She has not an air or a grace about her. She greets the bar staff dotted in the hostelries of her neighbourhood like old friends, mostly because they are. She bumps knuckles with the coat check chicks and management with the same egalitarian smile. Friends stop by for a brief ‘Hi’. Strangers look on with a discernible, barely contained ‘wow’. There is no mistaking the fact that Saturday night in Notting Hill is brightened by a touch of Rita’s special aura. She might not have been born this way, but she was recognisably named it.
Buzz acts come and buzz acts go, but the pertinent feeling amongst those that have heard the results of her knockout first round in the recording studio as a bona fide solo star, accompanied by a blue chip roster of production hands, is that the effect Rita Ora has locally is about to translate to the upper terrains of the pop market, globally. A composite of street-smarts of the metropolitan life she was schooled in and pure, urgent, otherworldly star quality, she makes for a brilliantly contradictory mix.
Rita is one of the few British female singers that has emerged singing the opening bars of her career ready for world star status. So why is she so palpably shy of celebrating herself? ‘Because, you know what? I might seem confident about all this. It might be all I’ve ever wanted. It might even be all I’m ever any good at. But I am still really, really nervous about it all.’
The fact that she has already made British chart history as the guest vocalist on one of the first ever drum’n’bass number 1 singles here, DJ Fresh’s Hot Right Now, is almost brushed aside. ‘That was Fresh’s triumph,’ she gifts the producer, though clearly her vocals lend the propulsive tune a hefty portion of its personality. ‘He started a tiny drum’n’bass record label back in the day, now here he is with its first number 1? That’s incredible for him. He owns that.’
Regardless, the breakout smash success of her first number 1 looks very much like the dress rehearsal, the overture or prelude to the main act: Rita Ora solo. If Hot Right Now put a temporary rocket up the British pop chart, her solo cannon is about to blow its mind.
It’s time for Rita Ora to dive in headfirst and see how her unique talent plays out. With support slots on the DJ Fresh and Coldplay tours this year she’s ready. ‘I am so nervous,’ she repeats. ‘Now is when I’m put to the test. I don’t even know what to expect. I have to dive in. I’ve just got to do it.’
Ora is distributed by Ivory Music & Video, the exclusive licensee of Sony Music in the Philippines. Ora is available in all music stores nationwide, and online via iTunes and MyMusicStore.com.ph
