I was a little worried when I saw the song title of Bebe Rexha’s new single and the obvious reference to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”. Whitney’s been on my mind a lot lately, because I will be going to see a special showing of the documentary that was made about her life, “Can I Be Me?”. I’m positive that I will be blogging about it, but it’s already got me thinking about her story ahead of time.
Bebe’s song “The Way I Are (Dance With Somebody)” luckily only refers to Whitney and her song. It doesn’t really use elements of it, nor samples. In fact it refers to more song titles. “The Way I Are” also made me think that she may have mashed Whitney with Timbaland’s song. And then there’s that “Are You That Somebody” line in the chorus. RIP Aaliyah.
Given enough reasons to assume I would feel differently, the song is actually a really nice, mostly original song. I was very happy to discover this. Bebe is an artist with many faces. Almost literally, but I actually meant musically. She jumps from dance to hip hop to pop and pulls it all off. And yes, she is also the same in her appearance. In the video for this song, she’s trying on some simple jeans with tank top, but creates a completely styled look with her Michael Jackson-like leather jacket and great jewelry. She’s lived up to her fashionista reputation, while she’s playing the part of pop star to perfection in the video.
“The Way I Are” puts her in direct competition with artists like Anne-Marie. It’s a grand sing along song. It features rapper Lil Wayne on the second verse, which gives the song the variation it needs. It’s simple, easy to catch on to and easy to remember. Exactly the ingredients for a hit and it could be that this could be her very first big solo hit. So far, she’s mainly managed to get a lot of attention via her many collaborations, and I’m positive it helps a little that Lil Wayne is participating on this track, but – in this case - it’s not the same as a collaboration with Nicki Minaj, who is sure to bring an audience of millions to your track. Bebe had a great smash hit with her with “No Broken Hearts”. “The Way I Are” has had a great response from fans, music bloggers and of course, fashion bloggers, so she’s on her way.
