Exclusive: Rita Ora talks working with RAYE on new single Ask & You Shall Receive

We catch up with Rita at London's Mighty Hoopla Festival

rita ora ask and you shall receive exclusive interview

Rita Ora's excitement is palpable.

When we meet her backstage at London's Mighty Hoopla festival, she's getting ready to take to the stage to perform her brand new single, Ask & You Shall Receive, for the very first time.

It is, in many ways, the perfect place to debut the funky summer tune in the dying sunlight of a Sunday afternoon covered in glitter and queer joy - something Rita herself clearly agrees with.

"The gays will know if it's any good!" She tells us just before her set begins. "The gays will tell you! And not only that, I think it's such an amazing way to kick off my summer run - this is my first show of the summer! We have a sh*t-ton of festivals coming up, I'm so excited."

Ask & You Shall Receive's glittering dance-pop may fit the Mighty Hoopla aesthetic like a glove, but it also functions as a reunion of sorts between Rita and RAYE - the ascendant British singer-songwriter whose ties to Rita go further back than you might think.

"I love RAYE," Rita says. "This isn't the first time we've worked together, she helped me perform Girls for the first time with Charli [XCX] at [BBC Radio 1's] Big Weekend in 2018, and she was the support act for my Girls Tour in 2018. I love her. That's my girl!"

As for the performance itself, the high-energy, choreographed routine gave the crowd, in Rita's own words, chance to "digest" it for the first time.

"Some people may not have heard it," she says. "It's always a bit scary singing your new stuff for the first time. Let's see what happens!"

And, of course, a Rita Ora setlist would not be complete without some of her most iconic bangers, and the one catalogue classic Rita says she always looks forward to performing live is her fourth UK Number 1 single, I Will Never Let You Down.

"I love performing I Will Never Let You Down live because it's so easy!" Rita tells us, laughing. "Everyone just sings it! It's my favourite...that's when I get to breathe!"

Ask & You Shall Receive is out now via BMG.