Rita Ora

Rita Sahatçiu Ora, born on 26 November 1990, is a British singer, songwriter, television personality, and actress. Born in Pristina, SFR Yugoslavia (modern-day Kosovo), she moved with her family to London in 1991. She grew up in Notting Hill and attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School. Ora gained major public recognition in 2012 when she featured on DJ Fresh's UK number-one single "Hot Right Now," subsequently establishing a career across music, screen acting, television hosting, and fashion design.

Ora's family left Kosovo due to the political persecution of Albanians during the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Her mother is a psychiatrist, and her father is a pub owner who studied economics. Her grandfathers worked as an Albanian consul and a film and theatre director. Her family's original surname, Sahatçiu, was supplemented with Ora so it could be easily pronounced. Before pursuing music full-time, she had early acting roles at age 13 in the British television drama series The Brief and the 2004 British film Spivs.

In 2008, Ora qualified for the Eurovision selection show Eurovision: Your Country Needs You, but chose to withdraw from the competition. Later that year, she signed recording and publishing deals with American rapper Jay-Z's label, Roc Nation. After featuring on "Hot Right Now" and opening for Drake and Coldplay on tour, she released her debut studio album, Ora, in August 2012. The record debuted atop the UK Albums Chart and generated the UK number-one singles "R.I.P." and "How We Do (Party)."

In 2014, Ora appeared on Iggy Azalea's single "Black Widow," which reached number three on the US Billboard Hot 100. Following a lawsuit and settlement with Roc Nation, she signed with Atlantic Records in 2016. She released her second studio album, Phoenix, in 2018, which yielded the UK top-ten singles "Your Song," "Anywhere," and "Let You Love Me." The latter earned Ora her 13th top-ten single in the UK, making her the first British female solo artist to reach that figure. Her third album, You & I, was released in July 2023 and debuted at number six in the UK.

Alongside her recording career, Ora has acted in several film productions. She played Mia Grey in the Fifty Shades film series from 2015 to 2018, appeared as the Artful Dodger in Twist (2021), and played the Queen of Hearts in Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024). Her television career includes serving as a judge on The X Factor UK, The Masked Singer UK, and The Masked Singer US, as well as a coach on The Voice UK and The Voice Australia. She has also co-designed fashion collections with brands such as Adidas Originals, Tezenis, Giuseppe Zanotti, Escada, and Primark.

Ora was appointed an honorary ambassador of Kosovo in 2015. She hosted the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2017 and 2022, signed a record deal with BMG in 2022, and released the collaborative EP Bang with producer Imanbek in 2021. In October 2024, it was announced that Ora would serve as a supporting act on the U.S. leg of Kylie Minogue's Tension Tour.