Rita Ora hasn’t produced an album in almost four years, but she appears to be spending no time in teasing music in 2023 as she unveils her brand new single.
As part of her new song, the 32-year-old uploaded a PDA-filled video of herself and her husband Taika Waititi, 47, sitting on a beach watching fireworks.
Taika kisses Rita on the cheek as she smiles towards the sky, evidently enthralled by the pyrotechnics.
She then turns to kiss Taika on the lips before the screen fades to black and a cryptic graphic of a snake-formed padlock with a male voice is heard onscreen.
Despite the fact that it was only a few seconds long, the video was enough to have fans excited about her return, with the Anywhere hitmaker labelling the upload: ‘SURPRISE. ‘IM BACK!’
She continued, ‘You Only Love Me XX/01/23,’ announcing the name of the single and the fact that it will be released this month.
She ended the remark with the hashtag #RO3, implying that the song will be the lead single from her third studio album.
ORA, Rita’s debut album, debuted at number one on the UK albums chart in 2012, while Phoenix, published in 2018, just missed the top 10, peaking at number 11.
Bang, an EP she co-created with Kazakh record producer Imanbek, was released in 2021 to great praise.
Rita – who is currently a panellist on the fourth series of The Masked Singer – teased her upcoming third album last year, saying it would be ‘deeply personal’.
She told The Sun in October: ‘I’ve felt like quitting. I was like, “Is this worth it? What am I doing?” As I got more famous, I understood that people look up to you.
‘You become a role model and sometimes you are not ready for that because you only wanted to make music. Now you are being followed by millions of people. So psychologically it is really intense.
‘You have to stay true to your friends who you have known for years.’
She added she would be releasing the album early in the year, saying: ‘It’s going to be great. More music and a film. My dream is to show everybody that you can do more than one thing.
‘You can be a musician, actor, dancer, mother, aunt all at the same time. I want to try and do everything.’
‘I wanted to make this a very raw, musical record. Maybe get a few bottles of whatever you drink when you listen to this album.’