factor (Dirty Blonde Review)
You can’t review this album without acknowledging what it represents. Bebe made music at a major label. She had hits. She also spent years being told no. Empire Distribution’s approach is different. Ghazi Shami, the founder, said of her signing: “She has an ability to craft records that resonate globally. What excites us most is that she’s still evolving.”
The visual album concept is part of proving that independence works. She’s not asking for permission to make every song a single. She’s not waiting for a single to pop before she builds the rollout. She’s saying all of this matters, and Empire is backing that vision. Whether it translates to commercial success on the scale of her biggest hits remains to be seen. The dance charts have responded to “New Religion.” The question is whether the album as a whole breaks through.
The Final Word (Dirty Blonde Review)
Dirty Blonde isn’t a perfect album. We won’t know the full scope until June 12. But what we’ve heard so far suggests that Bebe Rexha has finally made the album she wanted to make without committee approval. It’s club focused. It’s culturally specific. It’s vulnerable and it’s unapologetic. Most importantly, it sounds like her.
In an industry that loves to box artists in, Dirty Blonde is Bebe refusing to stay in any box at all. You can feel the relief in every beat, every synth line, every moment of self doubt turned into a dance floor moment. This is what freedom sounds like. This is Bebe Rexha unchained.
Listen to “Dirty Blonde” by Bebe Rexha (Dinner Party Review)
Sources
Bebe Rexha Wikia: Dirty Blonde
Billboard: Bebe Rexha Talks New Album, Label & Escaping the ‘Khia Asylum’ at Last
SiriusXM: Bebe Rexha Reveals How Diplo Created ‘The Super Dirty Cut’ Megamix for ‘Dirty Blonde’
FEMMUSIC: Bebe Rexha – Çike Çike
OutLoud! Culture: Bebe Rexha Celebrates Her Albanian Roots with New House Anthem “Çike Çike”
DJ Mag: Faithless ‘Insomnia’ reworked by Bebe Rexha on new single, ‘New Religion’
OutLoud! Culture: Bebe Rexha Unveils High-Energy Single “Hysteria”
FEMMUSIC: Bebe Rexha – Hysteria
EUPHORIA: Bebe Rexha – I Like You Better Than Me
EUPHORIA: Bebe Rexha – Hysteria
Yahoo News Canada: Bebe Rexha Says She’s Done Being a ‘Perfect, Clean-Girl Pop Star’
Yahoo News Canada: Bebe Rexha vows to shed ‘perfect clean-girl pop star’ image with new album
Sheldon Ang Media: Bebe Rexha announces new album Dirty Blonde
AceShowbiz: Bebe Rexha Achieves Dual Dance Chart No. 1 After Going Independent
Billboard: ANOTR, Bebe Rexha, Jennifer Lopez, More Debut New Hits on Dance Charts
Wikipedia: New Religion (Bebe Rexha and Faithless song)
Bebe Rexha Shop: Dirty Blonde CD
The Hype Factor: Bebe Rexha – ‘Dirty Blonde [The Super Dirty Cut]’
The Hype Factor: Bebe Rexha – ‘Çike Çike’
Shazam: Çike Çike by Bebe Rexha
Balkanweb: Bebe Rexha releases “Çike Çike” and shows Albanian power in new album
MPmania: Official Lyrics: “Hysteria” by Bebe Rexha
MPmania: Bebe Rexha “I Like You Better Than Me”
Album of The Year: Bebe Rexha – I Like You Better Than Me
Album of The Year: Bebe Rexha – Hysteria
RTTNews: Bebe Rexha Announces New Album ‘Dirty Blonde,’ Shares ‘I Like You Better Than Me’
Kiss 95.1: Bebe Rexha Announces Visual Album ‘Dirty Blonde,’ Denies BLACKPINK Collaboration
WKFR: From anxiety to empowerment, Bebe Rexha embraces her journey ahead of Dirty Blonde launch
Music Ally: Bebe Rexha invites fans to shape her album rollout
He discovered the gem when he was 12 years old and still has it now, claiming it to be why he fell in love with music. He likes to play disc golf when he's not writing about music. He is a one-of-a-kind individual who is always the first to bust out his air guitar on the dance-floor.
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