The Voice Australia runner-up Rita Ora on love, making the right choices and the ‘one thing’ which brings her joy
The Voice Australia coach and her New Zealand director beau joined fashion’s elite at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual gala.
Rita Ora has revealed she nearly reached burnout before the pandemic and is now focusing on making “the right choices”.
“I exhausted myself,” the 30-year-old British pop sensation said, adding her career was going “150 miles an hour” before live music around the world was cancelled.
“This next phase of my life, I’m protecting myself.
“It’s all really about making the right choices and focusing really hard on my work and my health.”
The singer, who appears on the cover of Vogue Australia’s upcoming October issue, dazzled on the red carpet at Tuesday’s MET Gala alongside her partner, New Zealand director Taika Waititi. Wearing Prada, Ora said she had missed the “glamour” of a red carpet.
“I love a red carpet and I missed the fantasy of it all,” she said.
Asked how she fit with this year’s theme, America: A Lexicon of Fashion, Ora said she wanted to pay respect to America’s glamorous history.
“I felt like I really wanted to make the most of the glamour that America had to offer over the years so that’s why I chose diamonds,” she said before exclaiming “Shine shine shine shine!”.
When asked about his outfit, Waititi, who began dating the British singer earlier this year, said: “I’m her date and I really wanted to do something that looked chic and nice and just complements her.”
The pair was joined at the New York event by fashion, music and Hollywood’s elite, including Emily Blunt, Jennifer Lopez, Gigi Hadid, Lorde, Billie Eilish and Justin and Hailey Beiber.
The Voice Australia coach, who’s group G-Nat!on was pipped at the post by Guy Sebastian’s artist Bella Taylor Smith in the show’s grand final on Sunday night, was photographed for the cover of Vogue Australia’s October issue while in Sydney to film the Seven ratings hit earlier this year.
The record-breaking ratings and the buzz around the season “feels fantastic,” Ora tells The Australian exclusively, after Sunday night’s grand final. “I just feel incredibly grateful to have been a part of this experience and to work with such amazing artists.” Her advice for Bella Taylor Smith is simple: “Trust your gut and stay true to your creative vision.”
And Ora adds that she would love to return for another turn in the chair. “I love Australia,” she says. “I’ve created so many special memories with my Voice family and the shows I’ve played here have been crazy fun. I would love to come back for another season!”
Ora, who was photographed by Ben Morris for the magazine, which hits newsstands on September 27, is currently in New York attending the city’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection shows alongside the likes of Charlie XCX, Lorde and Katie Holmes.
On Sunday she joined celebrities including Ciara, Ed Sheeran, Kourtney Kardashian and Aussies Troye Sivan and music wunderkind Kid Laroi at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards in New York City, stepping out in a black Vera Wang ensemble and thigh-high boots.
UK news outlets are reporting she is expected to return to Britain next month to join the panel of The Masked Singer, following a performance at the Eiffel Tower during Paris Fashion Week.
It was during her time living in Sydney in early 2021 that Ora’s passion for performing was reignited, when she headlined the 2021 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade in March.
“I lost a lot of my adrenaline,” Ora told Vogue Australia’s Hannah-Rose Yee.
“So when I got out there, and I saw all those faces – because it wasn’t like easing back into it, I mean, we did 30,000 people. And it was live. And it was Mardi Gras! A historical event – so as soon as I got out there, I looked around and I had to stop myself from crying … I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be able to perform.”
Ora, told the magazine she was “in a great place” in her life, but wanted to keep her relationship with Waititi private.
The pair was first linked romantically while Ora was in living in Mosman and Waititi was directing Marvel movie Thor: Love and Thunder on the Gold Coast.
Last week the singer sparked rumours she and Waititi were engaged, posting a photo of her manicured hand with a flame emoji covering her ring finger.
“I just think, respectfully, privacy is important,” she said, adding “Yeah … I learned a lot in my 20s.”
It’s not the first time Ora’s love life has come under scrutiny, with her messy break-up with Calvin Harris in 2014 – following which she was ‘banned’ from releasing music they wrote together – the most highly publicised.
The Kosovo-born performer told the magazine music had been a “lifesaver” throughout her career, helping her with “friendships, relationships, self-worth, self-discovering, confidence, independence, sorrow, loneliness”. “It’s the only thing I rely on to bring me joy,” she continued. “It’s probably the one, [the] only thing I know I can rely on.”
Now 30, and with the impressive title of having the most top 10 hits of any British female artist, Ora said she’s focusing on “being happy – that’s it”.
Read the full story in Vogue Australia’s October issue, on sale September 27.