Rita Ora Running Up That Hill

Rita Ora singing a cover of Running Up That Hill is so bad she deserves Vecna’s curse

‘It’s giving Fergie doing the National Anthem’


Rita Ora, eh? She’s one of them pop stars that you just can’t shake off. Blunder after blunder, all accompanied with a smattering of genuinely pretty serviceable pop bangers. When she’s not spouting absolute nonsense on The Masked Singer UK (Yes, Rita – I’m sure that is Kim Kardashian singing on ITV dressed as an ornate hotdog), she’s sampling Crazy Frog on one of the hardest flopping EPs of 2021. But beyond the nonsense – Rita Ora actually has a pretty great voice. And it works for most songs. But one song it does not work for is when Rita Ora decided to belt out Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill this week.

No deals with god for you, Rita

Performing live during the Multishow of Rock in Rio, Rita Ora dives head first into an a capella rendition of Running Up That Hill that not a single soul asked for. Max Mayfield is turning in her grave (well, hospital bed). After Running Up That Hill had its huge 2022 resurgence thanks to its iconic moment in season four of Stranger Things on Netflix, the song has lived rent free in all of our brains all year. Kim Petras released a cover of it earlier this year too – and it’s decidedly better than Rita’s if you fancy a change from Mother Bush.

It is the kind of cover that completely saps the intention of the song out. It is the exact opposite of everything Running Up That Hill is – the sheer antithesis of all that Kate Bush wanted. Rita Ora oversinging Running Up That Hill into the bleak ground and rounding it off with a sassy kiss has not gone down well on Twitter. Well, it’s gone down well for comedy value, but I’m not sure that’s what she intended.

Stranger Things 4 is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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