Bebe Rexha Isn’t Dead, Despite Online Hoax

Singer-songwriter Bebe Rexha is not dead. The “I’m a Mess” singer assured her fans she is very much alive in a series of tweets this week after someone brought it to her attention that a fake CNN headline was going around on the web. The headline claimed that the 31-year-old died of a drug overdose and included a fake comment from her family.

Rexha stayed off Twitter for a couple of days, but returned only to find out she “died.” She saw one fan try to assure others that they were “overreacting” about the rumors she was no longer alive. “Jeez I stay offline for three days and not only am I dead but I died of a drug overdose?!?!” Rexha tweeted on Tuesday. She also tweeted a screenshot of Google search responses to her name, finding that the third-most-popular search was “Bebe Rexha died.”

“I’m a ghost. I’m tweeting from your bedroom closet. Boo b—,” she posted in another message. Then, as if to prove she was not tweeting from beyond the grave, she posted an audio clip. “B—, I’m a ghost,” she said repeatedly, before adding, “Boo b—, I’m hiding in your closet.” Next, she retweeted a fan who shared a screenshot of the fake headline about her death. “Omg god forbid what the hell. That’s [messed] up god forbid,” she wrote. Then, she called it “messed upppp” that her mother and family were “quoted” in the fake headline.

Rexha also shared a few posts on Instagram Wednesday and Thursday to prove she is still among the living. She shared a video of herself getting made up for a video shoot while a Panic! at the Disco song played in the background. She also shared selfies on her Instagram Story, including one in which she wore a face mask.

Rexha was nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy in 2019, as well as Best Country Duo/Group Performance for her collaboration with Florida George Line, “Meant to Be.” She also recorded the song “You Can’t Stop the Girl” for Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. In October, she released “Baby, I’m Jealous,” a collaboration with Doja Cat that will be featured on Rexha’s upcoming second album.

In a recent interview with PEOPLE, Rexha said the new album is based on “actual insecurity” with deeply personal lyrics. Executive producer Justin Tranter “helped me take all my insecurities and make them empowering; he does it in a way that I feel so safe in the studio with him,” she told the magazine. “It was really just taking the real-life stuff that I’m going through, which is really important for me to write about; I just love writing about real stuff.”

The new album still does not have a release date, but Rexha said that fans’ patience will pay off. “We’ve been working really hard on the new music, and I just really want to give fans a really beautiful visual album,” she said. “And, to be honest, ‘Jealous’ is amazing, but there are songs on the album that blow people away when I play them the album, and even me, that are my true favorites and this is not even my favorite, favorite song off the album.”