"Meant to Be" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bebe Rexha featuring American country music duo Florida Georgia Line, from Rexha's third extended play (EP) All Your Fault: Pt. 2 (2017), and debut studio album Expectations (2018). The song was released on October 24, 2017, by Warner Bros. Records as the second single from the EP. It holds the record for the most streamed country song of all-time on Spotify, and was nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.
"Meant to Be" reached the top ten in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United States, and was the third-bestselling song of 2018 in the US and the bestselling country song of the 2010s decade in the US. It is certified Diamond in the US and Canada, eight-times Platinum in Australia, and Gold or higher in fifteen additional countries. An acoustic version of the song not featuring Florida Georgia Line was released on April 6, 2018.
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Critical reception
"Meant to Be" received a generally favorable reception from music and country publications, with commentators praising its catchy songwriting, relaxed production, and successful blending of pop and country. Billboard described the song as a "match made in country-pop heaven", noting its crossover success across pop and country formats. Laura McClellan of Taste of Country called it "extremely catchy" and praised the "laid back" pop production, its "quality vocals", acoustic instrumentation and electronic percussion, while noting that the song actually possessed "a bit of a country soul, its lyrical sentiment fits well with the spirit of country music". Forbes contributor Hugh McIntyre described the song as a "surprise smash of the year" and later as a "country-pop smash", highlighting its crossover success and identifying it as Rexha's breakout hit as a lead artist. Chris DeVille of Stereogum wrote that "Meant to Be" had "straddled the worlds of pop and country more successfully than almost any brazen crossover attempt in recent memory" and praised its "soothing earworm chorus". Nick Levine of NME referred to it as Rexha's "cute country hit", describing it as a "loved-up smile" at the end of Expectations.
Some major critics were more ambivalent about the song's artistic qualities. Rob Harvilla of The Ringer described it as a "breezy" collaboration with a "soothing earworm chorus", but argued that it could come across as "terminally generic" to listeners who were not fans. Harvilla also quoted Jon Freeman, then editor of Rolling Stone Country, who called the song "catchy" while questioning whether it was a classic and attributing part of its chart dominance to its combination of pop streaming and country appeal.
Following the announcement of the 2019 Grammy Awards nominations, Forbes contributor Hugh McIntyre questioned the song's absence from the Record of the Year field. Brittany Hodak of Forbes similarly argued that, although "Meant to Be" received a nomination for Best Country Duo/Group Performance, its exclusion from the all-genre categories was unwarranted, writing that the song "certainly deserves to be recognized as one of the year's top Records" and, in her view, one of the year's top Songs as well.
Listicles
"Meant to Be" was included in numerous year-end and retrospective lists by music and country publications. In 2018, Billboard ranked it 11th on its list of the 20 Best Country Songs of the Year, while The Boot (website) placed it fifth among its Top 10 Country Collaborations of 2018. Taste of Country ranked the song third on its list of the 10 Hottest Summer Songs of 2018.
The song was subsequently featured in several retrospective decade lists, including those published by Billboard, Rolling Stone India and iHeartRadio, with Billboard ranking it 31st among the 35 Best Country Songs of the 2010s and Rolling Stone India placing it 26th among its Top 100 Songs of the Decade.
Other publications also recognized the song in broader country retrospectives, including Smooth Radio, which ranked it second among the greatest country songs of the 2010s.
Commercial performance
"Meant to Be" entered the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 61 on the chart dated November 11, 2017. It later peaked at number two, kept out of the summit by Drake's "God's Plan". It became Rexha's third top ten hit and her first as a solo lead artist, as well as the second top ten hit for Florida Georgia Line. It is Rexha's highest-charting single on the chart, surpassing "Me, Myself & I".
It also debuted atop the US Hot Country Songs chart, becoming Rexha's first entry on that chart and Florida Georgia Line's sixth number one. Rexha also became the first female artist to ever debut atop the chart, while "Meant to Be" is the third song overall to start at the summit since 2012, when the chart transitioned to a hybrid data list, blending airplay, streaming and sales. When the song spent an eleventh week in the top spot in February 2018, it surpassed Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" as the longest-running number one song on the chart for a lead female artist. In August 2018, the song broke the record previously held by 2017's "Body Like a Back Road" by Sam Hunt for the most weeks at number one on the US Hot Country Songs chart. After spending 50 weeks at the top, it was dethroned by Kane Brown's "Lose It". The song has sold 1,413,000 copies in the United States as of March 2019. In 2020, it was certified diamond for selling over 10 million units in the US.
Impact
"Meant to Be" was cited by trade publications as a catalyst for a wave of pop–country collaborations in 2018. In a 2019 retrospective, Billboard wrote that although pop-meets-country collaborations had existed before, the song's "gargantuan success [...] smoothed the way" for later hits including Zedd, Grey and Maren Morris's "The Middle" and the Chainsmokers and Kelsea Ballerini's "This Feeling", and "blew the doors off any remaining stigma between pop artists appearing on country charts, or vice versa". Later that decade, the magazine grouped "Meant to Be" and "The Middle" as two of 2018's most ubiquitous hits and argued that the year "may have drawn the roadmap to a reliable new path to crossover success" on Top 40 radio. In June 2018, Nancy Dillon of Rolling Stone described the song as "the leading edge of a wave of pop-country collaborations that look to be a defining trend in 2018", placing it alongside "The Middle", Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton's "Say Something" and a Kane Brown remix of Camila Cabello's "Never Be the Same".
When it debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart dated December 16, 2017, Rexha became the first woman to enter the ranking in the top position. Reviewing the song's subsequent record run among female-led singles, Jon Freeman of Rolling Stone wrote that Rexha, "a New Yorker with no prior country chart entries", occupied "the odd position of holding a country chart record among women, at a time when other women in country are finding it nearly impossible to get their songs played on radio".
Music video
The music video was filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico and directed by Sophie Muller. It was released on October 23, 2017. As of October 2024, the video has over 1.2 billion views on YouTube.
Live performances and cover versions
Rexha and Florida Georgia Line first performed "Meant to Be" together at the American Music Awards of 2017 on November 19, 2017, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. On December 19, Rexha sang the song on the season 13 finale of The Voice with contestants Adam Cunningham and Keisha Renee. The trio later performed it on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on January 23, 2018, at the 53rd Academy of Country Music Awards on April 15, 2018, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and on The Ellen DeGeneres Show two days later. On June 10, 2018, they played the song at Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest; that performance was later released to streaming services as "Meant to Be (Live from CMA Fest 2018)". They also performed it on Good Morning America in Times Square in 2018. On September 10, 2019, Rexha sang the song with Kelsea Ballerini at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville while opening for the Jonas Brothers' Happiness Begins Tour.
In March 2018, Dan + Shay posted an official cover of the song to their YouTube channel. On January 26, 2019, Luke Bryan covered it with Lauren Alaina at Crash My Playa in Riviera Maya, Mexico. Kelly Clarkson opened the 2019 Billboard Music Awards on May 1, 2019, with a hits medley that began with "Meant to Be".
Track listing
Digital download and streaming
"Meant to Be" (feat. Florida Georgia Line) – 2:43
Digital download and streaming
"Meant to Be" (Acoustic) – 2:38
Digital download and streaming
"Meant to Be" (feat. Bebe Rexha) [Acoustic] – 2:44
Digital download and streaming
"Meant to Be" (Live from CMA Fest 2018) – 3:02
Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from Spotify and Tidal.
Bebe Rexha – lead artist, lead vocals, backing vocals, songwriting
Florida Georgia Line – featured artists, featured vocals, backing vocals
Tyler Hubbard – songwriting
David Garcia – drums, guitar, keyboards, programming, recording engineer, songwriting
Josh Miller – songwriting
Joey Moi – additional production, recording engineer, vocal production
Willshire – additional production
Serban Ghenea – mixing
Devon Corey – recording engineer