Rita Ora Talks New Music, Avicii, Taika Waititi, Descendants and Fyre Festival Musical

Zach Sang Show

Sangasong, LLC

Tv & Film, Music

4.7 • 658 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s a been a minute — or six years — since we last caught up with Rita Ora and a lot has happened: she got married (to director Taika Waititi), she release an album (2023’s You & I), she’s hosted so many TV shows, and really gone deep with the acting (Queen of Hearts in The Descendants, opposite Brandy no less). We talk about all this plus her early years from interning at a London record studio to getting signed by Jay Z and moving to NYC, not to mention her dance roots, this new era and — oh my god — collaborating with Taika on (amongst other projects) a musical inspired by the hilarious catastrophe that was Fyre Festival with music by, wait for it, Adele (and her longtime collaborator/songwriter Paul Epworth). And this is just the tip of the iceberg because the Kosovan-born, British-raised, 36-year-old, multi-hyphenate extraordinaire has experienced so much. And she’s got some tips for turkey roasting. So nice to have her back.

Chapters:

01:24 - Early Career & UK Music Scene

06:51 - Dance Music Roots & Club Culture

13:19 - Working with Avicii & "Lonely Together"

16:32 - Creative Process & Studio Setup

18:28 - Pushing Artistic Boundaries

21:45 - The Song "Joy" & TV Soundtracks

27:45 - Relationship with Partner Taika Waititi & Creative Synergy

31:01 - Fyre Festival Musical Project

42:00 - Taika Waititi & Music Videos

45:44 - New Era: "All Natural" & Artistic Identity

49:07 - Overcoming Anxiety & Personal Growth

52:01 - Looking Ahead: Future Projects & Inspiration

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Are we starting?
0:05.0	Yeah?
0:07.0	Yeah, good. Because I think we should just start.
0:09.0	This makes me so happy. You were locked in and you were making music. Oh, shit is right.
0:13.0	Sorry everybody. I just spilled a bit of tea.
0:16.0	That's okay.
0:17.0	Oh, it's okay.
0:18.0	But it's only on the wood.
0:19.0	Do you want more tea? No, no, no. But it's still pretty full. So it's fine. I just spill it a little bit. But anyway, enough about the tea. You're making music. I'm making music as we speak. Okay, so you say you're locked in. Can you explain to me what that means right now actively in this moment? You know how some people come and do your show and it's like, you know, to promote something
0:40.5	and whatever? And like I have obviously got a single out that I dropped called All Natural.
0:45.6	But you know, I'm like really locked in trying to finish this album and I am so inspired and
0:51.7	excited and completely have no idea what I'm doing, which I love.
0:57.0	Explain to me how you, of all people, by the way, I love that you're coming back in today
1:02.4	because it gave me an opportunity to refresh my memory and my, you're a fucking icon.
1:07.7	By the way, there's only so many people who like ride and die for you, like, for real, for real. You know, Ariana being one, like, your relationships with artists are so important. And I want to be a part of that crew. Thank you. You are, though. Because I do feel like you were one of my first ever interviews back in like 2012 yeah it was a very long time ago
1:27.7	I know and then you also you've been can we just break down like you made UK history
1:33.2	I didn't understand that your first single out of the gate was like the first ever like drum
1:39.3	and bass yeah remember drum and bass you guys know about drum and bass like that? Of course we do. Like what the what the exactly? Yeah I mean 2012 it's so funny they just recently reached out to me to do like a redo of it or something like that and I just was like I don't want to touch it because I love it so much how it actually is already.
1:58.2	2012 I literally did like two takes of it with this producer DJ Fresh.
2:03.6	I love talking about this.
2:04.8	I haven't actually spoken about this since literally I put it out.
2:08.6	And it came out.
	...

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