Rita Ora opens up on her lonely struggle to find love and watching friends around her marrying and having babies
OVER the past five years Rita Ora’s life has been an emotional rollercoaster – with music and therapy helping her in tough times.
During the turbulent period, the Lonely Together singer, 32, has landed a bumper new record deal with BMG that allows her to own her masters.
She’s also expanded her acting portfolio, with roles in Fifty Shades and Pokemon movies.
And, most importantly, she has found The One in Hollywood director Taika Waititi, 47.
But Rita — who counts Scots DJ Calvin Harris, Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and American rapper Asap Rocky as former flames — now tells The Sun how she was “lonely and had given up on love” before falling for New Zealand-born Taika.
As well as music, Rita revealed she has turned to regular one-hour therapy sessions to help her find her spark once more — and says talking provides her with “huge relief”.
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Rather than hiding behind ambiguous metaphors, Rita has used her surprisingly raw and vulnerable third album, You & I, to lift the lid on how she has really felt trying to grow as the world looked on.
On new track Waiting For You, Rita candidly sings: “I’d had enough, given up, watched all my friends get married — lonely under the chandelier.
"Always kept up my guard, wasn’t ready for love. . . just a beat in my heart with no use.”
Chatting about the track, Rita admitted: “It wasn’t metaphorically. This is literally how I felt.
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“A couple of my friends had been like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m pregnant’ or ‘Oh gosh, I’m getting married’.
“Life is happening and everyone is getting older and I felt like it was something that is very relatable.
“People think, ‘Oh well, what about me?’ I thought it was a vulnerable and insightful position for me.
“I think it connects us — especially girls and women and the social pressure we feel we have to reach.
“I wanted to be blunt and honest. I knew that if I wanted to do this then I really had to do this — not like half-heartedly. It took a lot of guts.
“I am really proud that I have done it. I was writing the things I was going through at the same time.
“I was actually getting married then writing about it. I was living through it. It is an album diary.”
Indeed, hours after saying ‘I do’, Rita was back in the studio nursing a hangover and pouring her heart into the album’s title track.
She’s given the entire project a real “home vibe” — even having promo photos and album artwork done at her Victorian Grade II listed pad in North London.
On the cover, Rita — who dreams of building a business empire — poses seductively at a dressing table in a green miniskirt, blazer and heels.
Taika stands beside her, pictured only from the neck down.
He also makes a cameo in the video for new single Don’t Think Twice, filmed in his homeland, in which the star sings about the first time the director “saw her naked”.
She purrs: “We’re already past temptation, we’ve already crossed that line. And baby, when you saw me naked, I’ve never felt more alive . . .
“Baby don’t think twice. One second can change your life”.
Rita — who transforms into an alien temptress in the track's music vid — said: “I thought this was a really great opening to the love story that inspired my album.
It’s about the journey of coming to terms with where you’re at in your life and saying, ‘Let’s just do it? Are you in?’ ”
Rita and Takia wed last summer in a low-key ceremony, where she says they blasted football classic Sweet Caroline and slow-danced to The Bangles’ 1988 hit Eternal Flame.
As if telling the story, she sings: “I used to listen to the love songs on repeat, trying to figure out how they would work for me . . .
“Always thought that the one thing waiting for me, was not a wonderful world but a tragedy”.
She adds: “Now I’m dancing in your arms to Eternal Flame, I know my life is never gonna be the same.”
She also references Neil Diamond’s classic Sweet Caroline.
Despite keeping details of her marriage private, she leaves little doubt that both songs were on their wedding breakfast playlist.
Rita said: “Of course. Eternal Flame is one of the best songs ever. You have to play that song at weddings.
“The Bangles version obviously — I do love Atomic Kitten’s version, though,” she clarifies, laughing.
Eagle-eyed fans have spotted an intimate snap of Rita on her big day accompanying the track You & I on Spotify.
It shows her in a white lace gown by Tom Ford, kissing her new husband. But her new music is not just about bagging Mr Right.
Rita touches on everything from losing confidence and fearing her life would become a “tragedy” to overcoming countless obstacles to find inner peace and still be the relevant artist she is today.
From the outside looking in, it would have appeared to many that Rita’s life was perfect.
But on Look At Me Now, she says she struggled behind the glitz and glamour.
She sings: “I’ve made peace with the mirror, it took all of hell just to love myself . . . Take it with a pinch of salt, people always come and go, I won’t keep my enemies close.
"More you see the more you learn, better off for being burnt, breathe it in then let it go”.
The star told how therapy has helped her deal with life in the spotlight, where everyone has an opinion about her.
In her track, Girl In The Mirror, Rita belts out: “Gone through therapy just to get to this level of healing.”
And describing in Shape Of Me how she felt lost and confused, she sings: “So I broke that girl in two and found someone I never knew, inside the thunder.
"Now I wonder . . . why I lost a part of me trying so hard to please?”.
Rita revealed: “I love therapy. I do think it’s something to speak about. It’s so amazing.
"An hour to talk about yourself and not be judged for me is beautiful. I love it.
“I have all this incredible relief and I think music was that for me.
“But also sometimes knowing that other people are going to hear it, you still have a doubt in your mind.
"So I like to go to therapy. I have a really good time doing that.”
While insisting she couldn’t be more grateful for the life she’s been blessed with, Rita — who is said to have amassed a fortune worth £20million — is keen to stress that while the world around her has changed, she still feels like the young girl from West London desperately trying to make it.
Track Notting Hill describes how part of her sometimes pines for the days before she found fame, when she could knock back cheap booze with pals and not be recognised.
Rita sings: “We were broke but that was fine. Two-pound shots really got us by . . . Back when I was nobody, but I felt I was somebod y. . .
"Now everything’s changed. It was simple back then . . . Just us in Notting Hill.”
Rita said: “I think everyone thinks the same when you see fame and you see what comes with it.
"They think money and happiness and nothing can go wrong.
“But in the moments you are still human and I still feel the same way that every other girl feels.
“I haven’t put an album out in a long time, so I felt like it was my job to reintroduce myself, really. It’s me. I’m still the same girl.
"I’ve not changed, even if you see all these fancy outfits and crazy stuff.”
Having been through public break-ups, a legal battle with her old label and overcoming theories she would be another flash-in-the-pan star, Rita feels more assured and fulfilled than ever.
She says: “I definitely feel more calm and in control and excited for the future. I don’t think you ever think, ‘Oh wow, I’ve made it’.
"I mean, I don’t. I am always thinking about the next thing."
Rita revealed she bases her passion for success on other celebs who have done well for themselves.
She said: “My biggest inspiration is J-Lo — these women who have just kept going.
“I want to do that. I am really, really f***ing grateful that I am able to do this still after how long I’ve been here.
"Of course I understand and I see that the climate has changed drastically.
“My goal is to have this empire that I could eventually keep going when I am gone.
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"I have these big dreams of doing film and music and working really well with charities like Unicef and helping kids of the future, to be honest.
“Now I’ve been in this for a bit longer, I realise it is bigger than me and there are a lot of things we can be doing.”
Rita Ora: You and I
POP stars often pitch albums as “their most personal ever” – but in a refreshing change, Rita Ora has delivered just that.
You & I is a surprisingly honest and unflinching look at the woman behind the headlines.
Rather than following the tried-and-tested method of singing about downing drinks in a club, the album touches on everything from Rita feeling her love life would end in “tragedy” before meeting husband Taika Waititi, to turning to therapy and bouncing back.
From the stripped-back ballad tracks Notting Hill and You & I to the thumping beats of Waiting For You and Unfeel It, the album is a masterclass in infectious pop perfection.
JACK HARDWICK
