British singer Rita Ora appeared on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon last night, where she told Jimmy how she got her start singing. She joined a choir when she was six years old, and also went to a theatre school. But it was singing songs in her dad’s pub that really got her an audience.
Well, an audience of “the pub’s regular drunkies” or “alcoholics” as Ora so cutely put it. And what did she sing? Songs like that classic British novelty song “I’ve Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts“.
Of course, that did not stop Rita Ora from becoming one of the UK’s most popular singers. So popular she will be performing in front of the Pope at St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City this week.
Ora will be at the Vatican as part of a ceremony to honor Mother Teresa, and to officially have the nun be declared a saint. Mother Teresa was Albanian, and so is Rita Ora. So there is the link if you were a little bit puzzled.
As for what does Ora think about performing before the Pope?
“I’m not really like the most…I’m more of a spiritual person. The Vatican, I figured out, is actually a big deal. Right? And then I looked at the guest list and I just see P.O.P.E…and then I thought, what do you wear to see the Pope?”
Watch Rita Ora talking about singing for the Pope in the Jimmy Fallon video below. And, of course, her dad’s pub.