"A hate crime because I am Albanian"— Bebe Rexha's ethnic background explored as singer slams Lufthansa Airlines

American singer-songwriter Bebe Rexha recently took to social media to claim that she became the target of a “hate crime” and was removed from boarding a plane. On August 17, Saturday, she posted a video to her Instagram stories stating that she had an alleged run-in with a security guard while she was traveling abroad.

Describing the incident further, in her next Instagram story, she wrote,

“I BELIEVE THIS TO BE A HATE CRIME BECAUSE I AM ALBANIAN. HE WOULD NOT LET ME TAKE HIS NAME. HE CONTINUED TO MENTALLY ABUSE ME TO MAKE ME FEEL LIKE HE WAS MORE POWERFUL THEN HE WAS.”

She continued,

“NOT ONE OF THE WOMEN AT @LUFTHANSA STEPPED IN OR SAID SOMETHING. HE WOULD NOT GIVE ME HIS NAME. BUT I JUST FOUND OUT HE WORKS FOR ATSG A SERVICE COMPANY DOCUMENT CONTROL HIRED BY LUFTHANSA.”

Bebe Rexha is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer whose parents have Albanian roots. This makes her an Albanian-American. Her birth name Bleta means "honey bee" in Albanian. As part of her stage name, Rexha gave herself the nickname Bebe.

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Bebe Rexha is Albanian-American as both of her parents have Albanian roots

Bebe Rexha was recently at the MDL Beast event (Image via Marcio Machado/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

In the 1980s, Bebe Rexha's parents, who are of Albanian descent, had immigrated to Brooklyn in New York City from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, now known as the Republic of Macedonia. Her mother is from Gostivar, and her father is from Dibra e Madhe.

As she was born in the US, she is an American citizen by birth. As her mother is from Albania and her father was born in North Macedonia, where people speak both Macedonian and Albanian, Bebe acquired the language at an early age

She is a North Macedonian as well. She goes by "Bebe" since her first name, Bleta, means "honey bee" in Albanian. Bebe grew up on Staten Island.

Bebe Rexha's Instagram story that went viral (Image via Instagram / @beberexha)

Now, the musician recently claimed that she faced racism for speaking Albanian. On August 17, Saturday, on her Instagram stories, she posted clips of herself crying at Munich International Airport in Germany.

She claimed, that the supervisor of her Lufthansa flight had allegedly threatened to ban her from the aircraft. Bebe Rexha then alleged that she had a heated exchange with the airport employees after speaking Albanian to a security guard.

She went on to allege that it was a hate crime as she was Albanian. She then said that in order to make her feel helpless, the security guard kept abusing her mentally. She continued by saying that none of the women from the airline or the airport spoke up or stepped forward to support her.

She continued and said that although he refused to tell her his identity, she learned that he is employed by ATSG, a document control service provider that Lufthansa contracted.

She captioned the emotional video on her social media,

“I've been threatened because I thought the security agent was Albanian. I spoke to him in Albanian asking where to get my ticket and now he is banning me from the flight.”

However, TMZ reported in their August 17 article that they were informed by a Lufthansa representative that they are in direct communication with Bebe to obtain the complete story.

They went on to say that diversity and equal opportunity were important principles to their company and that the airline connected different individuals all over the world, irrespective of their caste, class, gender, and ethnicity.

The news source further revealed that Lufthansa informed them that they would conduct a thorough investigation regarding the I'm The Drama singer's allegations and that they do not tolerate any discriminatory behavior.

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This happened when Bebe Rexha was on her way to Los Angeles. She was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as she had accepted an invitation to play at the MDL Beast event which took place on August 15 and August 16.