![]() And then she brings up an occasion in 2013 when she collapsed at a photo shoot in Miami. “Sometimes you work yourself so hard that you don’t realise, and then it’s just …” She makes the sound of a small explosion. Rita seems pleased when I express my amazement that these multiple things can include performing for the Pope at the canonisation of Mother Teresa (“His ride is amazing”) while also taking a role in dubious bonkfest sagas such as Fifty Shades Of Grey, but she adds that there is an inevitable cost to a busy calendar. ![]() In this generation we’re in, and there’s a new breed of us – 360-degree artists are able to do multiple things.” I’ve always thought you pick the artist you want to be I’ve chosen to become a 360-degree artist. “It’s like a cocktail! It’s a Long Island iced tea!” In the end, we settle on something that starts off looking like a ring doughnut, which feels a little unfair as Rita is off bread (and booze) until the EMAs are over, but still: the outer ring, music, surrounds everything else, with one or more inner rings representing Rita’s other endeavours.“We’re in 2017!” Rita insists. Glossing over the fact that everyday nine-to-fives don’t generally involve £1.5m Adidas campaigns, I draw a circle on a piece of paper and ask Rita how we would divide this potential pie chart to represent her career. Rita Ora, shot at Black Island Studios, London. I love everything I’ve done as a woman and as a businesswoman, but my whole life and passion and fulfilment in my heart has always been about my music.” “People, everyday people, do jobs from nine to five that I don’t think they wished for when they were kids. Good point: is it fulfilling for you? “You know how people do jobs?” Yes. “But is it fulfilling for me? That’s the question.” Well, what she actually did involved making a fortune outside of pop, a reported £3m in 2016 – a figure she doesn’t dispute today – without releasing a note of new music, thanks to live performances, acting (including 2015’s Southpaw plus two Fifty Shades movies, with a third due next year) and TV roles (on both The Voice and The X Factor, plus America’s Next Top Model and a recent US boyband show), along with endorsement deals for the likes of Adidas. But did she really feel like she had nothing to lose? “Yes,” she shrugs. She rattles off some of the song’s lyrics, ending with: “I started from nothing, I’ve got nothing to lose”. ![]() Now in a new deal with Atlantic, Ora is back on track, her new album including a song titled Soul Survivor, which will doubtless chime with the many artists who Rita says privately messaged her to tell stories of their own label woes. Amazing.”Ĭlick here to watch the video for Anywhere by Rita Ora. I can’t go into crazy political details obviously, for … reasons. You took them to court! “It didn’t go to court. It was one of the easiest separations ever.” It could have been bad, but it was very respectful. ![]() “And that’s why it was an easy separation. I wanted a change of spirit, I wanted a fresh start.” It seems strange, I suggest, that Roc Nation couldn’t understand the shifting demands of the creative spirit. My appreciation and respect for them hasn’t changed at all.” But it was the only decision I could make. “It felt,” she accepts, “like the worst thing. ![]() Ora can put a positive spin on it all now – “The best thing that ever happened to me” “like going through a musical detox” and so on – but things were less easy at the time. The height does not faze pop’s premier skydive enthusiast, but once the webcast is done we jump in a car and head to a nearby hotel for our interview, where I ask more about taking on Jay-Z. When Rita and I meet again two weeks later, we are 135m up in a pod on the London Eye, where Rita is taking part in a live MTV webcast. I’ve always thought you pick the artist you want to be I’ve chosen to become a 360-degree artist Rita Ora The ensuing legal debacle meant she couldn’t release any. Roc Nation responded in the form of a $2.3m counter-lawsuit claiming Rita hadn’t delivered enough albums. Ironically, her inability to release a second album in the time it took the Beatles to release nine was both the cause and the effect of a falling-out with Jay-Z and Roc Nation, who had signed her at the age of 18: at the end of 2015, Rita filed a lawsuit claiming she had become a low priority among that company’s rapidly diversifying interests, and demanded to be released from her contract. Rather ludicrously it has been more than half a decade since the release of Rita’s debut album, Ora. ![]()
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