Women Who Rock: The Final Faceoff
The votes are in, and you’ve chosen the two finalists in our Women Who Rock contest. Next stop: An onstage showdown at the Rolling Stone Rock Room during Lollapalooza. The prize: A starring role in a special issue of RS this fall!
Rita Ora
Rita Ora couldn’t be more psyched about landing an opening slot on Coldplay‘s European stadium run this summer. “I jump around a lot during my set, and I slipped recently,” she says with a laugh. “I just pretended it was part of the show and carried on singing.” After topping U.K. charts with her Drake-penned heartbreak ode “R.I.P.,” the Kosovo-born, West London-raised pop singer is aiming to conquer the U.S. with her debut album, due out this fall on Jay-Z‘s Roc Nation label. Winning this contest would be a big boost: “Having that Women Who Rock title from Rolling Stone would be such a great feeling,” she says. But despite all her success so far, she’s mindful of her boss’s advice. “Jay-Z told me to be patient,” she says. “He told me to be ready to put the work in and let things run their course, and I am.”
Karmin
“We pretty much freaked out,” Karmin singer Amy Heidemann says of the moment she learned that the pop duo made it to the last round of Rolling Stone‘s Women Who Rock contest. “This is a huge deal.” Adds her fiancé, Karmin vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Nick Noonan, “I had resorted to physically accosting people in public to get them to vote for us.” The couple can’t wait for Lollapalooza. Says Heidemann, “We take every opportunity to perform as if it’s the biggest stage we’ve been on.” In the meantime, they’ll be promoting their new single, the club groove “Hello.” “It tells the story of the whirlwind ride we’ve been on – from meeting in college in Boston to our ascent into Hollywood,” Heidemann says. “In just one calendar year, we’ve gone from making YouTube covers in our living room to here!”
Reporting by Stacey Anderson and Matt Diehl