78 ·^ COSMOPOLITAN
were eventually dropped, with Kesha
remaining in a recording contract
with him that meant she didn’t
release any music for four years.
When I ask her about Kesha, she says
quite simply, “I was scared that could
have been my situation. I remember
being at a dinner party with [Kesha
and her mother, Pebe Sebert]. Her
mom came up to me and whispered,
‘Don’t do it.’ She was talking about
working with Dr Luke. The music
industry can be a dark place, and she
could have been trying to stop me
from getting in her daughter’s way.
But I listened and honestly? Trusting
her was the best thing I ever did.”
Worse still, Rexha has felt the full
force of the music industry’s predatory
sexual practices and insidious
bullying on her path to the top.
“There was a producer who would
come into the studio and massage my
feet. One time he tried to go above my
knees and was getting a little rough,
[so] I pulled my feet away. He said,
‘Nah, I’m going to do what I want’. But
I was raised to never let someone touch
my body if I don’t want them to.”
Still, he persisted. Once his assistant
phoned her in the middle of the
night to say the producer in question
wanted to buy Rexha a sundress
to wear with “no underwear”.
“He’s really famous,” Rexhasays,
unblinking. “My former managers
said, ‘Just work with him,
you need a hit song.’”
Has she ever felt afraid
for her life? I ask. There’s
a pause. “There was one
night. I was alone in the
studio and a [different]
producer had a group of
five or six guys with him.
I had heard things about
him from his past and
I just couldn’t take it any
more. I felt like I was going
to get raped. I quietlycalledmyselfa
taxi from the recordingbooth,which
was enclosed, and I gotthef*ckout
of there. It was the worst night ever.”
It was that moment, and many others
likeit,that led Rexha to start Women
InHarmony in 2018, an initiative to
helpfemalecreatives in the music
ndustry support each other.
Sofar she has hosted dinners
n LA and London, attended
bythe likes of Rita Ora and
Charli XCX. “I wish I’d had
someone to talk to when I
was going through all of that.
You need support. I want to
create a safe environment for
women to come together.”
Her next album, due in
2020, is “deeply personal”, she
tellsme – a collection of songs
thataddressthe insecurities she has
battledsinceshe was 11. If her debut
album,thereaction to Grammy-gate
and this year’s slew of live dates areanything to go by, it could tip her
from “one to watch” to global stardom.
Post-shoot, as Rexha wipes off her
make-up, shrugs on her hoodie,
assembles her all-female entourage
and prepares to head back to the hotel
where we started our day over 10 hours
ago, I’m relieved. Not just because she
loves the photos or that she’s happy
with our choice of soundtrack for
the shoot (ironically it’s On A Roll by
Ashley O, the manipulated pop star
played by Miley Cyrus in Black Mirror),
but relieved that the music industry is
still capable of producing stars like her
in the first place. Someone who isn’t
always prepared to toe pop’s party line
and – as with the mannequins she
smashed up earlier – who knows that
sometimes you have to break things
apart before they can be rebuilt. ◆“I couldnt
takeit.I felt
like I was
goingtoget
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