Rita Ora Says Kygo’s ‘It Ain’t Me’ Was Written About Her

During Kygo’s live set at Coachella 2018, Rita Ora stood in for Selena Gomez during the performance of “It Ain’t Me.”

“We have been trying to work together for awhile, and he just called me and I couldn’t say no,” Rita Ora said. “He asked if I could do him the favor of singing the song, and I loved that song. It was written by my same writing camp, so I already knew it. I was like, ‘Easy! And I’m [already] here!'”

Following Rita Ora agreeing to sing “It Ain’t Me,” Ora went on to claim that the song is about her the song. “The guy that wrote the song with his team — my writing camp — who I’m also seeing, wrote that song about me. We’ve had so many ups and downs, and we’ve had a lot of nights at the Bowery, I guess. It was funny to sing it.”

The Track Rita Ora Was Singing

For context, “It Ain’t Me” was originally released in February 2017 as a collaboration between Kygo and Selena Gomez, and it turned into one of the biggest crossover dance-pop hits of that year. It’s credited to five writers, including Kygo himself, Selena Gomez, Ali Tamposi, Andrew Watt, and Brian Lee, and it climbed all the way to number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 while going multi-platinum in the US and several other countries. So when Rita Ora says one of “her” writers had a hand in it, she’s talking about a genuinely massive song, not some deep cut.

Filling In For Selena Gomez

Standing in for Selena Gomez at a Coachella-sized set isn’t a small ask either. Gomez wasn’t on the festival lineup that year, so getting a guest of Rita Ora’s caliber to cover her part let Kygo keep the song’s biggest crowd moment intact rather than trying to perform it solo or cut it from the set entirely. Whether or not the track’s real inspiration was Rita Ora, as she’s claimed, remains something only the songwriters themselves could confirm, but the moment made for one of the more talked about guest features of that year’s festival run.