It hasn’t been a good week for Rita Ora. It began with the release of her song, ‘Girls’, which she referred to as a bisexual anthem. Queer musicians such as Hayley Kiyoko had a number of problems with the lyrics, feeling it actually did a disservice to the bisexual community rather than celebrating it.
In a Twitter post, she stated “Every so often there comes certain songs with messaging that is downright tone-deaf, which does more harm than good for the LGBTQ+ community. A song like this just fuels the male gaze while marginalizing the idea of women loving women.”
Real talk 🌈 pic.twitter.com/9EbZd5dYZq
— Hayley Kiyoko (@HayleyKiyoko) May 11, 2018
This was just the beginning of the backlash. In response, Rita Ora made a public statement on social media saying she herself was bisexual.
It read, “Hello everyone reading this. ‘Girls’ was written to represent my truth and is an accurate account of a very real and honest experience in my life. I have had romantic relationships with women and men throughout my life and this is my personal journey. I am sorry how I expressed myself in my song has hurt anyone. I would never intentionally cause harm to other LGBTQ+ people or anyone.”
— Rita Ora (@RitaOra) May 14, 2018
She continued, “Looking forward, I hope that continuing to express myself through my art will empower my fans to feel as proud of themselves as I’m learning to feel about who I am. I’m ever thankful to my fans for teaching me to love myself no matter what. I have strived to be a contributor to the LGBTQ+ community throughout my entire career and always will be.”
While that may have cleared the air a little, the press then pounced on a series of tweets she posted when she was 18 years-old regarding the film ‘Bruno’ where Sacha Baron Cohen played a camp fashion journalist. They read, “Bruno was crazy! It’s too much I swear! I never thought someone could be sooo homo!” That tweet was followed with another stating, “Bruno is too Homo! Borat is better”.
The posts have since been deleted.
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