Bebe Rexha's was told songwriting was the key to ''staying alive''.

The 27-year-old singer - who won Best Teen Song Writer at a National Academy of Recording Arts and Science Grammy aged 15 - has admitted Samantha Cox once told her the key to having a successful career is to pen hit songs for artists.

The blonde beauty told Stylist magazine: ''It was tough because I was thrown in with all these 40-year-old men. But I met this lady, Samantha Cox, who was working with Lady Gaga at the time. She believed in me and told me the key to staying alive is to be a songwriter.''

However, the 'I Don't Wanna Grow Up' hitmaker has revealed when she was first trying to break the music industry it was ''really hard''.

She explained: ''Starting out is really hard. I had men inviting me to their studios privately when I was 16, telling me not to bring my parents.

''An established male artist once told me to be quiet; he actually 'sshed' me. Music is a collaborative process, you have everyone chiming in, trying to make better a song. If I'm being told to sit in a room quietly and hold my hands over my lap, then what's the point?''