Rita Ora’s new single You Only Love Me has literally just dropped and to say we’re obsessed is an understatement. The song – a funky, catchy, vibrant club hit – is undoubtedly a banger.
But the video is beyond. Featuring cameos from Lindsay Lohan, Kristen Stewart, Jodie Turner-Smith, Addison Rae, Chelsea Handler and er, actual Sharon Stone, the film centres around Rita preparing for her wedding day. This is ironic – deliberately so – because she’s playing straight into the gossip narrative that’s surrounded her since last summer that she may or may not have married her partner of nearly two years, Oscar-winning director, actor and comedian, Taika Waititi.
The film then ends with Rita and her four colourfully dressed bridesmaids looking on in horror when finally en route to the venue – a castle – they see that it’s burning down in flames. We do hope that this is not art imitating life.
Rumours started circulating in August that Taika and Rita had tied the knot in a secret, intimate ceremony in London, but neither party has confirmed or denied the rumours. Until now.
Speaking to GLAMOUR, Rita confirmed the marriage, saying “Yes, I'm officially off the market!” We also caught up with her about all the details of her video and the incredible cameos…
GLAMOUR: Congratulations on your new single, we love it! Tell us the meaning and inspiration behind You Only Love Me.
Rita Ora: “I think it's a bit self-explanatory. Basically, my life has changed drastically. I've made some really important decisions for myself, and I'm really sort of in a different place in my life and I've always been an open book with my fans. And so this song, You Only Love Me, is my journey into my new sort of phase of my life.
And there's a voice memo on it from Taika. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
"So ‘You Only Love Me’ is inspired by true events. You know when you put that thing in a documentary, "This was inspired by true events"? It really was inspired by true events. It's just got so much personal stuff and it's got a lot of personal touches. It opens with a voicemail from my partner, Taika, and again, I'm an open book. I really wanted to bring everybody into my world."
And it's an interesting choice of styling in the video, wearing a wedding dress for example! Can you tell us a bit about that? I feel like you're sort of playing with the public and your fans, teasing them!
“Yes. So yeah, 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 a bit sort of, again, a guessing game because I just think it's a fun game to play. And I loved the idea of almost doing a wedding, but it's sort of not going the way it was supposed to go because at the end of the day, I am a bit of a prankster and I do like to do things like that. And I just thought it would be fun to play and have some fun, whilst wearing vintage YSL from 1987.”
And there's some fabulous cameos also! How did you involve all of them?
"So the video is really special to me because again, it's the opening of my new world that I want everyone to be involved in, and I asked some of my friends. 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 really love to send me a good luck video? So I just asked the people that I'm truly obsessed with and fans of and they all wanted to get involved. So, it was really lovely.
We've got Kristen Stewart in there who I love so much, one of my bestest friends. Chelsea Handler, who's 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. Hello!
And so again, it's all women who I love and I wanted it to feel like a really empowering woman sort of video, good luck message. So, yay! And of course, Sharon Stone also plays my mom and it's really fun. And so we've just created a mini movie for you guys because again, remember this is my dream wedding. Or is it…?"
Congratulations to Taika and Rita and to Rita on your fabulous new single.
You can watch the video for Rita Ora's new single here:
