Rita Ora wants fans to “get to know her” again with her new album.
The ‘You Only Love Me’ hitmaker released ‘You And I’ – the full length follow up to 2018’s ‘Phoenix’ – last week, and she admitted her goals for the record go far beyond sales.
She told the Metro newspaper’s 60 Seconds column: “I never really think about what it’s going to do, I just genuinely hope people are going to like it.
“I just wanted people to feel like they’re getting to know me again because when you’ve been in the business quite a while, it’s always important to touch base.
“You know, ‘Hi guys! It’s Rita! I’m still me!’ “
The 32-year-old singer was also influenced by her own journaling, which was something she’d “never really done before”, while her marriage to Hollywood director Taika Waititi offered more inspiration.
She added: “Just jotting down ideas and notes. My sister’s really good at it and she was always saying, ‘Try it!’
“So I started with words and emotions and feelings and thought eventually that those could be songs and I went into the studio, not really planning anything, and it turned out to be ‘You Only Love Me’, which was the first single and I thought, ‘Well, let’s just keep going’, and we made an album.
“It felt really natural and organic and yes, it was definitely that light that was lit inside of me since meeting Taika and getting married. It just opened a bigger door int the world of love.”
Rita enlisted her husband to direct her music video for ‘Don’t Think Twice’, and she joked that she “put him to work”.
Asked jokingly if having him on board was a way to save money, she quipped: “I mean, I put him to work, babes! [laughs]
“No, it was not. It was to do something together and it was the right project and he was very passionate about the song.”