Rita Ora Confirms Calvin Harris Prevented Her From Performing "I Will Never Let You Down" at the Teen Choice Awards

Singer stopped by On Air With Ryan Seacrest to address the speculation on Tuesday

By Alyssa Toomey Aug 12, 2014 8:55 PMTags
Brit Awards, Rita Ora, Calvin HarrisAnthony Harvey/Getty Images

Perhaps these two aren't the most amicable of exes...

Pop star Rita Ora stopped by On Air With Ryan Seacrest early Tuesday morning, where she confirmed what E! News reported yesterday: Calvin Harris did indeed prevent his former girlfriend from performing her hit "I Will Never Let You Down" at the Teen Choice Awards.

So what happened?!

"For anybody who doesn't understand how it works, he wrote and produced the song," the singer explained, addressing her last-minute cancellation. "So he has to approve anything TV-wise for anybody who doesn't get it. And obviously he owns the rights to it and he didn't approve the Teen Choice Awards."

ryanseacrest.com

Ora was expected to take the stage at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, but was forced to unexpectedly cancel her plans for both her appearance and her performance. "Guys I am so sorry. I will make it up too you. I promise. I'm devastated. I love my fans," she tweeted at the time, although she failed to provide an explanation as to what truly occurred.

But after a string of speculative reports, the "How We Do" singer was more than happy to clear the air while chatting with Seacrest and guest-host Giuliana Rancic.

Asked whether she was surprised by the sudden nix of the song, Ora replied, "No, nuh-uh" after revealing that she had been planning her TCA performance for "about a month in advance."

"I could have got told a few weeks earlier, you know," she admitted. "That would have been nice. It was a last-minute change, but you know what, it happens and we move on and move forward…It is what it is, man. You know, you write a song with somebody, and I guess there's some stuff that comes with it…Everything happens for a reason, that's how I look at it."

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Prior to her TCA explanation, the stunning Brit said that "I Will Never Let You Down" is "basically a love song you can dance to."

"I wrote this with a really special person, and it was the first time I ever kind of opened my doors up for somebody I knew personally," she said. 

Asked point-blank by Seacrest whether that "special person" is ex Calvin Harris, the "R.I.P" singer confessed, "That's correct."

While Ora and Harris' split may have seemed amicable at the time (the EDM DJ confirmed their break-up via Twitter in June and wished his ex "all the best"), a source tells E! News that the 30-year-old producer is hurt by how things went down with Ora, which may also explain his recent cryptic social media posts.

Justin Campbell/startraksphoto.com

On Saturday morning, Calvin quoted lyrics from his song "Summer" with a sad emoji face, writing, "You act so innocent now...but you lied so soon." He later also posted a meme of a dog's face with the caption, "When you start realizing s--t."

Hmm...

After the pair called it quits, Ora opened up about her breakup with the Scottish DJ and admitted that their split has been tough to swallow.

"I'm gonna tell you the truth: I'm not doing too great," the Kosovo-born, England-raised singer admitted to Glamour U.K.'s September issue when asked about life post-split. "But, I'm doing better than I thought. I adore him and he's such an amazing human being. It was more about the situation. It was inconvenient. It sucks. It wasn't about 'us.' It was about the world we live in."