Who Cares Wins Awards
Singer and actor Rita Ora opens up to Louis Theroux…
Sunday, 6.30pm, C4 Factual
There won’t be a dry eye in the house as Davina Mccall returns to host this year’s star-studded ceremony, which celebrates our amazing NHS and healthcare heroes. Among the nominees are bereavement midwife Laura Mackie and Dr Nicos Fotiadis, who treated the late bowel-cancer campaigner Deborah James.
When Rita Ora’s parents fled Kosovo for the UK 30 years ago as war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, the family lived in one room.
And even now, as Rita explains to
Louis Theroux in the final episode of his series, their difficult refugee experience is still what drives her.
‘When you come from nothing and you get something, you always have that fear that you could end up with nothing again,’ she admits. ‘When I had a taste of some sort of success, I thought, “I can’t fail.”’
Now, Rita is a star with a successful career in music, acting, modelling and presenting, including being a coach on
The Voice UK and a panellist on The Masked Singer. But as Louis joins her in her father’s pub in London, she explains how hard it was at the beginning.
Rita signed a fivealbum deal with Jay-z’s record company Roc Nation in 2008, but it didn’t release any of her music for two years.
Happy together… Rita with
Taika Waititi ‘I put out Hot Right Now [in 2012] wanting to prove that, “Hello, you’re sitting on a gold mine,”’ she says.
Rita sued them to release her from her contract in 2015 and they counter-sued for $2.4 million. Eventually they settled out of court and the singer was released.
Louis also joins Rita and her family for dinner. And she tells him about her relationship with film-maker Taika Waititi. ‘He’s a great human. He’s awesome,’ she says. ‘I’m happy to be where I’m at.’