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A lot of people have been asking the same question in recent years: why hasn’t Rita Ora been able to make it big in America? After all, she’s a huge star in her native Britain, all across Europe and even in Asia and Australia. She’s dated some high-profile celebrities including Calvin Harris and Rob Kardashian. She goes to all the A-list parties and can count Jay-Z as one of her good friends. She’s even starred in several different movies, including the 50 Shades of Grey franchise. But for some reason, America keeps ignoring Rita Ora. Even though she’s usually the cool girl at the party with the impeccable style, people just don’t pay attention to her, or her music, for that matter.

Yet, Rita is the girl who doesn’t give up. No matter how many times she’s down, she finds a way to get up, and of course insert her name in the headlines. But for some critics, it’s just not enough. There’s something about Rita Ora that makes people pay attention for a few seconds, but then forget about her the next minute. With that being said, we’ve got 15 reasons why Hollywood and the music industry keeps rejecting Rita Ora.

Her Reputation

Unfortunately, when someone starts spilling the tea about you in the gossip headlines, you end up spending more time trying to fix your reputation that actually work on your craft. And that seems to be the case with Rita Ora. A lot of people have had a lot of things to say about her and to put it simply, it hasn’t been nice. People say that she does certain things to push her career forward, although of course none of that has been confirmed. Either way, these rumors have plagued Rita Ora for years and as a result, she’s had a hard time shaking it off.

And while she is known for her music and her radio hits in Britain, in America, she’s mostly known as “that girl” who usually shows up at parties with high profile celebrities. Unfortunately for Rita, she’s just not one of those high-profile celebrities that she wants and should be.

Rita even had to go on the record to refute her “man eater” reputation. According to Digital Spy, she said, “I don't understand why [people] all have to give me this title. I think sometimes, when you have a woman that has a motive and is career-driven, it becomes intimidating.”

The Beyonce Scandal

One of the biggest scandals that has hurt Rita in recent years is when the internet wanted to blame her for Beyonce and Jay-Z’s woes. A lot of people even tried labeling her as “Becky with the good hair,” implying that Rita might have gotten in the middle of the music industry’s most powerful couple. But time and time again Rita has been forced to shoot down the rumors. She’s made it pretty clear that she had nothing to do with Beyonce and Jay-Z’s scandal. And even though she’s tried really hard to clear her name, people just don’t want to believe her, or give her a chance, for that matter.

Rita told The Times’ Sunday paper, “Hey, all I want to say to that is, dude, if I were Becky with the good hair, wouldn’t I actually have to have good hair? Look at it. It’s all weave and extensions. Nobody can ever say anything wrong about that woman in front of me. I get emotional just talking about it.”

She also wrote this on Twitter back in 2016, “I never usually address tabloid gossip but let me be clear, these rumors are false. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Beyoncé. Let’s continue enjoying Lemonade.”

The Kylie Minogue Syndrome

A lot of critics would agree that Rita Ora is kind of like Kylie Minogue of her generation. And to make things worse, she’s got Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams syndrome, too. In other words, America will never warm up to her. For years, Kylie has tried every possible way to break the charts in the United States. But each time she tried, she got shot back down pretty hard. Even though Kylie Minogue is a huge star in Britain and her native Australia, Americans ignore her. They just don’t understand her appeal. And unfortunately for Rita, the same applies to her and her own celebrity image.

Celebs Now recently wrote, “Kylie has spoken about it with Robbie Williams. He told her he loves being largely unknown when he’s at home in the States, while cash rolls in from the rest of the world. Robbie thinks she should keep the US as a place she can go to escape the spotlight. But Kylie doesn’t agree and has decided on one final push. It eats away at Kylie that she’s never hit the big time there. She has tried before and it didn’t happen. But being the kind of determined person she is, she’s giving it one more go.”

She Doesn’t Appeal To American Audiences

Let’s face it: there are plenty of female singers in America that looks and sing just like Rita Ora. According to critics, there isn’t much about Rita that makes her stand out from the rest of the pack. And that might be her problem. Yet, Rita is the train that just keeps on chugging. She just won’t stop until she reaches her final destination, wherever that may be.

At one point Rita even had to pay for her own American tour out of her pocket. According to US News, she had this to say back in 2012, “My team at the time thought it wasn't a good idea and it would be a waste of time. I thought differently because my online presence grew really dramatically [...] And so the team [...] they're like, 'Well we're not helping you, we can't do it. We're not going to put money into it.' I said, 'Well fine! I'll put my own money into it. And I phoned up Iggy (Azalea) [...] she came on the road. It was so, like, small tour bus. I think we, at one point, shared one microphone. And you know what, every single show was sold out."

The Market Is Already Saturated

With that being said, the American market is already saturated with plenty of young female singers who have the same amount of talent and drive as Rita Ora, but might just have a little more of an edge. We’ve got Katy Perry. Rihanna. Selena Gomez. Taylor Swift. The list goes on and on. Rita Ora’s problem might have been the lack of good timing. She just happened to land on the scene the same time Katy, Selena, Taylor and the rest of the girls were in the prime.

Simply put, there just wasn’t any room left for Rita Ora to shine. And as a result, people have either ignored her or pushed her to the side. At least, that has been the case each and every time she’s visited the States.

Plus, the tabloids and gossip media have been ruthlessly mean and critical of her. The Tab slammed her pretty hard by saying, “Rita Ora is music's biggest side chick. You might think she's a pop star, but she has only ever released one album and that was back in 2012. So why is she always on our TV screens guest hosting The X Factor? She should be making fitness DVDs like other talentless celebrities.”

She’s The B-List Rihanna

This might be Rita Ora’s biggest problem: she’s too much like the B-list Rihanna. After all, there’s only room for one queen of the pop music world, right? And it’s safe to say that throne most definitely belongs to Rihanna. She’s untouchable, but Rita doesn’t seem to understand that. Some outlets have even called her the “Poundland version of Rihanna.” OUCH. There’s just no way that she could ever become more than “that girl who looks and sounds like Rihanna, but isn’t Rihanna.” I’m sure you know what we mean.

To make matters worse, she even got dumped by long-time Rihanna collaborator Calvin Harris.

And it happened in the worst way possible. Many insiders say that Rita was absolutely blindsided by the break up, as she didn’t see it coming. According to The Sun, Rita has this to say: “A usual break up you don't really see your ex all over the place. But, you know, you just kind of take it with a pinch of salt and keep going with your own life and make the most of who you are. Everybody uses social media how they want. I choose not to, so that's just my personal way to express myself, but everybody does their own thing.”

Her Bizarre Style

When you are a celebrity that lives in either Los Angeles or New York City, you look and act a certain way. There’s the Los Angeles lifestyle and then there’s the New York City lifestyle. Unfortunately, Rita Ora doesn’t fit in any, and she’s certainly not in between. According to a lot of fashion critics, she’s just too “British,” so to speak. Her style is straight out of London and it’s one that a lot of American fashionistas just don’t understand. It’s bizarre, it’s edgy, it’s different. What’s more, it’s hard to categorize and put in just one box. And that might be Rita’s biggest problem.

When you want to make it big in America, you have to adapt to American ways. And for Rita Ora, no one on her team has given her that memo. Still, Rita insists that she’s fine just the way she is.

Rita put it this way (via Us Weekly), “I’ve always tried to be independent. It’s just my personality. I’ve always been the type to motivate the camp. I’ve always wanted to be the fuel for something—for music, the fuel for my family, the fuel for my best friend. Helping someone with what I’m doing.”

Her Music Is Different

For European fans, Rita Ora’s music is perfect. It’s got enough bounce, light lyrics, and the right amount of pop. That’s one of the reasons why she’s enjoyed mainstream success for plenty of years. But at the same time, her music is not scandalous.

She doesn’t have any messages that she’s trying to send out in her music videos or in her lyrics. She doesn’t have any beef with anyone and she’s not trying to start a riot. And because of this, she’s been largely ignored by American music fans.

Here’s what Noisey had to say: “More often than not our demanding market seeks sensory bombardment. We may not be turning out an inferior product because of it—the proof is in Beyoncé’s visual album, Katy Perry’s constantly oscillating sound, or Miley’s Bangerz tour—but right now America's after the epic, rather than the timelessness of good old fashioned pop. Sure the globalization of music and artist thanks to the internet is definitely a factor, but Rita Ora is a testament to the differences in Stateside music fans' taste and across the pond's pop palate—a gulf that's still as profound as when the US ignored the fact that Pulp was happening.”

Americans Just Don’t Understand Her

Now, we’ve already gone over the reasons why Rita has had a hard time breaking in to the American market. She’s dipped her toes in the water several times, just for her to feel how ice cold it really is. But truth be told, Americans just don’t understand her. She’s best friends with some of the biggest stars in the music industry, but at the same time she’s not a household name. And for some reason that her handlers can’t explain, the radio just doesn’t want to play her songs. And that might be the biggest problem for her career.

Billboard put it this way: “In America, Ora has collected one Top 10 single, and it was as a featured artist. Her biggest hits overseas, including “How We Do (Party),” have not taken off here. “Your Song,” which became Ora’s latest Top 10 hit in her native country following its May release, has yet to crack the Hot 100. She has 6 million followers on Twitter and nearly 12 million on Instagram, yet is often the butt of American social media jokes due to her consistent media presence, but relative lack of radio resonance. She is a personality in the U.S., but not a pop superstar.”

She Has Posted Some Awkward Tweets

If all of the above weren’t enough, Rita Ora has also managed to embarrass herself on occasion. Several years ago she tried to drum up some publicity for new music that she was about to drop. She asked her fans for help, but unfortunately no one responded or listened for that matter. When you’ve got over 3 million followers on Twitter and no one wants to help you with a simple retweet request, that has got to hurt. And yet, that’s exactly what happened to Rita. It was a moment we are sure she still wants to forget, but the internet won’t let her.

Here’s what Spin said: “Nobody seemed to notice when, last Halloween, the singer dangled the promise of new music via Twitter. Attempting to spark engagement and hype around a new song, Ora tweeted to her followers that if she got more than 100,000 retweets on a specific tweet that she would drop a brand-new song. Soon after, the tweet got deleted with only about 2,000 RTs — an awkward move that made it look like Ora wouldn’t acknowledge her obvious misstep. Later, she inched even further into the Internet’s Dunce Corner by claiming that her account got hacked.”

She Dated A Kardashian

Let’s not forget this little tidbit too: Rita Ora used to date Rob Kardashian. That’s right! Before the Blac Chyna scandal, Rob was in love with Rita. But the problem was, no one really knew who Rita was at the time.

Because Rob was always the one Kardashian that was pushed in the shadows, no one really paid much attention to their relationship until they had their nasty break up.

The ultimate diss was when Rob Kardashian alleged that Rita betrayed him. Of course, that tidbit was never confirmed, but that had to hurt to hear it in public. According to the UK’s Mirror, Rita said, “I never thought it was actually a relationship, in all honesty. I never mentally defined it as 'boyfriend, girlfriend.' When I split up with him, I said, 'It's because I'm never there, I don't know how to do it.' That's all I said, then [...] the rest happened. He obviously felt that creating myths was the way forward. When you are involved with someone for a while and they decide to express their feelings to the public, well, that’s not my personal way of therapy but I guess everyone takes split-ups differently."

She’s Too British

Now, don’t get us wrong here, there have been plenty of British born actors, actresses and musicians that have made it big in America. Take David and Victoria Beckham for example. Or Adele, Elton John, James Corden, Idris Elba, Emma Watson, or Jack Huston. Our list can go on and on. But for some reason that we can’t explain, Americans have rejected Rita Ora because she’s either too British or too European for their taste. Now, we are not saying that being “too British” is a bad thing. Instead, it’s just that Rita hasn’t managed to adapt to the American way of doing things. It all boils down to how she carries herself and her behavior.

Noisey puts it this way: “Rita Ora looks like one of those London society girls that goes to Dalston on the weekends to hang out in weird sweaty downstairs rooms that double as garage/jungle nights (or The Alibi), a look she’s cultivating so perfectly you might believe it to be true, if she wasn’t constantly swanning about like fashion royalty with her model BFFs. She's just very, very cool, and maybe that’s half the problem: her aesthetic is intimidatingly sexy and stylish in equal proportion.”

She Will Never Break America

At this point in her career it’s safe to say that if she hasn’t managed to make her big break in America, there’s a very little chance that she will do it anytime soon. That’s why a lot of people think she should just throw in the towel and give up already. But at the same time, Rita’s not the kind of girl who will give up very easily. As a matter of fact, Rita Ora has been spending more time in the United States than back home in London. If there is one thing that you can say about her, it’s that she’s very determined. She is going to try and try, even if it’s the last thing she does. She wants to be a huge name in America and nothing is going to stop her until that happens.

Spin had this to say about her: “Rita Ora has become the music industry’s go-to piñata: She’s at all of the parties — no doubt wearing something colorful — and every now and then she’ll drop something sweet (say, a flashy, club-ready single like “I Will Never Let You Down”). She also gets swatted around a lot, usually by the very people she’s trying to impress: record execs, journalists, YouTube commenters, and casual Top-40 listeners.”

She Has Bad Management

Now, let’s not ignore this little issue here: Rita Ora has a bad management team. Now, we don’t know what is going on behind closed doors, but it almost seems like they know jack squat as far as what they are doing and how they should be managing their career. Sure, a lot of it might be because of contract issues and dilemmas. But her promotional team hasn’t been doing a stellar job either and that’s pretty obvious. Rita needs to fire everyone and start over, from the ground up if she still has any hopes of being a huge star in America. Otherwise, she’s only digging herself deeper in the hole she’s in, thanks to the people she is surrounded by. In other words, get out girl before it’s too late! Rita, you’ve still got time!

According to Spin Magazine, here’s the reason, “Roc Nation hasn’t released Ora in the States, leaving her with a paltry number of iTunes and Spotify entries. To the unschooled, passive fan, Ora — who has supposedly been a thing since the beginning of this decade — only has a handful of singles available for listening; it’d be easy for them to ask, Why should we care?’”

She’s Trying Too Hard

And finally, a lot of critics will agree that Rita Ora is simply trying too hard. And in America, no one likes a try hard. Either you’ve got that cool factor, that undeniable talent or a certain aura about you. If you are lacking any of these three, then people aren’t interested in paying attention to you. Plus, Americans are busy. They don’t have the time to look you up each time someone says your name only for the audience to say “Rita who?” And that has been the case for Rita Ora for years now.

Even Rita knows that she’s trying too hard. Speaking about the time she collapsed during a photoshoot in Miami back in 2013, she told The Guardian, “Sometimes you work yourself so hard that you don’t realize, and then it’s just…. There were helicopters and stuff. It was really bad. It was pure exhaustion, which I didn’t know was a real thing. But I just blacked out. I woke up in hospital and everyone was like: ‘Right, you need to chill.’ You sacrifice a lot of yourself, and your mental health, and your physical self, to be everywhere at the same time. I guess it’s the life you choose, isn’t it? But I’m living the dream.”