Ah… self-adoration! Rita Ora opened up to Nylon in its March 2015 cover story about her recent split from DJ Calvin Harris, and how she’s developed a strong sense of self-worth over the years, learning from her mistakes and experiences. Here, Us Weekly compiles five key revelations from the “How We Do” singer’s chat with the mag.
1. Love Is Not a Fantasy — and Now She Knows
Ora and Harris split last June after nearly one year of dating, which Harris himself confirmed via Twitter at the time. “I had a breakup, or whatever, and it really made me realize what I was trying to do,” Ora, who will soon appear in Fifty Shades of Grey, reflected to Nylon. “I had been fixated on this love fantasy, but really it wasn’t like that, and I had to take myself back. For me, this was my moment where I had to be real and tell the truth and be honest.”
2. She Knows Her Butt Is Sexier Now
Ora touted her upcoming second album as sexier and darker than the first, using her transformed butt as an illustration of what fans should expect from her new music. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, I grew up and I looked at my arse,'” the British songstress mused to Nylon, “and it got a bit bigger and I’m sexier now.’ Might as well flaunt it! I feel more womanly.”
3. She’s the Answer to the Fashion Industry
The part-time model (who has contracts with Revlon, Calvin Klein, and DKNY) told the mag that the fashion industry is in need of another Madonna-like figure. It “needs confidence, it needs a massive boost, it needs a kind of, like, f— you,” Ora explained. “It needs another Madonna…which it’s not gonna get. But it needs a person who takes chances. You have amazing girls like Emma Watson—glamorous, gorgeous, clean, beautiful girls. But where’s that punk energy—that fun, crazy, respected but still like, ‘S—, she’s just doing her thing’ person? That’s who I am!”
4. She Has No Problem Telling Others They Killed It
Ora’s mother, a breast cancer survivor and Albanian immigrant, taught herself English. “When you have someone like that in your life, you just have to be supportive of independent successful women,” she reflected, “because my mother is, like, the queen of it.” According to the singer, that’s not the case for most stars.
“It’s the same with any other woman. I’ve always been really outspoken about it, like telling another woman, ‘You killed it,'” Ora reflected. “I don’t think a lot of females do that these days, especially in this industry.”
Luckily, her famous pals are on the same wavelength. “It’s the same with all of my friends—with Charli [XCX], with Iggy [Azalea], with Cara [Delevingne], and Katy Perry, who’s an amazing person inside and out and so talented, the biggest star in the world,” Ora mused. “She’s always been the same, and she’s just so funny and fun and loud and really cool. I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s what I wanna be like! I wanna stay that way!’ You’ve gotta really be sacred with these friendships, ’cause people can corrupt them.”
5. She Knows People Are Interested in Her
“It was a process to be like, ‘F— it, I’m just gonna be me,'” the Roc Nation artist told Nylon. “With the first album, I was so hyped up to be signed with Jay Z. I was like, ‘Whatever, Jay f—in Z!’ Two, three years later, I was like, ‘You know what, people are actually interested in what I’m saying and how I’m dressing and how I’m acting.'”
The March 2015 issue of Nylon hits newsstands on Feb. 24.
