Rita Ora is a curious case; she clearly has talent, she’s been backed by some of the biggest names in the business, including Jay-Z at one point (she was signed to the rap mogul’s Roc Nation management in the late aughts). However, the British-Albanian singer’s career has just never hit in the US like it has in her home country. While her 2012 debut studio album, Ora, debuted at No. 1 in the United Kingdom, the closest she’s come to charting in the U.S. was her guest appearance on fellow import Iggy Azalea’s single “Black Widow”, which reached the top five in the UK and the US Here in the States, she is still best known as Calvin Harris’ ex-girlfriend.
However, that hasn’t stopped her from setting her sights on an American takeover, and as part of a US promo run that includes her chart-burning, pop-dance number “Your Song,” she appeared on Elvis Duran’s radio show earlier this week. During an interview covering everything from the new song and co-writer Ed Sheeran to her favorite Disney movie, she dropped a sexy, stripped-down acoustic cover of Harris’ own catchy single “Slide.”
She handles all the vocal parts with aplomb, including Frank Ocean’s and — you may want to sit down for this part — Migos’ verses, transforming the upbeat, dance-funk bop into a sensuous, seductive, R&B-flavored rendition every bit as good as the original. If her US debut sounds anything like this, her US takeover might finally be a given.
