British singer and former Roc Nation signee, Rita Ora, issued an apology on Monday for some of the messaging in her latest single, “Girls.” Ora dropped the new track featuring Bebe Rexha, Cardi B, and Charli XCX on Friday and immediately faced criticism.
On the track, Ora speaks about drinking red wine and wanting to kiss girls (girls, girls) a message that did not carry over well with the LGBTQ community. The song in a lot of ways resembles the 2008 Katy Perry song ‘I kissed a girl.’
“‘Girls’ was written to represent my truth and is an accurate account of a very real and honest experience in my life,” Ora wrote on Twitter. “I would never intentionally cause harm to other LGBTQ+ people or anyone.”
Openly gay singer Hayley Kiyoko was one of the firsts to criticize Ora’s single, taking to Twitter the day it was released to express her feelings on the track.
“I don’t need to drink wine to kiss girls, I’ve loved women my entire life,” Kiyoko says in the post. She also called the song “downright tone deaf” although she admits she understood that this was not the artist’s intention. Kiyoko never mentions Rita Ora by name.
With the star-studded lineup on this new song, it would be hard for Ora’s label Atlantic Records not to continue to push the song which went over 4 million views on YouTube after its debut. The 4-day old song is currently number 43 on the Itunes Charts.
Ora is currently on her “Girls” tour as fans anticipate a new album in the near future. If Ora does drop an LP, it’ll be her first with Atlantic Records and her first since the 2012 self-titled album she released under Roc Nation.
Real talk ? pic.twitter.com/9EbZd5dYZq
— Hayley Kiyoko (@HayleyKiyoko) May 11, 2018
Photo Courtesy of Getty
