Rita Ora’s biggest inspiration is the LGBTQ+ community.
The ‘Hot Right Now’ hitmaker – who is bisexual and married to filmmaker Taika Waititi – explained how with every song she makes, she sets out to make people “feel like they can be themselves and come out of their shell.”
Speaking to DJ Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim for the latest edition of The Big Issue magazine, she said: “Inspiration with all my songs was always the community that I was most accepted in. And for me it was the LGBT+ community. For decades, even before I thought I’d have a music career it was, would they accept it, will they listen to it in the clubs? That was always my vision, and that’s why I guess I always had this relationship with rave and dance music because it’s such a vibrant, confident, confidence-boosting genre. That’s always what’s behind my music, making people feel like they can be themselves and come out of their shell.”
The pair have teamed up on a remake of Fatboy’s 1998 hit ‘Praise You’ called ‘Praising You’, which is out on April 19.
And the 59-year-old hitmaker praised the 32-year-old pop star for breathing “new life” into the song.
He told her: “While we’re blowing smoke up each other’s a****, you breathe new life into it. I’ve listened to that tune an awful lot and it is easy to get jaded about it, but you’ve definitely taken it in a different direction for me.”
For Rita, she wrote her part about being head-over-heels in love.
She said: “The way I wrote it was being madly in love with someone and having fun with that person. When you love a person you do praise them. You feel like they can do no wrong. So that’s what my version of the record is about.
“And dancing in your feelings, because it’s the best feeling in the world.”