As Bebe Rexha Tells It, “Sad Girls” Don’t Cry—They Remain the Last Ones on the Dance Floor

With a musical intro that immediately recalls the electronic organ sound of Haddaway’s 1993 hit, “What Is Love,” Bebe Rexha and David Guetta’s “Sad Girls” establishes a jubilant, dance floor-ready tone and sound despite being a song about, well, sadness. Or, perhaps even more precisely, what a girl ought to do with her sadness.

Co-produced by Rexha, Guetta, Timofey Reznikov, Osrin and A Strut, the high-energy track commences with Rexha describing, “It’s the last call, baby, and the champagne’s dry/I’m gonna dance, dance, dance with tears in my eyes.” It’s that latter line that, of course, comes across like a deliberate nod to Ultravox’s 1984 (“sad boy”—or girl) anthem, “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes” (while the line about champagne draws a parallel to a more recent dance banger, Madonna’s “I Feel So Free,” during which demands, “Give me champagne so I can get on the floor tonight”).

Considering Rexha’s love of that “breed” of music (which even extends to her sample of Faithless’ signature hit, “Insomnia,” for “New Religion”), it wouldn’t be unlikely that she intended to allude to Ultravox with this line. And, just as it is with that song, “Sad Girls” also bears the mark of someone lovelorn and regretful, with Rexha belting out, “It’s the last call, baby, and I’m dying inside/I’m gonna dance, dance, dance till they turn on the lights.”

Of course, in addition to Ultravox, it’s a Robyn influence that shines through on this “dancing through the pain” anthem. One that has its own kind of “Dancing On My Own” energy, complete with Rexha admitting, “And it kills me watching you taking her home/But sad girls don’t leave till the last song.” To be sure, that particular line plenty echoes Robyn singing, “I’m in the corner, watching you kiss her/I’m right over here/Why can’t you see me, oh/I’m givin’ it my all/But I’m not the girl you’re takin’ home.”

In the “official visual” (apparently a step up from an “official visualizer”), Rexha doesn’t feel the need to get very elaborate. For example there’s no dance floor she appears on while crying amidst a thinning-out crowd. Instead, she opts to appear crying in front of a beleaguered therapist. One who writes on her notepad (marked “Bebe Day 372”) such insights as, “Control issues freak,” “Baby daddy???” “Won’t stop mentioning KHIA Asylum???” and “Needs to be cracked” (perhaps a chiropractic reference…). As for that Khia asylum “jibe” at herself, it’s one that she does clearly take personally, undoubtedly hoping to have her own Zara Larsson with Midnight Sun moment after the release of Dirty Blonde.

With her mascara running down her face as she keeps “talking to” (a.k.a. singing the lyrics to “Sad Girls”) the therapist, Rexha adds to the “drama” of it all (for she did once declare, “I’m the Drama”) by opting to wear a fur coat and a t-shirt that reads, “This is a big inconvenience.” A phrase that also has its roots in Naomi Campbell once telling a courtroom in 2010, “Well, I didn’t really want to be here so I was made to be here. So obviously I’m just like wanting to get this over with and get on with my life. This is a big inconvenience for me.”

Just as it is for Rexha to be threatened with the lights coming on at the end of the night when she would so much rather keep staying in the safety of the darkened club—regardless of how empty it might feel by the time the DJ plays the last song. Thus, Rexha sings, “Tell me what could happen here/I wish I could disappear/Heartbreak in the neon lights/On the floor I feel alright, whoa.” She also adds a nod to “club culture” by mentioning its longstanding preferred drug: ecstasy. However, just because she might have taken a tab doesn’t mean she’s not still crying (as opposed to smiling serenely and rubbing up against random people). But now, those “tears [are] dripped in glitter and molly,” as she puts it, and she’s “danc[ing] like I don’t know nobody/Lips dipped in champagne and venom/Hips say ‘Watch me while I get ‘em’”/From the window to the wall [an unexpected but not unappreciated Lil Jon reference]/Say I’m alright for the hundredth time, but/That’s a lie, that’s a lie.”

Yet, even if she’s not really alright, dancing—and especially dance music—is what can help her get to the point of actually being “as such.” For it’s all in keeping with a sort of “fake it till you make it” philosophy. Besides that, Rexha has commented during the rollout of Dirty Blonde that “dance music just always feels like home.” And she definitely gets that message across with “Sad Girls,” even going so far as to cinch her dance floor credibility with David Guetta as a feature.

As for collaborating with Guetta, it’s clearly something Rexha enjoys (or rather, knows is going to give her a hit), as the two have already released six other songs together: 2015’s “Hey Mama,” 2015’s “Yesterday,” 2018’s “Say My Name,” 2021’s “Family,” 2023’s “One in a Million” and 2023’s “I’m Good (Blue).” But “Sad Girls” might be their most “fluid” effort yet, thanks, again, to that electronic organ that clearly borrows some influence from Haddaway.

Then there comes a moment when Rexha’s vocals sound as if they’re channeling a spoken word portion of “Touch of My Hand,” with Rexha sing-speaking toward the end of the track, “Could have sworn I saw you here/But when I looked away, you disappeared/Maybe it’s the flashing lights/Or I just miss you too much tonight/And I’m not ready for the lights back on/So please don’t turn all the lights back on/Let me hold on to one last song.” Whatever that last song may be, Rexha—and the “sad girls” like her remaining as the only ones still out on the floor at the end of the night—is obviously of the belief: “Last night a DJ saved my life/And if it wasn’t for the music, I don’t know what I’d do.”