Ruth B.

Biography

Ruth Berhe (born July 2, 1995) is a Canadian singer and songwriter from Edmonton, Alberta. She started by singing songs on Vine in early 2013. In November 2015, she released her debut extended play (EP), The Intro×The Intro27 November 2015 · EPSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks12 Poor Kids3:472Lost Boy4:363Golden4:364Superficial Love3:27. On May 5, 2017, she released her debut studio album, Safe Haven×Safe Haven5 May 2017 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Mixed Signals4:152Dandelions3:543Unrighteous4:014Superficial Love3:395If This Is Love3:506Lost Boy4:367Young3:458If by Chance5:049World War 33:5510Safe Haven3:2411In My Dreams4:0912First Time3:17. It has gathered over 2.5 billion overall streams globally as of June 2024. Her double-platinum single "Lost Boy×Lost Boy21 August 2015 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Lost Boy4:35" has accumulated over 850 million streams on Spotify.
In 2022, her song "Dandelions" from Safe Haven became a sleeper hit, when it grew in popularity due to TikTok and charted internationally, including chart debuts in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, and Germany. It has accumulated over 2 billions streams on Spotify alone.

Early life and education

Ruth Berhe was born on July 2, 1995, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. Her parents emigrated from Ethiopia in the 1980s. At the age of eight, Berhe began playing the piano. Berhe speaks her parents' native language Amharic fluently. She spent some of her teenage years working at a local Reitmans clothing store and described herself in an interview with The Canadian Press as an "introvert". She said she was "never the big party chick." While working part-time she started posting videos on Vine. She says she chose the six-second video service because it took less effort to upload short clips, compared to other popular services like YouTube.
Berhe graduated from Ross Sheppard High School in 2013. She attended MacEwan University, but took time off her studies to focus on music.

2013–2018: Debut and Safe Haven

Berhe posted her first Vine video in May 2013, and started making singing Vines about a year later. Her singing Vines, typically six second covers of popular songs, helped her grow a following. In November 2014, she posted a Vine of herself singing a line that she had made up, which was inspired by the television series Once Upon a Time. It garnered around 84,000 likes within a week, which was unusual for her at the time. She took note of its popularity, with some of her followers commenting that she should make it into a full song. It became "Lost Boy×Lost Boy21 August 2015 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Lost Boy4:35", which she shared to YouTube on January 18, 2015. The song "Superficial Love×Superficial Love24 February 2017 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Superficial Love3:38" was featured on her debut EP The Intro×The Intro27 November 2015 · EPSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks12 Poor Kids3:472Lost Boy4:363Golden4:364Superficial Love3:27 later that year and on her 2017 debut album Safe Haven×Safe Haven5 May 2017 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Mixed Signals4:152Dandelions3:543Unrighteous4:014Superficial Love3:395If This Is Love3:506Lost Boy4:367Young3:458If by Chance5:049World War 33:5510Safe Haven3:2411In My Dreams4:0912First Time3:17, which also included the song "Dandelions".
In September 2017, she performed Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" for Bryan Adams's induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. The CBC Kids television series Addison debuted in 2018, with a theme song performed by Ruth B. In May, her song "Shadows" appeared in the second season of the Netflix series Dear White People.

2019–present: Subsequent releases

In 2019, Ruth B released an EP called Maybe I'll Find You Again, which includes the song "Slow Fade×Slow Fade25 January 2019 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Slow Fade3:32" that she co-wrote with the British alternative group, Oh Wonder. In the summer of 2020, she released the song "If I Have a Son×If I Have a Son11 June 2020 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1If I Have a Son3:55" as a response to the George Floyd Murder in Minneapolis. "Dirty Nikes×Dirty Nikes28 August 2020 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Dirty Nikes3:18" was the first single released from her then upcoming second studio album. On December 3, she performed a virtual concert representing the MusicCares Foundation to raise money during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, her second album, Moments in Between×Moments in Between9 June 2021 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Princess Peach3:322Holiday Interlude0:313Holiday2:344Situation3:315Sweet Chamomile3:286Favourite3:447Spaceship3:318Die Fast3:409Dirty Nikes3:1810Moments in Between3:5411Share2:5012Ruth B. on “Situation”1:17 was released. In August 2022, her song "Paper Airplanes" was featured as the leading original song for the Tyler Perry Netflix film, A Jazzman's Blues soundtrack.

Artistry

Incorporating elements of pop, R&B, alternative, and soul, Ruth B has listed Lauryn Hill, The Beatles, Carole King, Grouplove, Adele, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran as some of her musical influences. She said that "the one thing all my favourite artists have in common is they are all storytellers. Something that I try to incorporate in my music", in an interview with Idolator.