Rita Ora | GLAMOUR Unfiltered

I love women that are strong and bold

and have made big sacrifices and have fought to be heard.

Hi, I'm Rita Ora and this is my GLAMOUR Unfiltered.

I have a lot of dreams, you know, so sometimes I sit

and we have like meetings and I'm like, I wanna do this,

I wanna do that, I wanna do this, I wanna do that.

And then my team really kind of shows me the reality of it.

But I think to dream big is where it really does start.

What are your dreams?

And then you just throw them out there

and then you can really kind of get into the nitty gritty.

But the dream is the biggest thing for me.

And I never stop dreaming.

I think it's the things that I believe I can do better

or that I can do again.

I love people like Cher, Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga

and anyone that really pushes the boundaries.

There's so many different routes that you can take

that you can also just tie them all together.

You know, people used to tell me,

oh, you can't do that because you do that

or you can't do that because you do that.

But what do you mean I can't do it?

Like, what do you mean by that?

I think I do.

You know, I don't think it has anything to do

with it being a syndrome.

I think it really comes

down to like self-love first and foremost.

You know, it's a like insecurities, fears, doubts.

And so, I think for me, do I have those?

Of course I do.

You know, I'm human and I do think

that being able to build confidence comes

from trial and error.

You know, trial and error

being okay to like not get it right.

Growing up in the industry

and now sort of being a little older in my thirties

finding someone that I've decided to really sort

of put a lot of my attention in, again, it's a big highlight

for me that I made that choice, you know?

And so, I think with all of that and being a decision maker,

it's really put me in a calm place.

And so I feel very zen with my decisions

and I think that's a big part of growing up,

being able to make a really clear, definite decision.

The video is really special to me because it's the opening

of my new sort of like world.

My styling of the video is a bit of a playoff

on what's actually happening in my real life.

But I really wanted to keep it sort of, again,

a guessing game because I just think

it's a fun game to play [laughs].

Also, I went through my sort of dream guest list.

Like, if I was writing out a guest list for a wedding,

it'd be like, who would I, you know, really love to send me

like a good luck video.

And we've got Kristen Stewart in there who I love so much.

One of my bestest friends, Chelsea Handler, who is the one

of the funniest people on the planet.

Jodie Turner-Smith icon, British.

For me, amazing.

And Lindsay Lohan, I mean, who doesn't love Lindsay Lohan?

She is like iconic.

Sharon Stone also plays my mom and it's really fun.

And so, we've just created mini movie for you guys.

'Cause again, remember this is my dream wedding.

Or is it? I find it extremely important to highlight

decision making in within your boundaries

and in your own own career.

And so for me, I made a really big decision to switch labels

and own all my masters

and basically take control of my ownership of my music.

So, what happens is you get control

of your music and you can sort of choose

whether you wanna sell it or whether you wanna hold onto it.

And in the world of percentages, I'm not gonna bore you

with all that nonsense, but like you basically get back more

than you would if you had a normal record deal.

Saying that each to their own, you know,

I've been in record deals when you first start out,

there's a lot of support that you need

and a lot of advanced money and a lot of things go on.

And so, knowing your situation is also important.

But this was a big deal for me because I think at this point

in my career, to have the ability to make that choice was

like a huge empowering business choice for me.

And as a businesswoman, I felt

like it was necessary for me to speak about it.

I've had this my whole career, you know,

having people judge what I wear or is she too naked

or you know, can she say things like that?

She's dated all these people and all these things.

And I find that extremely sort of like misogynistic.

It's also things that come with being a public figure

and it's about being proud of what you've done.

And there's literally no rules.

And I believe in that, you know,

Madonna is one of those people.

Why do I think women are treated differently?

Well, how long have you got?

I think that, you know, we have a long way to go.

You know, whether I'm in the public eye or not,

whether you are in finance, whether you are,

you know, anywhere overseas, in any country

I think that we always are sort of undervalued, underpaid.

There's a lot of work to do.

It goes beyond me.

And I do think, you know, we have to really keep being loud

and vocal about it.

And that is all I can do really.

You know, I'm from a war torn country.

I moved to the UK when I was born and so, you know,

I am a proud refugee and I really take that proudly

because I think there's a lot of stories that come

from immigrants or an immigrant family.

You know, a lot of the music industry is full

of either immigrants or immigrant heritage.

I've experienced a couple of that, you know, growing up

of people sort of seeing me in certain ways.

'Cause you know, I'm not from here and things like that,

but they can't help it.

They end up loving me anyway.

'Cause you know,

I'm a funny person, what can you say?

But no, I find it,

I engage with people more like that because I make an effort

to sort of change their minds

because I'm really passionate about knowing

and teaching that, you know, we are humans.

I think that the fear really never goes of wanting

to achieve and sort of being a hustler,

you know, what I mean?

Like, I've always been a hustler since I can remember

my parents were, my grandparents were.

And we're a very hardworking family

and their family is very important to me.

And I think that's a really proud trait to have.

You know, what I learned from my parents

and my sort of journey coming here to the UK was amazing.

You know, I was really lucky.

My parents were so, so supportive.

They really blocked out a lot

of negativity and struggles that they were having.

You know, my parents made a conscious effort

to really just show us the beauty of London.

And so for me,

my memory is nothing but amazing.

I'm a proud immigrant myself.

I thought it was really important to really

give these kids some inspiration and show them, you know,

if I can do it, you know, you can do it too.

And I love the idea of that.

I hope I bring joy to the kids' lives

and spread awareness as well and raise money, you know,

as much as we can for these kids.

Mental health, mental awareness.

You know, my mother has been such a huge advocate

for that since she's a psychiatrist herself.

I really love to expand on breast cancer awareness as well

as my mom is a breast cancer survivor.

And for me, getting her self checked

and sort of speaking about self-checking is very important.

Everything from smear testing

to gyno checks for your womanhood, everything like that.

I think it's so vital to pay attention to.

My mental wellbeing,

well, we all have our own journeys with it, don't we?

It's been interesting.

I can't say it's been a smooth ride,

but I don't think anyone's is.

I love the fact that I spend time on my mental health.

It's like when I go to the gym, you know,

I've really picked up the gym these past couple years

and it's been my sort of therapy for me.

But as much time as you spend on your physical health,

it's important to do that with your mental health.

And so, you know, I have an hour

in the gym and then, you know, you make an hour

on the phone or you know, you write out your problems.

There's lots of different ways.

Bringing calmness

into my life is really what makes me focus.

So, having an hour out of my day,

like, before the day starts to write what I want to do today

or to not look at my phone for an hour

or to speak to my therapist or to meditate

or to even have a bath or to just simply read a book,

like, three pages before the day starts.

And I know that's super unrealistic

for some people that like have kids

or get up and I'm like in a rush.

Or maybe at the end of the day, I think

that at some point you have to just make time for yourself.

That is really important.

Social media. I actually don't mind it.

'Cause I know how to lock off, you know,

I don't go on it as much, you know, I'm like, okay,

I'm doing a phone cleanse so I don't go on my phone

for like two, three hours, four hours or something.

Or when I'm working like now, you know,

I don't look at my phone.

I'm very much sort of involved.

I think that's another thing, like just being alert

in the conversation I think is really important.

Ever since I was a kid, I've always wanted to do music.

I always wanted to be a singer, you know?

And so, I was watching people on TV.

Tina Turner, biggest inspiration.

We also have the same birthday.

So, I feel like I'm connected to her in a weird way,

even though I've never met her.

I love women that are strong and bold

and have made big sacrifices and have fought to be heard

and have really made a difference.

You know, my mom, my mom's always been there.

I've always been really, really loud

about my mom being a big inspo for me.

It's gonna be all right.

You're gonna be fine.

And you know, those simple words, it's kind of like, oh no,

it's not in the moment, but you know what?

You are at the end of it.

You're always fine.

I'd like my legacy to be the one that did it all.

10 years from now, I hope I'll still be doing this.

I hope I'll still be doing another GLAMOUR cover.