Bebe Rexha delivered a stripped-down, strings-only rendition of her hit “Knees” on The Tonight Show Friday. The rendition marked the late-night television debut of the single. The glamorous performance – Rexha’s second Tonight Show appearance in the latter half of 2018 – wrapped up a breakout year for Rexha, who released her debut album Expectations in July.
The LP followed the Staten Island singer’s smash single “Meant to Be,” a country-pop crossover that she recorded with Florida Georgia Line. That single appeared on Rexha’s 2017 EP All You Fault: Pt. 2 and became the record holder for longest Hot Country Songs chart Number One with a female lead.
“I had been thinking of the title Expectations for years now because nothing ever goes as expected,” Rexha told Rolling Stone. “After I put out All Your Fault: Pt. 2, I was like, ‘OK, this is crazy that I have a pop-country hit out. It’s kind of weird and cool and amazing.’ That [country] world inspired me to write songs that I love, so the project started coming together.”
Uploaded in July, the “Knees” lyric video has accumulated over 38 million views on YouTube.