Sometimes you don’t need profound poetry, just a song that flings the windows wide open. Rita Ora understands this like no one else. She effortlessly navigates between drum & bass, stadium pop, and sensitive ballads, always with that recognizable, slightly raw voice that sounds like a night out in London. This is the soundtrack of parties, hangovers, and falling in love all over again.
10. How We Do (Party)
With this song, Rita introduced herself to the world, and she didn’t do it quietly. She borrowed lyrics from The Notorious B.I.G., threw a guitar underneath, and created the ultimate anthem for everyone who wakes up with the sun in their face and is still drunk. It is cheeky, carefree, and captures exactly that feeling of eternal youth.
9. Black Widow (with Iggy Azalea)
Actually written for Katy Perry, and you can hear it in the massive hook. This is Rita in her femme fatale mode. The beat is trap-like and dark, perfect for the vengeful lyrics. While Iggy handles the verses, it is Rita who carries the song with that hypnotic chorus. “I’m gonna love ya until you hate me.”
8. Hot Right Now (with DJ Fresh)
Technically a DJ Fresh track, but this was the song that put Rita on the map. It is pure British drum & bass energy. Everything about this track goes fast: the breakbeats, the vocals, the adrenaline. Rita’s voice cuts straight through the chaos with a power that shows she isn’t just another singer, but a powerhouse.
7. For You (with Liam Payne)
For the soundtrack of Fifty Shades Freed, she headed into the studio with One Direction star Liam Payne. The result is smooth, polished synth-pop that shines from every angle. It could have been a run-of-the-mill duet, but the chemistry works surprisingly well. The song builds to a euphoric climax that seems tailor-made for end credits and grand romantic gestures.
6. Ritual (with Tiësto & Jonas Blue)
A club banger so tightly produced you could comb your hair in it. It is less rugged than her early work, but the melody is inescapable. Rita sings here with a kind of cool detachment that fits the dark, pumping bassline perfectly.
5. Lonely Together (with Avicii)
In hindsight, this song has taken on a heavy weight as one of the last singles Avicii released before his passing. But even on its own, it is beautiful. It captures that specific feeling of a relationship that is effectively over, yet you can’t say goodbye just yet. “I might hate myself tomorrow, but I’m on my way tonight.” It is melancholic and euphoric at the same time, a balance Avicii mastered like no other and that Rita executes perfectly.
4. Your Song
You can tell within three seconds who wrote this: Ed Sheeran. It is minimalist, rhythmic, and deceptively simple. After a period of legal battles and label issues, this was Rita’s big comeback. She sounds relaxed and happy here. No heavy beats, just her voice and a melody that feels like coming home.
3. I Will Never Let You Down
Produced by her then-boyfriend Calvin Harris, and perhaps the purest pop song of her career. It is sunny, optimistic, and radiates a kind of naive joy that is infectious. It’s reminiscent of early Madonna or Whitney Houston: pop music that isn’t cynical about anything, but simply wants you to dance and smile. An instant dopamine boost.
2. Let You Love Me
This song is about self-sabotage in love, a theme Rita (and many with her) knows all too well. “I wish that I could let you love me.” The production is sleek and modern, but it is the vulnerability in the lyrics that takes it to a higher level.
1. Anywhere
The undisputed masterpiece of Rita Ora. “Anywhere” is escapism in its most beautiful form. Rita sings about the urge to run away from reality, to anywhere at all. The structure is brilliantly strange: instead of a grand sung chorus, you get a stuttered, instrumental drop that sounds like a glitching computer. It is melancholic, dreamy, and full of longing.
