Rita Ora has joined forces with David Bowie’s drummer for her second studio album.
The 26-year-old pop beauty has worked with Mick ‘Woody’ Woodmansey, who is known for his work with the late music legend’s band The Spiders from Mars and for performing with the ‘Starman’ hitmaker during his Ziggy Stardust phase.
The 66-year-old sticksman, who was unsure as to Rita’s singing abilities but was "pleasantly surprised", told the Daily Star newspaper: "I was like ‘are you sure you want what I do? I’m a hard-hitting rock guy’ but it was exactly what she wanted.
"I had her in this bag with the modelly, X Factor singers that probably need auto-tuning.
"But when we came together in the session she can really sing. I was really pleasantly surprised, she’s got a great voice."
In 2015, Rita worked with late ‘Purple Rain’ hitmaker Prince – who died April last year from a fentanyl overdose – at his Paisley Park studios to record songs for the record.
At the time, she said: "Yeah you love him don’t you! Yeah he is on the album. He is writing with me on the new record and I did some stuff with him on his album.
"Amazing story though, I went to Paisley Park, which is his studios, and I looked around and I thought I was hearing things. I start hearing birds singing. One of my favourite songs is ‘Doves Cry’ so I think it’s amazing, and no word of a lie he had doves flying around in the studio. S***ting all over the place.
"It was amazing. They weren’t crying though. They were very happy doves."
The ‘R.I.P.’ hitmaker earned £3 million in 2016 – despite not releasing a single track of her own last year.
The singer-and-actress hasn’t released a new song since ‘Body On Me’, ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Poison’ in 2015, but she has kept the money rolling in thanks to her promo work with various brands including Adidas and Coca-Cola, and from starring in the two films in the ‘Fifty Shades’ franchise.
Last year Rita signed a new deal with Atlantic Records UK – a subsidiary of Warner Music Group – following her departure from Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation and insisted that the follow-up to her 2012 debut LP ‘Ora’ will be deeply personal.
Rita Ora taps David Bowie drummer for new album
