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Just over 13 years since releasing her debut album, Rita Ora wants to reintroduce herself to the world.<\/p>\n
The British singer\u2019s latest single, \u201cAll Natural\u201d, is proof of that. Not only does Ora describe it as one of her most personal releases, it signals the start of a new era \u2014 a little dark, a little sexy, a lot of confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of, I would say, thoughts in my mind over the past 12 years of what I am as an artist and how I wanted to change my perspective and just evolve as a creative,\u201d Ora tells\u00a0Rolling Stone AU\/NZ\u00a0<\/em>in an online exclusive.<\/p>\n \u201cI just felt like I was on a hamster wheel for a while, and so I really wanted to strip everything back and really find what my identity is right now. \u2018All Natural\u2019, the title and the subject, really felt very relevant. The word \u2018natural,\u2019 I think, means a lot of different things for different people. I thought that with my perspective of a woman and me not being a kid anymore, I wanted to show a sense of strength and confidence with who I am as a woman and really play with my character when it comes to using my sexuality and my sensuality and celebrating that, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n Tapping into this new era of music is a little easier when you have a Grammy Award-winning heavyweight, Joel Little, on your side, too. The New Zealand producer helped put Lorde on the map back in 2013 with her debut album, Pure Heroine<\/em>; since then, he\u2019s gone on to work with the likes of Taylor Swift, Noah Kahan, Gracie Abrams, and Sam Smith. As Ora explains, she was inspired by working with Little.<\/p>\n \u201cHe comes from, like, a darker place,\u201d she explains, \u201cand I think with my tone, we both really found a new sound for me that I actually haven\u2019t done before. We approached my vocal different. I\u2019m, kind of, more \u2018talky\u2019 rather than \u2018singy,\u2019 whereas usually I\u2019d really try and show off my vocal as much.<\/p>\n \u201cI just wanted to try something that felt uncomfortable for me because then I knew that that was like the right thing and direction to go in.\u201d<\/p>\n Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian\/New Zealand music and globally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now spending time, at least during the holidays, in New Zealand with her husband and Oscar-winning director Taika Waititi, Ora met Little for the first time and it wasn\u2019t long before they hit the studio.<\/p>\n \u201cI needed to, like, let it out,\u201d she says of her desire to make new music. \u201cI told him exactly what I told you. I really felt like I was on a hamster wheel and he just really put it all into perspective. He was like, \u2018Look, there\u2019s no expectation. What do you feel like you wanna do?\u2019 And I was like, \u2018I feel like I want to feel uncomfortable. I wanna do something super different that\u2019s exciting.\u2019 And he really took that out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n By her own admission, Ora isn\u2019t sure where the sound she is producing right now fits in pop music in 2025, particularly as some of the biggest names in music live in that world right now, like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, and Sabrina Carpenter. But it\u2019s not something she is overly concerned about.<\/p>\nLove Music?<\/h2>\n