Calvin Harris clarifies ‘myth’ about unreleased Rita Ora album
Harris says he worked on one unreleased song which "wasn't good"
By Nick Reilly
Calvin Harris has thrown cold water over persistent rumours that he produced an album for Rita Ora that was never released.
The singer was meant to release a second record under Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation, but it failed to see the light of day when she took the label to court in 2015 in a bid to be released from her contract. The label countersued before a settlement was reached in 2016.
Fans have long questioned what happened to the music already recorded for that second album, prompting Louis Theroux to ask about it when speaking to Ora for his new BBC Two series Louis Theroux Interviews.
Posting on Twitter, writer George Griffiths said of the interview: “Louis Theroux interviewing rita ora and asking about her cancelled second roc nation album???? this is my own personal princess diana newsnight moment.”
Throwing cold water over the rumours, Harris responded to Griffiths: “Entire thing is a myth, there is one unreleased song i worked on and it isn’t good.”
Opening up to Theroux, Ora explained she had been recording for “two or three years straight” before Roc Nation dropped lans to release her second album.
“There was a whole moment that was about to happen, I recorded a music video and they scrapped it. I felt really disappointed like I’d let them down,” she said.
Theroux also asked Ora to discuss rumours she had a past feud with Rihanna, positing: “It’s been reported that all the music was going to Rihanna – she was obviously the most established artist – she was getting first refusal on all the music and she’d sit on songs that had been written.
“Either way the result was you couldn’t get a look at it and she had a problem with you.”
Ora responded: “I can’t speak for other people but I think publicly they always put women against each other. I’ve been nothing but a fan and respectful of her and I always will be.”