“Meant to Be” became the longest-running #1 country song

Meant to Be Bebe Rexha with Florida Georgia Line

Writer(s): Bleta Rexha, Tyler Hubbard, Josh Miller, David Garcia (see lyrics here) Released: October 24, 2017 First Charted: November 11, 2017 Peak: 2 US, 15 BA, 3 AC, 12 A40, 150 CW, 11 UK, 7 CN, 2 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 11.0 US, 1.2 UK, 13.35 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1026.83 video, 1267.38 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Bebe Rexha was signed to Warner Records in 2013. She received songwriting credits on Eminem’s “The Monster” as well as songs by Selena Gomez and Nick Jonas before becoming a name on her own. She released her first EP, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, in 2015. Two EPs, All Your Fault Pt. 1 and All Your Fault Pt. 2 followed in 2017. The latter featured “Meant to Be,” her third top ten hit but first as the lead artist. It became the biggest country song of all time. On December 16, 2017, “Meant to Be” debuted atop the country charts, only the fourth song to do so. It was her first entry on the chart and made her the first female artist to debut at #1 on the country charts. It was the sixth time at the pinnacle for featured act Florida Georgia Line. On August 4, 2018, the song was still there, giving it more weeks on top (35) than any other in country music history, breaking the record previously set by Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road.” It went on to spend 50 total weeks at #1. The “piano-driven ballad has a feel-good message of whatever will be, will be.” SF Rexha wrote the song with members of Florida Georgia Line. She explained that Tyler Hubbard said, “You know what my wife just told me? She said, ‘If it’s meant to be, it’ll be that we write a hit or not.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s the song – let’s go!’” SF Hubbard said, “it was pretty organic. We ended up, last-minute, kinda out of the blue, getting together with her in LA…and wrote it kind of ona whim, late-night. The next thing you know, we just kinda hit gold, if you will. A really special song kinda fell out of the sky, as we call it. It doesn’t happen like that every time we get in a room to write.” SF Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bebe Rexha DMDB encyclopedia entry for Florida Georgia Line SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia First posted 11/3/2021; last updated 7/25/2023.