Dirty Blonde (album)

After releasing her third studio album Bebe (2023),^[1] Rexha had embarked on her accompanying Best F*n Night of My Life Tour, beginning on May 30, 2023.^[2] While performing on stage, an incident occurred where she was assaulted by someone who threw a cell phone at her face, causing a black eye which required stitches. The man was quickly identified and was arrested for assault and battery;^[3] under interrogation, the assailant admitted to the act where he believed it was a funny prank and later received a restraining order from Rexha.^[4] The next year, she had released her song "I'm the Drama" (2024),^[5] which later caused her to rant online on July 2 about the mistreatment she had in the music industry and with Warner Records for not receiving budgetary resources.^[6] Afterwards, there was no development in music for the following year, until Billboard reported that Rexha had signed with Timeline Management on December 16, 2025.^[7]

Rexha made various posts through Twitter on January 11, 2026, about wanting to leave the "Khia asylum" and shared an image depicting the Grim Reaper "freeing" artists such as Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, and Zara Larsson, whom all had recent career breakthroughs.^[8] A fan later asked Rexha about her situation with Warner Records to which she responded that she had departed from the record label,^[9] while also revealing her partnership with Empire Distribution as she is going "independent". With this sudden announcement, Rexha spoke with Variety where she described her excitement believing that "this new era is about embracing every part of myself [while being] comfortable in my own lane."^[10]

She uploaded an image on social media on January 22, showing herself and a whiteboard giving a list of "ins and outs"; this included the words "fatter" and "victim" all crossed-out, which referenced the fatphobia Rexha received online and her 2023 head injury.^[11] On the other list, she had written "unapologetic" and "confident", motivating herself to move on rather than reapproaching her old-self. In the same post, she also revealed a website titled areudirty.com, hinting at an imminent music release.^[12]

Dirty Blonde will feature a variety of genres, such as pop, EDM, country and hip-hop, among others.^[13] The album's first promotional single, "I Like You Better Than Me", features dance-pop production.^[14]

Rexha announced her fourth album Dirty Blonde with a thirteen-second teaser, showcasing the track listing on February 11, 2026. The teaser showed that every song from the record would be supported by a music video.^[15] She then uploaded a "supercut" video which featured a snippet of each song being remixed, produced by American DJ Diplo, treating it as a promotional trailer.^[13] Rexha soon told Billboard that she intends to release each song as singles since she does not want "to be conformed by a certain sound or certain boundaries."^[16]

"I Like You Better Than Me" was released as the first promotional single of Dirty Blonde, on February 13. On the same day, it was announced that the album is set to be released on June 12.^[14] "Çike Çike" was released on February 20 as the second promotional single,^[17][18] and "New Religion" was released on March 6 as the album's first official single.^[19][20] On March 10, Rexha performed "New Religion" for the first time on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.^[21] "New Religion" features English dance group Faithless, whose 1995 club song "Insomnia" is sampled prominently. The fourth overall release and third promotional single, "Hysteria", was released on April 3.^[22] The second single from the album, titled "Sad Girls" which features David Guetta, was released on May 29 and marked the sixth collaboration between the two artists following 2023's "One In a Million".^[23][24] Rexha had teased the songs released on her social media platforms in the weeks leading up to its announcement and release and Guetta had performed the song in Ibiza. ^[25][26]

Credits were adapted from Spotify.^[a]