Rita Ora didn’t mean to offend anyone with her new song, “Girls,” which served as a platform for her to come out as bisexual.
“‘Girls’ was written to represent my truth and is an accurate account of a very real and honest experience in my life,” Ora wrote in an apology note on Twitter on Monday. “I have had romantic relationships with women and men throughout my life and this is my personal journey.”
The 27-year-old British songstress apologized for how her message came across and said she’d “never intentionally cause harm” to other LGBTQ+ people.”
“Looking forward, I hope that continuing to express myself through my art will empower my fans to feel as proud of themselves as I’m learning to feel about who I am,” she added.
Ora’s statement came after singer Hayley Kiyoko described the song as “tone-deaf” and said it did “more harm than good” for the LGBTQ+ community. “To be clear, I fully support other artists who freely express themselves and applaud male and female artists who are opening up more and more about their sexual identities,” Kiyoko wrote. “But every so often there come certain songs with messaging that is downright tone-deaf … A song like this just fuels the male gaze while marginalizing the idea of women loving women.”
The questionable “Girls” lyrics included, “Sometimes I just wanna kiss girls, girls, girls / Red wine, I just wanna kiss girls, girls, girls…”
Rita then goes on to sing, “I am excited, I’m open-minded / I’m 50/50, and I’m never gonna hide it / You should know.”
Ora, who currently dates Andrew Watt, told People that the song — which features Cardi B, Bebe Rexha and Charli XCX — was also inspired by Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl.”
“[That song] was so fun,” she said. “I wanted to do something that was in that lane.”