Is Calvin Harris Ruining Rita Ora's Shot at Breaking Through in the U.S.?


But Ora's new push hit a major road bump when the first single from her upcoming album, "I Will Never Let You Down" (No. 96 on the Hot 100 dated Sept. 20), sparked a very public feud with her ex-boyfriend, EDM superstar Calvin Harris, the song's sole writer-producer. Harris denied publisher's approval for all televised performances and sync licenses of the track, tweeting that he had a "damn good reason." Tabloids reported the rift was due to an alleged dalliance between Ora and Justin Bieber -- stirring up memories of her 2012 breakup with Rob Kardashian, who also accused of her cheating. Harris' ban forced Ora to cancel a planned appearance at the Teen Choice Awards on Aug. 10.

Shortly thereafter, Ora walked away from several red carpet interviews over the topic. But after performing the song live for the first time at Made in America (Harris' ban doesn’t extend to untelevised performances), she's ready to speak up. "I don't control other people’s minds, especially if they've written a great song," she says. "I couldn't care less that I couldn't perform it -- it was about my fans being disappointed, and that's my nightmare. But I performed it [at the festival] and I'm sure I'll perform it three years from now. It's a part of me. I'm not going to deny that." Ora declined to elaborate further on her history with Harris.

Meanwhile, she's hard at work on her new LP, fusing her soul, dance and hip-hop influences into collaborations with Prince and Diplo that put more focus on live instruments. "I wanted to make sure my band onstage was tight as f---," says Ora. "And the new album is exactly that -- it's tight, it's clean, it's not confusing. It's who I wanted to work with."

Read the full interview:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/ne...-calvin-harris

Wait what?!

No because if she has built up any good material they could've easily pushed a non-Harris single strictly for America.

She/label weren't expecting the rug to be pulled out from under them but they still need to have a wealth of backup plans. Because what if it got here and flopped?

Yup she worked with him for his album and he did like 2-3 tracks with her for her album.

I feel like she's just not happening in the US, the Calvin situation doesn't have to do with the fact that no matter how much they invest on her, she just doesn't seem to get there.

Billboard has been getting soooo messy.

I love it, feels like I'm reading a well thought out Atrl thread.

Rita s just never going to happen here, whether Calvin "sabotages" her or not. IWNLYD would have gone top 20 at best and it's not a career building song.

In b4 "Calvin is being unprofessional and bitter" comments.

Calvin created, wrote, and produced the song by himself and then gave it to Rita (maybe even free of charge considering they were dating at the time).

If her and her team didn't properly secure all the rights to the song then that's their own fault and they have no one to blame but themselves. It's not unprofessional to exercise your right to control your own creation.

Also, this too. Let this be a lesson to the industry that Calvin is not to be ****ed with.

Rita Ora's just not happening. Nothing to do with Calvin. If her song actually did well when released (I'm talking top 3 on iTunes for weeks on end) and he did what he's doing now THEN it'd be on him for ruining her shot, but the song didn't go anywhere so they should stop talking about it so much and put out a better non calvin second single and focus on that.

Please,all I care about is a date for the next single.

She ruined herself.

Not me expecting 'Is Calvin Harris Ruining Music?'

I know...she has the perfect voice for it but she's ruining it with sub-par songs.

I agree with y'all i don't see her happening in the US either

It actually started to climb up Itunes and Billboard with no promo. I hate IWNLYD though.