Ruth Berhe (born July 2, 1995), better known by her stage name Ruth B., is a Canadian singer and songwriter from

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. She started by singing songs on

Vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themsel ...

in early 2013. In November 2015, she released her debut extended play '' The Intro''. On May 5, 2017, she released her debut album '' Safe Haven''. It has gathered over 1.8 billion overall streams on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

as of December 2022. Her single " Lost Boy" has accumulated over 728 million streams on Spotify, and her YouTube channel has received a total of 526 million views . Her song "

Dandelions ''Taraxacum'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus is native to Eurasia and Nor ...

" from ''Safe Haven'' became a

sleeper hit In the entertainment industry, a sleeper hit is a film, television series, music release, video game, or some other entertainment product that was initially unsuccessful on release but became a success later on. A sleeper hit may have little prom ...

in 2022, when it grew in popularity due to

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...

and charted internationally. It has accumulated over 773 million streams on Spotify as of December 2022.

Early life and education

Berhe was born and raised in

, Alberta. Her parents emigrated from Ethiopia in the 1980s. Berhe speaks her parents' native language Amharic fluently. She spent some of her teenage years working at a local

Reitmans Reitmans Canada Ltd. is a Canadian retailing company, specializing in women's clothing. The company operates several store brands, includinReitmans The Canadian Press The Canadian Press (CP; french: La Presse canadienne, ) is a Canadian national news agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Established in 1917 as a vehicle for the time's Canadian newspapers to exchange news and information, The Canadian Pre ...

as an "introvert". She said she was "never the big party chick." While working part-time she started to dabble in 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 YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. Berhe graduated from Ross Sheppard High School in 2013. She attended

MacEwan University , mottoeng = , type = Public university, Public University , established = , closed = , founder = , parent = , academic_affiliations = A ...

, but took time off her studies to focus on music.

Career

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 "Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 (according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'') in storytelling in t ...

''. 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", which she shared to

on January 18, 2015. The song and " Superficial Love" was featured on her EP The Intro later that year and on her 2017 debut album Safe Haven, which included the promotional single "Dandelions". Berhe was nominated for the Juno Fan Choice Award and Songwriter of the Year, and won Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the 2017 Juno Awards. In June, she honoured National Arts Centre Award winner

Michael Bublé Michael Steven Bublé ( ; born September 9, 1975) is a Canadian singer. A four-time Grammy Award winner, he is often credited for helping to renew public interest and appreciation for traditional pop standards and the Great American Songboo ...

at the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards gala by performing his song " Home" as well as

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and mor ...

' " Heaven" during Adams' induction for the Lifetime Achievement Award at the SOCAN Awards. In September, she performed

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...

's " Heart of Gold" for his induction into the

Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (''Panthéon des Auteurs et Compositeurs canadiens'') is a Canadian non-profit organization, founded in 1998 by Frank Davies, that inducts Canadians into their ''Hall of Fame'' within three different categori ...

. At the 2018 Juno Awards, she was nominated for three awards including Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Pop Album of the Year. The

CBC Kids ''CBC Kids'' is a Television in Canada, Canadian children's television series, children's Block programming, block on CBC Television. The block was launched as Hodge Podge Lodge in 1987 and contains programming targeted at children. The block a ...

television series ''Addison'' also debuted that year, with a theme song performed by Berhe. In May, her song "Shadows" appeared in the second season of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

series ''

Dear White People ''Dear White People'' is a 2014 American satirical dark comedy-drama film written, directed and co-produced by Justin Simien. The film focuses on escalating racial tensions at a fictitious, prestigious Ivy League college from the perspective of ...

''. In 2019, she released an EP called ''Maybe I'll Find You Again''. In the summer of 2020, she released the song "If I Have a Son" and "Dirty Nikes". On December 3, she performed a virtual concert to raise money for people working in the music industry during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. In 2021, her second album ''Moments in Between'' was released. In August 2022, her song "Paper Airplanes" was featured as the leading original song for ''

A Jazzman's Blues ''A Jazzman's Blues'' is a 2022 American drama film written, produced and directed by Tyler Perry. The film stars Joshua Boone, Amirah Vann, Solea Pfeiffer, Austin Scott, Brent Antonello, and Ryan Eggold. ''A Jazzman's Blues'' premiered at the ...

'' soundtrack.

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

As lead artist

Promotional singles

Awards and nominations

Artistry

Berhe has listed

Lauryn Hill Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. She is often regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, as well as being one of the most influential musicians of her generation. ...

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

, Carole King,

Grouplove Grouplove (often typeset as GROUPLOVE) is an American alternative rock band that was formed in 2009 by Hannah Hooper (lead vocals, keyboards), Christian Zucconi (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Sean Gadd (bass), Andrew Wessen (lead guitar, backing vo ...

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a rec ...

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...

and

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently re ...

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 An idolator is a practitioner of idolatry. Idolater or Idolator may also refer to: Books *''Os Idólatras'', 1968 Portuguese novel by Maria Judite de Carvalho Music * Idolator (website), an American music blog * ''Idolator'' (album), third album ...

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruth B. 1995 births Living people Canadian women singer-songwriters Columbia Records artists MacEwan University alumni Musicians from Edmonton Vine (service) celebrities Canadian people of Ethiopian descent 21st-century Black Canadian women singers Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners Canadian women pop singers