A Selena Gomez song with Bebe Rexha underneath it
“Bebe Rexha Like a Champion” does not identify an officially released Bebe Rexha single. It refers to Rexha’s songwriter demo for “Like a Champion,” a song commercially released in Selena Gomez’s name on the 2013 album Stars Dance. A recording apparently featuring Rexha’s guide vocal circulated without authorization by April 2015, prompting listeners to mistake the demo for a newly discovered Rexha track or an alternate official release.
The distinction matters. Gomez’s recording is the master issued by Hollywood Records; Rexha’s demo has never received a verified commercial release. No surviving label announcement establishes that the leaked file was finished, approved for public consumption, or intended for Rexha’s own catalog. It should therefore be described as an unreleased songwriter demo—not a single, remix, duet, or lost album track.
The clearest surviving credits come from the label-supplied edition of Gomez’s official album recording. They name Daniel James, Leah Haywood, Bebe Rexha, Peter Thomas, Leroy Sibbles and Mark Myrie as composer-lyricists. The recording credits also identify Dreamlab and Peter Thomas Walsh, with Rob Ghost and Simon French listed as recording second engineers. Gomez is the sole credited performer on that released version.
The documented path to Stars Dance
“Like a Champion” became publicly available as part of Stars Dance, Gomez’s first album billed without the Scene. The album’s release history begins on July 19, 2013 in several territories, including New Zealand, according to the Hollywood Records release data catalogued by MusicBrainz. Universal Music Canada dated its domestic release to July 23 and later reported that the album debuted at No. 1 in Canada.
Those differing territorial dates sometimes produce contradictory shorthand online. They do not indicate separate versions of “Like a Champion.” July 19 is the earliest well-documented commercial album date; July 23 was the prominent North American release date. The song was an album track rather than one of the project’s principal singles.
The credits also reveal how the record’s Caribbean references entered its construction. Mark Myrie is the legal name of Jamaican dancehall artist Buju Banton, while Leroy Sibbles is the influential Jamaican singer and songwriter associated with the Heptones. Contemporary reviewers described “Like a Champion” as incorporating Banton’s “Champion”; the presence of Myrie and Sibbles in the formal composition credits supports the conclusion that the released work contains acknowledged pre-existing material rather than an unattributed resemblance.
That context is more precise than simply calling the song “reggae.” Its programmed pop framework borrows dancehall rhythm, phrasing and vocal signifiers, then reshapes them for the bright electronic surface of a Hollywood Records album.
What a songwriter demo does—and does not prove
A guide vocal can serve several purposes. Writers use demos to communicate melody, cadence, harmonies, attitude and even minute pronunciation choices to the eventual recording artist. The singer on a demo may be making a personal artistic statement, but the performance may just as plausibly be a functional presentation built to sell or place the composition.
Rexha’s broader career makes the latter explanation especially credible. She has repeatedly identified songwriting for other performers as an important part of her pre-fame work. A Recording Academy interview lists the Gomez song among her outside credits, while an NME career interview places “Like a Champion” in the period before Rexha established her own recording career. Neither source characterizes her demo as an authorized solo release.
The unauthorized file nevertheless has documentary value when discussed without distributing it. Comparing accounts of the demo with the finished master suggests that Rexha helped establish more than a topline melody: the tightly packed syllables, rhythmic vocal attack and confident posture appear integral to the song’s design. That is a critical interpretation, not proof that Gomez copied a completed performance note for note. Session paperwork or testimony from the writers would be needed to reconstruct exactly which participant introduced each element.
The episode illustrates an often-hidden layer of pop authorship. Listeners normally encounter the final star and production team; a leaked guide can suddenly expose the intermediate voice that taught the song how to move. That revelation does not transfer ownership of the released master to the demo singer, but it can sharpen public understanding of her creative contribution.
A contested use of dancehall style
Critical reaction in 2013 was divided. A Slant Magazine review objected strongly to Gomez’s adopted patois, while other reviewers treated the track as a lively empowerment anthem. The disagreement is significant because the song arrives through several layers of mediation: Jamaican source material, American and Australian pop writers, studio programming and a performance by a Texas-born singer working within Disney’s pop system.
Musically, the record’s appeal lies in compression. Its rhythm leaves enough space for the vocal to strut, while the chorus turns “champion” into both identity and instruction. The track is less interested in narrative than in posture—walking, speaking and occupying a room as though victory has already been secured. Gomez’s light vocal tone keeps the production buoyant; based on descriptions of the circulated demo, Rexha’s rougher attack makes the same writing sound more confrontational.
That contrast helps explain why demos fascinate pop audiences. A song’s meaning is not fixed by its lyric sheet. Vocal grain, accent, dynamics and persona can redirect the same composition. Yet cultural criticism must also recognize that stylized Caribbean delivery is not a neutral costume. The acknowledged Jamaican writing lineage clarifies the composition’s legal ancestry, but it does not automatically settle questions about taste, representation or performance.
Why the leaked recording remains unofficial
By 2015, Rexha was becoming recognizable as a solo artist, so the appearance of her voice on an already released Gomez song was newly marketable to fan communities. That chronology probably explains why the demo attracted attention two years after Stars Dance. It does not establish that April 2015 was the date it was recorded, only that it was publicly circulating by then.
The safest historical account is consequently straightforward: Rexha co-wrote and recorded a working demo; Gomez released the authorized master in July 2013; an unauthorized Rexha-vocal file surfaced publicly no later than April 2015. There is no verified evidence that Rexha or her label sanctioned that circulation.
The official recording remains useful for hearing the composition and checking its credits, but it should never be presented as Rexha’s demo. Conversely, an unofficial upload should not be embedded as though it were part of her discography. The story of “Bebe Rexha Like a Champion” is ultimately not about a lost single. It is about the normally invisible labor of a pop writer becoming audible—and about how easily a leaked studio artifact can be mislabeled once it escapes its original purpose.