Rita Ora: ‘I hope my loneliness helps others’
Pop superstar Rita Ora is worried for people isolated by the COVID-19 crises and hopes her latest song will help them get through.
Confidential
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There is no way to sugar-coat the way Rita Ora felt when she had her tonsils taken out last month.
The pop superstar was understandably nervous, fearful her voice would change forever.
“I was definitely shitting myself,” Ora says. “You know like if you have knee surgery, you have to do rehab retraining the muscles, so I have had my vocal coach teaching me how to use my throat without tonsils in it.”
With a happy sigh, she adds: “It will be fine thank God.”
Ora, 29, is speaking by phone from lockdown in her London home to promote her new single, How To Be Lonely.
The track was written as a break-up song, although it has taken on a different meaning as millions of people around the world stay home due to COVID-19.
“I am hanging out with my parents and family for a bit until everything calms down and trying to stay safe,” she said. “I don’t even know how to feel right now. It is all just very strange. I feel bad for people who are going through a hard time.”
Of the inspiration behind the song, she explained: “It was actually about breaking up with someone but I am very glad that it is helping people now as well so that is a positive I guess. When you break up with someone, you go through different stages of a break-up.”
From the outside looking in, Ora has the perfect life — fame, success, valuable possessions. But behind the pop star facade though, she hurts like the rest of us and is happy to share her loneliness in the hope it helps others.
“I just think that if you are travelling around so much like what I do on tour, it does get lonely because you are never in one place, you don’t have your house or your bed or the mug that you like to use, the little things that make you feel less lonely. So that is why for me I thought it was the perfect song.
Ora previously dated Calvin Harris and has been romantically linked to the likes of Andrew Garfield, Rob Kardashian and Bruno Mars.
To feel less lonely when she travels, not that she is doing any of that now, Ora likes to take some home comforts with her. A candle is a must, Diptyque’s Le Labo is her favourite, as well as essential oils and a “pink fluffy blanket”.
“The good thing about touring is you have your on-the-road family,” she says. “The people you work with start to become your family. Just hanging out with them, doing some nice little dinners, exercise and trying to keep a routine even though you are in different places, that helps.”
How To Be Lonely was co-written by Scottish singer songwriter Lewis Capaldi, known for his global hit Someone You Loved. The pair met through a photographer friend.
“We ended up meeting and he hadn’t written with anyone before,” Ora explained.
“It just clicked and made sense and I loved the message. He is hilarious and funny
and obviously super talented so we just did it.”
The press notes for How To Be Lonely state the song was inspired by the fact “the past year has felt like the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new and exciting one” for Ora.
“Last year I did two tours, I toured my last album, I filmed the new Oliver Twist movie and did The Masked Singer so I had a super jam packed year,” she says. “And then at the beginning of this year in January I took my tonsils out and was looking at new music so it just felt like a reset button and now everything has been stopped again.”
The Oliver Twist movie is studio flick, Twist, also starring Michael Caine, Lena Headey and David Williams.
Slated for release this year, Ora will be seen as Dodger.
“This is going to be super cool because I get to play the Artful Dodger, who is usually played by a male,” says Ora, whose other acting credits include Fast & Furious, Fifty Shades Of Grey and Pokemon Detective Pikachu.
Being at home has given Ora plenty of time to think about new music and fans will be pleased to know a new album will be on the table sooner rather than later.
Her last album, Phoenix, was released in 2018 and spawned global hits Your Song, Anywhere and For You.
“I want to do something really fun, energetic, happy, dance, uplifting, we just need something more uplifting at the moment so I think that is where I am going to go,” she says. “Let’s get over this (coronavirus pandemic) and I will pack my suitcases and be back on the road.”
How To Be Lonely is Out now
Originally published as Rita Ora: ‘I hope my loneliness helps others’