Usually we have seen that siblings of the celebrities will tend to keep themselves away from siblings’ glamorous professional life either they because they have no interest whatsoever or they tend to avoid the public attention.
There are some scenarios in which siblings do end up in creating and managing their siblings’ spotlight career, especially if the celebrity in question is not familiar with the official procedures that are required in establishing a career in either acting or music industry.
Young sixteen year old, Rita Ora found herself lost in this similar situation when one of American Hip-hop rap Artist Jay-Z approached her for her singing talent and offered her to use his label “Roc-nation” under some specific terms and conditions.
With no information about music industry, Rita went to her elder sister Elena Ora for help. Elena Ora at that time was just eighteen years old and was currently studying at university. Elena Ora herself didn’t have any knowledge either; nevertheless she agreed to help her sister as much as she can within her capacity. With the passing of time, gradually the Ora sisters learned how the things worked within music industry.
But the journey wasn’t purely based on sheer luck. Because they belong from the family of immigrants, they have to start everything from scratch. In other words, the reason that Rita is known as popular musical artist; it is due to her sister’ working as well.
If you are the fan of Rita’s music then you should thank her sister. Therefore, this article will be discussing the trump card behind Rita’ success which is Elena Ora.
Elena Ora Background
Elena Ora was born on 20th October 1988 to the Albanian couple in Pristina, Yugoslavia which is present day Kosovo. Her father, Besnik Sahatciu is non-practicing Muslim who has studied economics and worked as pub owner.
While her mother, Vera nee Bajraktari is a catholic who works as psychiatrist. Elena has two younger siblings, one sister named Rita Ora and one brother name Don Ora.
The family migrated to London in early nineties, due to series of political conflicts and economic crises which caused Yugoslavia to disintegrate into smaller sovereign states. The fragmentation of Yugoslavia gave rise to further civil unrest and wars, which prompted Elena’s father Besnik to fled the country along with his family for good.
Upon reaching London, they included the new surname “Ora” so that others can pronounce their name with ease. From there onwards, the family has resettled in West London to start a new chapter in their lives.
Elena Ora’ start of the career as her sister’s brand manager
While we have no clue about from where did Elena did her early education but we do have a info that after completing her schooling Elena got herself enrolled in university for higher studies. Unlike others, Elena didn’t have any clear goals about what major she will be studying at. When it came upon selecting her majors, Elena choose to follow her gut instincts and made a decision to study political theory.
The reason behind this selection of major was that she had an earlier interest of agenda setting since the way back. While she was studying at university, she was also working part-time job for the British businessman Philip Green who is the owner of the retail corporation known as Arcadia Group.
Meanwhile her younger sister Rita Ora who was sixteen at the time was also building her career towards music industry. She did this by performing at the open-mic gatherings and every so often at her father’s pub.
Eventually Rita’s open-mic sessions paid off when American hip-hop Artist Jay-z acknowledged her talent and put forward a proposition to use his label “Roc-nation” by signing the contract deal. As aforementioned, both Ora sisters didn’t have any single clue about the how the things worked within music industry.
Yet this didn’t discouraged them, on the contrary, it further motivated Ora sisters to endeavor towards unknown path. This became the starting point of creating their Brand.
With no information about music industry, the first step that Elena Ora took was she started hiring people for her team who were experts in promoting the music artists.
In addition to this, she began to look for further information by conducting research on musicians who went through same procedure; what steps they did they took, what was the role of lawyers in the contract deal etc.
Through this research, Elena came in contact with Sarah Stennet who is the CEO of the global entertainment company, First Access Entertainment that records and publishes the music of artists as well as manages the diverse range of other commercial activities including TV and sport management and brand promotions. Since Sarah Stennet herself has worked as music manager, she had a vast experience about the music industry and has established careers of few renowned musicians including Zayn Malik, Ellie Goulding.
Therefore, without any second thought, Ora sisters agreed to select First Access Entertainment in building and managing Rita’ career in music. Under her mentorship and guidance, Elena learned a one and two things about the creating brand image of potential musician. Upon completing her graduation, Elena joined with First Access team to organize Rita’s work along with Sarah.
After the formation of team, Rita signed the publishing and recording deal with Roc-nation that allowed her to use the label. However there was a catch which was that the company will not bear any expenses to promote the music artist unless that musician doesn’t produce the album. With no financial support provided by agency Elena and her team have to rely on alternatives to market Rita’ music.
So the Elena’ team adopted the social media alternative. Since the Label didn’t allow them to share their original composition, they started uploading videos about different genre such as fashion in social media platforms. But the most main priority was to market the Rita’s voice. Without compromising on contract, Rita did covers on songs which she and Elena loved on weekly videos.
The selection of the songs was done deliberately for two reasons; one was that they have to create and promote their original identity by showcasing their uniqueness and second was to avoid being compared with other potential music artists.
Through uploading videos, gradually fan base increased and more people started to recognize the Rita’ talent. While the team continued to upload videos, the team also started working toward recording the album.
Now recording the album is no easy task as they are number of prerequisites required such as who will compose the lyrics, what type of music genre will be, what kind of makeup and outfit you will wear? Who will be producers? These were the questions that required strategic thinking and approach.
Rita’s breakthrough in her music career and the contribution done by Elena’ team.
When the Roc-nation came back for Ora sisters, they ask whom they want to work with, they shared their own selected DJs including DJ Fresh, Chase & Status. After fulfilling all pre-requites, now they were given six weeks time duration to reach the top single within United Kingdom. Elena conducted the research and concluded that they need to sell 20,000 records to become number one single.
With clear target, Elena and her team jumped in to sell the records. They make use of the connections they created for past five years. Contacting each DJ they know and asking them to play Rita’s song at FM Radio.
They also made use of the Hash tag trend, in which fans were asked to take a picture with Rita’s poster and share it on either social media platform. Through these methods, the brand image started to manifest. On February 2012, the team was hired as support act to promote Canadian DJ Drake new album around the Britain.
This tour was the main opportunity to promote the Rita’s single. Elena took advantage of it by offering five free concert tickets of Drake to first five people who reached a certain venue. When first five people reached the venue, Elena would assign them a task of selling hundred leaflets which contain song name and barcode which allowed a person to buy single through the use of scan.
When an individual succeeded in selling leaflets, Elena would reward them with free concert ticket. Elena and her team would implement this practice in each city which was scheduled on tour. In other words, they were making use of street team marketing, which is marketing approach in which people rather than working from office, will promote their product out there in streets, directly to the customers.
By doing this, Elena and her team were able to bond with fans, which further strengthening the support for Rita’s career.
Then on 6th May 2012, Rita released her very first single by “R.I.P” and become number one at UK singles Chart. Then three months later, Rita released her second solo album by “How We Do (Party)”, this album too become number one within UK and Ireland. Then within the same year, she released her fourth album “Shine Ya Light” which was ranked at tenth position among the UK single chart top ten. After her spectacular performance, Rita was chosen for three awards in 2013 Brit Awards.
Rita Ora Net Worth
The current net worth of Rita Ora’ is estimated to around $30 million. Even though she is British singer and songwriter but it was not only career in music which contributed towards current net worth of Rita.
In fact, in addition to the singing, Rita has also done acting for minor roles in some of famous Hollywood films and TV shows including Fifty shades of Grey, Spivs, Twist and The Brief. Side along, at present she is a successful entrepreneur by selling up her own unique clothing line with collaboration of several well-known fashion brands including Adidas, Tezenis.
All of this massive amount of success and Rita’s high net worth wouldn’t have been possible if Elena and her team didn’t put in hard work and believe in her sister’s dream.
Some Fun facts about Elena Ora
1. She is oldest of her siblings.
2. Her old surname was Sahatciu which is a Turkish word meaning “watchmaker”. However her new surname Ora is an Albanian word which means “Time”
3. Her zodiac sign is Libra.
4. Like her sister, she too has huge following in Instagram with 222K followers.
5. In comparison to her sister, Her net worth is $1.5 million.
6. Elena Ora become the manager of her sister at eighteen years old. At present she is working as creative consultant for Red Ora and Ora Limited.
