Bebe Rexha looked back on a meaningful gesture from Taylor Swift during one of the emotional moments of her career.
While speaking with E! News on the red carpet of the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards on September 27, Bebe Rexha was asked about Taylor’s support for women in music and what the "Patient Zero" singer's advocacy has meant to her as an independent artist.
The question prompted Bebe Rexha to remember the 2019 Grammy Awards, when she was struggling to find a designer willing to dress her for music’s biggest night.
“I remember when I had that whole Grammys situation when I couldn’t find a dress and she reached out to me because we’re the same age, and I thought that was really, really kind of her,” Bebe Rexha recalled.
For Bebe Rexha, Taylor’s gesture stood out because it came at a time when she felt she was largely navigating the situation on her own.
“Nobody really reached out,” she said. “Some people did, but for her at such a high level to make me feel like I belonged it was really, really nice.”
Bebe Rexha’s dress dilemma happened during an important night in her career. At the 2019 Grammys, she received nominations for Best New Artist and Best Country Duo/Group Performance.
Before the ceremony, however, Bebe Rexha took to Instagram to speak about her difficulty finding a designer for the event. In a since-deleted post, she said several designers she had approached were unwilling to dress her because of her size.
“So I finally get nominated at the Grammys and it’s like the coolest thing ever,” she reflected at the time.
“And a lot of times artists will go and talk to designers and they’ll make them custom dresses to walk the red carpet. So I had my team hit out a lot of designers and a lot of them do not want to dress me because I’m too big,” she said.
Bebe Rexha, who said she wore a size 6-8 (Small to Medium), pushed back against the idea that women who wear larger sizes should have fewer options when it comes to fashion. Taylor had reached out to her at the height of her fashion woes.
She further addressed the issue in her Instagram caption, emphasizing that fashion designers should not make women feel inadequate because of their clothing size.
“If you don’t like my fashion style or my music that’s one thing. But don’t say you can’t dress someone that isn’t a runway size,” she wrote. “Empower women to love their bodies instead of making girls and women feel less then by their size. We are beautiful any size! Small or large!”
Despite the setback before the event, Bebe Rexha hit the event with confidence while wearing a red ball gown that made her “feel like a princess.”
Meanwhile, Taylor had a major night of her own at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards. She received the first-ever Artist Director Honors and won Video of the Year for “The Fate of Ophelia,” as well as Best Direction for “Opalite.”