Rita Ora.Photo:Ed Cooke
Ed Cooke
Rita Ora’s new albumYou & Iis her most revealing and empowered body of work to date — but there’s another reality in which it may not have even existed.
After feeling lost in the music industry a few years ago, Ora tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue about how a new record deal that puts her in the driver’s seat of her career inspired her latest project, on which she opens up about marriage to Oscar winnerTaika Waititi.
“This album’s way more important to me than I thought it was going to be,” says the British pop star, 32. “It turned into a very reflecting journal of self-discovery.”
Rita Ora ‘You & I’ Album Cover.Michella Bredahl
Michella Bredahl
Ora scored her first record deal with Roc Nation at 16 and shot to global fame in the early 2010s with several No. 1 hits in the U.K. including “Hot Right Now” with DJ Fresh and “How We Do (Party),” the latter of which appeared on her debut albumOra, which dropped and hit No. 1 in England the same year.
She continued finding success with songs like “Black Widow” withIggy Azaleaand “I Will Never Let You Down” — but in 2015, she sued Roc Nation on allegations of neglect. The company countersued for breach of contract, and both parties reached a settlement the following year.
The musician then signed with Atlantic Records for the release of her second album, 2018’sPhoenix, which spawned several top-10 U.K. hits. However, Ora felt the record label was reaping the rewards, as the company owned her songs.
Rita Ora.Ed Cooke
Despite loving the project and its songs, she eventually felt burnt out and unsure of her desire to make another album. “It was about, ‘OK, now I want to be able to do this again with owning my own [music],’ and that battle was hard,” she says. “I just felt like, ‘Is it worth it? I don’t know.’ I guess I just started to really question my strength.”
Between the deal and her relationship with Waititi, 47 — whom shemarried in August 2022— Ora felt inspired to makeYou & I. “Good ol' Rita got back up on her feet,” she says. “I reconnected with everything in my life that needed to be fulfilled, and that’s when my third album started.”
As her romance with Waititi blossomed, she began journaling and turned many entries into songs for the new record, which includes actual voicemails from her husband on lead single “You Only Love Me” and anecdotes about their bond. She also opens up about her childhood as an immigrant from Kosovo as well as her confidence journey and previous hopes of finding love.
YouTube
“This album wasn’t about what’s going to hit the top of the charts,” Ora explains. “I just wanted to get people involved in what I was experiencing.”
After more than a decade in the business, she’s hit her stride in many ways — with no desire to slow her pace. “I’m really happy,” she says. “I can still do what I love, and I want to keep doing it for 20 more years.”
For more on Rita Ora, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
source: people.com
