Atlantic RecordsBebe Rexha is the latest artist to defend “Girls,” the collabo that teams her with Rita Ora, Cardi B and Charli XCX.
As previously reported, the song and the artists were criticized by LGBTQ artists because all four women were assumed to be straight, and because some LGBTQ people felt the lyrics — “Red wine/I just wanna kiss girls” — suggested that being bisexual is something women only do when they’re drunk. They also took issue with the fact that six of the song’s nine writers were male.
Rita and Cardi subsequently said that the song was true for them because they’ve both had experiences with women. Bebe now tells Entertainment Weekly, “My sexual life is nobody’s business. But we’re singing a song about kissing girls and that remains true to who I am. It’s the life that I live and it’s honest to me.”
Bebe adds that she was angry at the assumption that all four women were heterosexual.
“The question of whether [it] was true to us was completely dismissed,” she says. “People automatically went for the negative instead of saying: ‘Well maybe these girls do kiss girls, maybe Bebe is bi.’ You don’t know about my sexual orientation, so I felt disrespected.”
Bebe adds, “I’ve kissed girls, you know what I mean? And I don’t do it because it’s fun or whatever. Do you have to be fully lesbian to put out a song about kissing girls? What if you’re bi? Isn’t the point of being supportive of the LGBTQ community that you can love whoever you want and everything is fluid and non-judgmental?”
Bebe does acknowledge, though, that the line about red wine is “f***ed up,” noting, “I get it…I don’t drink red wine and say, ‘I wanna kiss girls.’”
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