Rita Ora used to sing in pubs at the age of 14.
Rita Ora
The 24-year-old singer has admitted she was so keen to carve out a career for herself in the music industry that she would break the law in order to get big name producers in London to notice her.
She told the Independent magazine: "I'd just set up camp wherever they'd take me. Once I went to a funfair and my mother put my name down for open-mic night because in the crowd was a Grammy-Award-winning producer called Martin Terefe, who signed me to a production deal for two years. I was 14. It was illegal to sing in pubs at that age."
The 'Body on Me' hitmaker was determined to follow in the footsteps of famous pop stars like the late Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey but the pub-goers had other ideas.
She explained: "I loved American divas like Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, and I'd try to sing like them. But the requests from the crowd were very varied - anything from the Rolling Stones to Nirvana to Fleetwood Mac."
She added: "I had no f**king shame man. I was like, 'Here we go.' I really enjoyed it. I really loved singing."
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