wasborn in Kosovo, but moved to London aged one). Just last
night, mother and daughter had one of their sleepovers, with
the two of them drinking wine and going through Ora’s
enormousclothes collection, deciding what to give away,
before snuggling up in bed. ‘Having my mother there feels like
areminder of being safe, of not feeling judged. I’m always
saying,“Do you want to come and sleep over?” Because it gets
a bit lonely. And I love having my mum make me food, too.
I like to be babied, even though I’m, like, grown.’
Ah,judgement – the other side of
fame; the mirror with which every
celebrity must win their own battle,
or fall into its cracks. But Ora has
proved her staying power in what she
describes as ‘a disposable industry’,
in which she says it is ‘way harder for
us artists to sustain ourselves than
before’, because fans can switch to
something else at the touch of
a button. Yet she’s also only 28, and it
helps that her mother is a psychiatrist,
so understands the psychological
pressures on her daughter more than
most. In Ora’s line of duty, ‘you can
be work, work, work and you don’t
see your friends; you lose yourself
a little bit,’ she says. Then there’s
the public knowing your personal
business, since Ora’s relationships, from Bruno Mars to Calvin
Harrisand Rob Kardashian, have always attracted gossip.
None of her recent ones seem to have lasted long. I sense this is
anarea of her life she wants to understand, but doesn’t fully. On
the trackOnly Want You, she sings, ‘I don’t want another night
of tryna find another you, another rock bottom. I don’t wanna
wearanother mini dress to impress a potential problem.’
‘People love to know about my personal life, and I’ve sort of
acceptedthat,’ she says. ‘But what I’ve learned about love is
thatit’s not my main priority right now. I don’t think it has been
for a while.’ She pauses to think about this. ‘I don’t know,’ she
admits. ‘I love hard and fall really hard, all the time. And my
fansalways say to me on Twitter, “Try not to fall hard this time!
Tryto take it easy!” And I just laugh because they’re always
right.’ She says she’s learned not to put so much pressure
on herself, but it’s still tough, because every setback leaves
her saying, ‘Muuum, can you come over?’ one more
time. Ultimately,though, she feels confident, because ‘I pick
and I choose, and when the time’s right it will just happen,’ she
says with the sort of determination that either comes from
sheer optimism, or reading self-help books. Probably both.
Interestingly,Ora’s first experience of fame didn’t actually
happen when she was famous at all, but when she was
a teenage girl joining in with the gay scene at clubs and parties
whereeveryone was perfecting the art of being fabulous.
‘I learned a lot from hanging out with the LGBTQ community,
seeing their outfits and confidence, dancing and listening
to what they wanted to achieve. I felt like a superstar,
because everyone was a superstar, as they all had such big
personalities. That was my first feeling of,’ she lowers her voice
to a confidential whisper, “Oh my gosh, this feels awesome.”’
Her sharp brown eyes widen at her memory of first being seen.
At that age, Ora would also sing in her dad’s pub in north-
west London, and even qualified to be the British act for the
EurovisionSong Contest 2009, but withdrew on the wise
advicethat it could limit her career. Indeed, that same year she
signed to Roc Nation, the American record label founded by
Jay-Z. Yet, after the success of her 2012 debut album,Ora,
came a dramatic fork in the road, with the singer filing
a lawsuit against Roc Nation in 2015. She stated that
they had improperly taken 20 per cent of her income and
only permitted her to release one album (despite having
recorded more music),and that she should be released from
her contract. A settlement was
reached in 2016, and a new deal
agreed with Atlantic Records, but all
of this meant a six-year gap between
Ora’sdebut album and her second,
Phoenix, in 2018. She said at the time
it was all fine, but today tells me
making that second album was
emotional. ‘What I went through
musically, not to go into it all
politically,but I had a lot to get out –
desperation, anger, sadness and
happiness. It was a mix of emotions,
whereasmy first album was a party
album.It was just happy,’ she says.
Ora is now recording a third,
and it’s currently heading in the
direction ‘of me being content and
ableto do what I want, which is
really cool’. She starts making each track by going to her
producerwith a song by someone else that she loves, ‘and I’ll
sayI love this vibe, or I love the drums, let’s do something like
this. And then we have a path. It’s so weird being creative,
I don’t really know how to put it into words.’
Shehas also created a fashion line with Escada, a brand
withan 80s heritage of ‘bold shoulders and a small waist; the
structureof power’, as she puts it, and she was thrilled when
theirdesign team agreed to make an entire collection in her
favourite colour. ‘I was like, “Oh my god, yes!” So now
everything’sred. There are tracksuits, then there are smart
coats, but with a hoodie attached. So it gives you a bit of street
withchic, which is what I like.’ The coats also have a label
insidethem saying, ‘A good man is hard to find’ – a secret
messagefrom Rita. ‘It’s about patience, it’s about knowing
thatyou are in control, because you’re finding that person,’ she
says.‘Instead of, like, a man will come to you one day. Because
it’s you finding him. Or her – whoever it is.’
Hollywoodis calling again, too. Rita has various films in the
pipeline, both confirmed and under discussion. She’s excited,
as she’s been going to group acting lessons in Hollywood with,
you know, Cara Delevingne. ‘Well, there are only a few acting
coaches that everyone goes to in LA, so it’s nice to have some
friends who’ll do it with me, like Cara,’ she explains. ‘There are
lots of well-known people there, actually. It’s more improv
than scripted. I was scared the first few times, but it’s so fun.’
As for maybe taking a rest... no chance. ‘Some people are
fine with whatever happens in their career – that’s just
not in my DNA,’ she says. ‘I think you always have to prove
you have that staying power, even if you’ve already
achieved so much you think you can’t get any bigger.
There’s always that thought in the back of your mind,
“Where am I going to be next year?”’ Her parents have been
hard workers since she can remember. ‘That’s how‘YOU HAVE TOPROVE YOU HAVETHAT STAYINGPOWER, EVEN IFYOU’VE ALREADYACHIEVEDSO MUCH’