Described as being on something of a “comeback tour” after the release of 2023’s Bebe, which ended up marking another low-charting performance for one of her albums (following Better Mistakes) despite its “boppability,” Bebe Rexha has released another single from Dirty Blonde called “New Religion.” And, giving credit where credit is due because of its heavy sample of 1995’s “Insomnia,” Rexha is sure to bill the song as being by “Bebe Rexha and Faithless.” The group previously collaborated with Rexha on 2025’s “Dollars and Dimes,” another dance-oriented single that finds Rexha ostensibly reflecting on her many years of abuse in the music industry—between bad record label deals, not getting songwriting credits where they were due (“Hey Mama”) and being dropped by Warner Bros. The lyrics that address such disappointments are manifest in the first verse as Rexha describes, “Sold my soul/Too many times/Paid the toll/By losing my mind.”
It appeared Rexha began to reclaim it (her mind, that is) in 2024, as she released singles like “I’m the Drama” and “My Oh My” (with Kylie Minogue and Tove Lo). And by 2025, she had come to the conclusion (via her first Faithless collaboration), “It’s not all about these dollars and dimes” and “Don’t wanna live my life/Chasing empty highs.” So it is that being dropped by Warner Bros. and going independent with Empire Distribution might very well be the best thing that could have happened to Rexha. Not just for her sanity, but for her creative output. One that is already thriving in the Dirty Blonde era as she’s been tapping into her Albanian heritage to sing a verse like, “Çike, çike, luje belin, çike/Ti je një bombë/Bombë atomike” on, what else, “Çike Çike.” Not to mention engaging in some brutal self-loathing honesty on “I Like You Better Than Me.”
But with “New Religion,” what amounts to the third “taste” from her forthcoming album, Rexha taps fully into dance music, commenting on how this genre is what saved her from being in a very “dark place” when she first “started this new era.” In many ways, it sounds like what happened to Kesha during her own post-Dr. Luke dark place while starting to record what would become the Rainbow album. With music always being the salvation for such dark times, even if, for musicians like Rexha and Kesha, being successful in music is also part of what resulted in their trauma in the first place.
However, the “official visual” (not video, not visualizer) that comes with “New Religion” appears determined to prove that music could never really hurt Rexha, when it’s, in fact, so healing. Prompting her to remark upon the single’s release, “‘New Religion’ is my love letter to music. My sanctuary. My salvation on the dance floor. It’s about remembering that music has always been there for me, through every high and every low.” Especially dance music. A genre that has frequently embraced Rexha both on the charts and in the clubs (hear also: “I’m Good [Blue]”—which also makes use of an iconic sample: Eiffel 65’s “Blue [Da Ba Dee]”). As both are sure to again with this love letter to the alchemic powers of the dance floor.
Opening with the verse, “Deep in the night, I heard a cry that brought me back to life/It sang to me, a melody, and I was hypnotized/With every note, it pulled me close until I kissed the sky/I found my purposes in the churches filled with neon lights,” Rexha immediately establishes the religious experience of being “at one” with the beat. And when the beat does drop in “New Religion,” it’s so that Rexha can profess her undying devotion to the Church of Dance through the chorus, “I feel the beat, I feel the beat, it’s like a new religion/Out on the floor, out on the floor, I found me in the rhythm/It lifts me up, it lifts me up, it’s love with no condition.” So it is that Rexha once again establishes herself as an ally for the LGBTQIA+ community, who understands all too well that some of the only places they’ve ever known as a true home is among the writhing bodies of a nightclub, where judgments and inhibitions are meant to be left back in the outside world.
A similar sense is evoked, funnily enough, by certain J. Lo songs, even if to a more ersatz effect. Namely, 1999’s “Waiting for Tonight” and 2011’s “On the Floor” (not, however, her latest, “Save Me Tonight,” which is trying much too hard to recapture what the former two did). Both singles being a simultaneous call to arms/love letter to the dance floor. In Rexha’s case, however, the love letter is a bit more legit considering just how much Faithless’ “New Religion” means to bona fide dance music enthusiasts (hence, its perennial presence in clubs throughout Ibiza).
Indeed, there should be no underestimating just how much of a coup it was for Rexha to be able to use this sample. All while honoring what it means to dance floors with such effusive lyrics as, “Don’t wanna leave, yeah, I believe I found a deeper meaning/I’m on the move, I’m in the mood, nothing can touch this feeling/Lost in the sound that’s all around, I feel my body healing.” Just as others might feel their own body healing—even if only for the two minutes and fifty-four seconds that this song goes on—while listening to “New Religion.”
At around the two-minute-twelve-second mark, as Rexha is in the process of belting out the word “want” (contained within the phrase, “Forever is all that I want”) with everything she’s got, it’s clear that she truly meant what she said about making this song: “I went back to the one thing that has always made me feel something, dance music. When the bass hits your chest and you lose yourself in the music, nothing else matters.” Well, except the majesty of “Insomnia” being incorporated into her earnestness and passion, with Rexha also adding, “I’m beyond grateful that Faithless allowed me to use such an iconic dance record. That means more to me than you know.” And to all who will listen to “Insomnia” through the reinvigorated perspective of “New Religion.”
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