Just over 13 years since releasing her debut album, Rita Ora wants to reintroduce herself to the world.
The British singer’s latest single, “All Natural”, 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 — a little dark, a little sexy, a lot of confidence.
“There’s 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,” Ora tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ in an online exclusive.
“I 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. ‘All Natural’, the title and the subject, really felt very relevant. The word ‘natural,’ 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?”
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; since then, he’s 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.
“He comes from, like, a darker place,” she explains, “and I think with my tone, we both really found a new sound for me that I actually haven’t done before. We approached my vocal different. I’m, kind of, more ‘talky’ rather than ‘singy,’ whereas usually I’d really try and show off my vocal as much.
“I 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.”
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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’t long before they hit the studio.
“I needed to, like, let it out,” she says of her desire to make new music. “I 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, ‘Look, there’s no expectation. What do you feel like you wanna do?’ And I was like, ‘I feel like I want to feel uncomfortable. I wanna do something super different that’s exciting.’ And he really took that out of me.”
By her own admission, Ora isn’t 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’s not something she is overly concerned about.
“I try not to look at it because I do believe that when you try and do something that you think people want, it usually doesn’t work,” the London-raised artist explains. “As an artist, you’re like, ‘OK, well that’s popular, let’s just try and do something similar.’ But then it’s like, what’s your identity? Where are you standing out [from] them because that already is existing.
“Of course I get inspired by what’s popular, but I don’t think I go and chase and try and imitate that. I definitely love the idea of pop music having different faces, you know? There’s so many different versions of it now.
“Let’s not exclude hip-hop and rap and all of these things as well. I feel like there’s so much opportunity to just carve out your own identity and not worry so much about the charts, because there’s a bigger thing, I think, now more than ever, which is reconnecting with people. I feel like just by having your authentic approach and showing up for tours and doing all of that, it’s way more important for me than, I don’t know, being obsessed with the result. At the end of the day, you can’t control that anyway.”
Keeping the New Zealand theme strong with the new music, Ora even recruited Waititi to direct the music video for “All Natural”. Though largely known for major blockbusters like Thor and the What We Do in the Shadows franchises, Waititi got the chance to strip everything back to head up the sleek film clip.
“It was awesome because he loves the challenge, so do I,” Ora says.
“He saw me in my transition period with being an artist and going through all my insecurities and doubting myself. I think he really was there through it all. So, nobody else could tell that story better than him. And, you know, obviously I trust him implicitly.”
“All Natural” is not only the first tease at this new and exciting era for Ora, it’s also the first taste of her forthcoming fourth album.
The details are tight but here’s what we know so far: Little has produced “the majority” of the record which Ora hopes to release in early 2026.
“This is a reintroduction of Rita the artist,” Ora says.
“I’ve done so much over the course of my career with TV and with film and as a musician, I call it cleaning up shop. I just wanted to clean up everything I did, which I’m super proud of, but, set an intention behind all of my choices – making sure the tour has a clear direction, making sure if I do a movie, that there’s nothing else that’s gonna interrupt that experience.”
This chapter — which Ora summarises as “a reinvention of my woman power” — will also include an ensuing world tour, and that includes Australia.
“Australia’s a big priority market for me, it has been for a very long time,” Ora smiles.
“I have a lot to thank for my Australian community, as I like to call it. I mean, it’s only right that I make that a priority. Especially knowing that I can then go to New Zealand and have a couple days off!”
