Little Miss look at me! How Rita Ora the risqué new star of BBC's The Voice - daughter of an Albanian pub landlord - has built a career out of outrageous attention seeking
PUBLISHED: 00:02, 10 January 2015 | UPDATED: 18:20, 10 January 2015
With her slicked-back, bleach-blonde hair and a plunging white suit that dipped low enough to reveal not just half her breasts but part of her stomach - not to mention a very obvious absence of any bra - pop star Rita Ora isn’t the sort of guest one expects on a family-friendly BBC programme.
Viewers of The One Show, dismayed by the sight of the 24-year-old last week, did not hold back in their condemnation.
More than 400 complaints were made about the ‘disgraceful’ display, and Ofcom may yet investigate the pre-watershed lack of modesty.
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Rita Ora will be on our screens every Saturday evening on BBC1 as a judge on The Voice talent show
But if regular BBC viewers thought this a one-off, they are in for a surprise.
For while they may not yet have heard of this publicity-seeking starlet (despite her very best efforts) she has, in fact, landed one of the broadcaster’s most high-profile and highly paid roles.
From tonight, she will be on our screens every Saturday evening on BBC1 as a judge on The Voice, the Corporation’s flagship music show.
Sitting alongside Sir Tom Jones, rapper Will.i.am and the Kaiser Chiefs’ Ricky Wilson, for this she is being paid an incredible £500,000 and replacing Kylie Minogue.
It is a coup for Ora, who arrived here as a baby after her family fled Kosovo.
Especially given that she is best known not for her music (she has released only four singles) but for flashing her underwear, her very risque behaviour with famous friends, such as supermodel Cara Delevingne, and her incredible aptitude for self-promotion.
She has risen to fame through a variety of methods - she is pictured with the Obamas last month
Take, for instance, her New Year celebrations in St Barts with new boyfriend Richard Hilfiger, son of designer Tommy and known by his stage name Ricky Hil.
Her online video of herself using the family’s private jet and dancing on a yacht in her bikini has now been watched an astonishing 633,000 times.
Or the moment she pulled the split of her gold dress apart at the Met Gala Ball last May to reveal her underwear for the paparazzi.
Or the regular photos she posts of herself kissing, mouth to mouth, everyone from Cara to Kate Moss and singer Ellie Goulding.
Rita is certainly living the high life - she is pictured here frolicking on a yacht in a skimpy bikini
She has, it seems, mastered a very modern recipe for fame: befriending a host of high-profile individuals, from Madonna and Prince to Michelle Obama; an unwavering wardrobe policy that shows eye-watering amounts of skin; a string of provocative faux-lesbian clinches; and a huge social media presence, with more than four million Twitter followers won over by her displays of flesh and wealth.
So just who is this supremely confident star?
She has come a long way from her beginnings in Pristina, Kosovo, where she was born in 1990 to Besnik Sahatciu, who was a businessman back home and has since become a pub landlord in the UK, and Vera, a psychiatrist.
She was then Rita Sahatciu — named after Rita Hayworth, her grandfather’s favourite actress — but after her family relocated to West London in 1991, they took the surname Ora as it is easier to pronounce.
Miss Ora is not averse to flashing some flesh - she showed off her matching underwear at a red carpet event
More than 400 complaints were made about the ‘disgraceful’ display and Ofcom may yet investigate
As Kosovans of Albanian descent, they fled when the Serb-led government began denying Kosovans education and healthcare.
None of them could speak English when they first arrived here, so her parents took lessons while Rita, along with her younger brother, Don, and older sister, Elena, were brought up speaking English.
Her father — now known as Nick — runs the Queen’s Arms pub in Kilburn, North-West London, and her mother retrained and works for the NHS.
Growing up in this ‘hard-working, middle-class’ family, as Rita describes them, she attended the local Catholic school followed by the Sylvia Young Theatre School, the alma mater of stars such as Emma Bunton and Amy Winehouse.
She was discovered as a teenager singing in Portobello Market, where she worked in a trainers shop.
Rita pictured with Madonna after being made the face of the Queen of Pop's fashion line Material Girl
She signed a ‘cheap deal’ with a music producer, after which she recalls being ‘in the studio every week after school, singing my little heart out’. But it came to nothing.
Her determination to become a musician continued, and after school she dropped out of college to devote herself to ‘open mic’ gigs — events at which anyone can take to the stage — in bars and pubs.
Her big break came after doing guest vocals on a track for Craig David.
Afterwards, she was invited to New York to meet rapper Jay-Z.
In 2009, he signed her to his label Roc Nation. Her first hit, singing on DJ Fresh’s No 1 single Hot Right Now, came in 2012, the same year her debut album Ora was released, producing three No 1 singles.
Since then, she has released just one single — I Will Never Let You Down, last year, which also reached top spot.
Her second album is out this month, well timed to coincide with the new series of The Voice.
Rita recently uploaded this picture of her baring her breasts with the caption 'Hello LA!!'
She also shared this risqué picture of her new tattoo with her millions of Twitter followers
Yet while singers might expect their profile to dip during periods when they don’t release music, Ora’s has rocketed.
For although the past two years have been quiet musically, her social media and social calendar have never been busier.
Indeed, the reason for the delay to her album seems to be because she’s been busy doing everything but singing in the studio.
Her fledgling fame was given its first major boost by a friendship with supermodel Cara Delevingne, which helped elevate both their profiles.
Their relationship was close and very, very public, with a memorable off-key duet at a DKNY fashion party in 2013.
Rita told an interviewer: ‘When I was doing my first record, she was doing her first photoshoots and we both sort of exploded at the same time. It really helped to have somebody to go through it with.’
In early 2013, Cara wore a T-shirt reading ‘Rita’s wifey’ — playing up to the idea that their relationship was romantic.
They were seen kissing in numerous pictures.
This relationship helped launch Rita’s is-she-isn’t-she-lesbian suggest-iveness — although she’s had boyfriends, she plays up to rumours of being bisexual.
Rita shares pictures of her glamorous lifestyle with her fans - like this one on board a private plane
In December, she kissed singer Ellie Goulding on the lips at her birthday (the clinch, of course, was captured on camera and posted by Rita to her 3.8 million followers on photo-sharing site Instagram), while the year before she shared a shot of herself kissing Kate Moss.
The relationship between Cara and Rita has cooled of late, and in a recent interview Rita insisted they are just good friends.
The teasing omnisexuality seems, then, just media strategy.
She certainly has a knack for collecting famous friends.
She is a regular at the Chiltern Firehouse — London’s hottest restaurant and prime paparrazi ground — and shortly before Christmas she even met President Obama, after singing at a charity concert in Washington, and was pictured holding hands with Michelle Obama.
All her social engagements are comprehensively documented on Twitter and Instagram. And this non-stop exposure — and exposing — delights her fan-base.
Her love of video is second only to her love of the selfie.
Of the hundreds posted online, she is often in only underwear or swimwear — and sometimes seemingly nothing — pouting as if her life depended upon it.
Miss Ora is pictured here sharing a drink and an intense conversation with rock legend Mick Jagger
‘There are bigger queens of the selfie, but I’m up there,’ she has said. ‘Every girl, without fail, loves to look at a sexy picture of herself. Whether it’s a selfie, topless on Instagram or me doing photoshoots... it’s the way of the game... it’s how we express ourselves.’
It has also helped her amass a £3 million (and rising) fortune.
Her self-made brand has helped score a host of advertising deals, including a campaign for cosmetic company Rimmel, a design ‘collaboration’ with Adidas, being the ‘face’ of designer Roberto Cavalli and a deal to record a song for Burberry.
She has also starred in Marks & Spencer adverts, for around £250,000, and has a role in the forth-coming Fifty Shades Of Grey film.
No doubt her crack team of at least 16 publicists and managers, plus a stylist and personal assistant, helped her to secure these jobs.
Rita and former 'wifey' Cara Delveigne sharing a kiss - their relationship appears to have cooled of late
Kissing another of her famous friends, supermodel Kate Moss in a picture shared with her fans
The only thing that hasn’t appeared so successful is her love life — though one can’t help but suspect that the colourful line of men she’s been linked to does nothing to hamper her profile.
A romance with chubby Rob Kardashian — a TV reality star (what else) and brother of Kim — ended abruptly in 2012.
He later posted tweets that appeared to accuse her of cheating on him with ‘more than 20’ men.
Persistent rumours of a romantic connection with Jay-Z, who is married to U.S. pop star Beyonce, have been batted away.
When asked, she fumed: ‘Don’t you dare disrespect Beyonce like that ever again in your entire life.’
She fell out with former X Factor winner James Arthur, whom she dated, when he was dismayed to find her on a date with David Beckham’s friend Dave Gardner a few nights later.
There was also an issue with ex-boyfriend, superstar DJ Calvin Harris.
They wrote tracks together for her new album but when the romance ended last year, it was said he wouldn’t let her use them.
Harris certainly seems bitter: ‘I don’t like celebrities, celebrity women,’ he’s said. ‘Nah. I haven’t seen her since March. It’s brilliant.’
So, will her role on The Voice be the jewel in her celebrity crown? One can only hope for Rita, and the viewing public, that she’s a hit.
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