(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Rita Ora says it was "love at first sight" with Bruno Mars.

The 21-year-old singer has revealed that she used to date the charismatic singer-songwriter when she was first starting out in the music industry. Rita who is one of Jay-Z's protgs admits she instantly fell for Bruno when they met while working on new music.

"It was love at first sight, such a great experience," Rita is quoted as telling German magazine Bravo.

"We met in 2009. I was 18 and starting out at Roc Nation. Bruno was unknown back then too.

He was a struggling songwriter hired to write songs for me. I thought: Wow, that's just the world's greatest guy!'"

Rita went on to explain that the romance fizzled out when both of their careers took off.

The feisty star has recently been romantically linked to Rob Kardashian, and has ruled out rekindling her relationship with Bruno.

"Our time together was wonderful," she gushed. "But once we got famous, work got in the way. We ended it last year. But we remained close.

"And when we were together we were so happy."

The magazine also published photographs of Rita and Bruno taken at a disco last year. (C) Cover Media