In a magazine interview to promote her forthcoming album, Phoenix, pop star Rita Ora talked about how she felt about breaking her 4-and-a-half-month controlled break from the media after a battle with exhaustion and depression over the past few years. On the magazine’s cover she’s smiling from ear to ear, but she’s been worried that everything will look bad in retrospect, according to an excerpt in The Sunday Times.
Speaking to the Sun last week, Ora spoke about her crisis in a lot more detail, saying that she decided to go out looking stunning and partying in the days before an appearance at the BRIT Awards in February, and that her friends were concerned about her. When she attended the MTV Europe Music Awards in Rotterdam, she broke her no-media rule again. “I had the best security! But I took the same picture — and this is exactly how I was feeling in the aftermath,” she said.
Then she spoke about what led her to break the four-month plan and “this crazy insanity.”
“I’m an independent artist,” she said. “So when I feel anything, that’s how I do it: I disappear into myself. I go to the woods and sing — I did a room full of what I called slow songs. I know people have issues, and I don’t like to make them go through it, but… . I did not expect it to blow up like this. I mean, we were concerned, but I don’t know what else to say.”
The Sunday Times quoted Ora as saying: “That is something I have to live with for the rest of my life. I don’t want to think about it because I feel like it’s a ghost in my head. I’m still incredibly embarrassed and deeply embarrassed and really ashamed by it all. I think that is something people can take with them… Because I’m a fan, they will think I’m a hypocrite. But I just want them to know that I’m here and I’m going to be OK.”
And, as if you couldn’t be any more proud of her (and the rest of her record!), Ora showed off some new art online. No more jail time for this one.
Read the full story at The Sunday Times.
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