RHYTHM OF LIFE
A year is a very long time to spend not doing the thing you love. Which is how long Rita Ora spent, in our pandemic annus horribilis , never once setting foot onto a stage.
“You put [music] on and you don’t feel alone. You’ve got something there that protects you, that gives you that shield of confidence, or that shield of sympathy, or whatever mood you need … It’s the only thing I rely on to bring me joy. It’s probably the one, [the] only thing I know I can rely on”
Not that she didn’t sing at all. Throughout 2020, Ora noodled around in a makeshift home studio, trying out different things to see what stuck. One of those things was Bang Bang , a total knockout, shake-your-body dance single that sampled, of all things, the Crazy Frog ringtone. It’s classic Rita Ora: cheeky, irreverent and fun – so much damn fun ! – with her honey-smooth vocals sliding all over the track. And, she says proudly, a lot of what you hear on the finished product she recorded herself.
“I bought a whole laptop. I set it all up,” the 30-year-old singer shares. “I did Zooms with my team and I was like: ‘Okay, how do I use this?’” Still, these are skills that both she,
