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Pop-star status aside, Ruth B is still basically the teenager with the viral Vine video

RUTH B at Harbourfront Centre’s Concert Stage as part of Here In The 6ix: Multiculturalism Day (235 Queens Quay West), Tuesday (June 27), 9:15 pm. Free. 


When I reach Ruth B on the phone, she’s in the backseat of a New York City cab, whizzing to the airport after performing on Good Morning America. 

It’s a dramatic lifestyle shift from three years ago, when the then-19-year-old was working at Marshalls in her hometown of Edmonton and posting six-second covers of Drake and Lana Del Rey on the now defunct social media app Vine.

Everything changed when B (short for Berhe) uploaded her first original composition: a few piano chords paired with soulful singing about the lost boys of Neverland. The clip went viral on Vine, and within months, Berhe had a record deal with Columbia. 

That original arrangement became Lost Boy, a bare-bones piano ballad that has since gone triple platinum in Canada and is now the touchstone of her recently released debut album, Safe Haven (Sony).

“I called the album Safe Haven because these songs have become my little safe haven amidst the madness,” says Berhe, as cars honk in the background. “For me, they’re like mini-documentations of my life.” 

The songs, many of which were written in the basement of her parents’ family home, deal with love in all its facets: falling for the wrong person, recovering from heartbreak, experiencing love at first sight at a crowded party. Collaborating with producer Joel Little, who worked on Lorde’s Pure Heroine debut, Berhe wove her stories into intimate, honest songs. 

“If you listen closely [on the song Mixed Signals], you can hear my fingernails hitting the keys, and at the end you can hear me get off the stool,” says Berhe. “We set up mics all around the piano so you could really get the texture of the room.”

Berhe started playing piano at eight, but within five years quit traditional lessons and instead taught herself the songs she heard on the radio. She was raised on music from Ethiopia (where her parents are from), Christian punk and gospel music. In high school, she discovered Lauryn Hill, who she admires for her songwriting prowess and integrity as an artist.

“I always like stories, so I gravitate toward songs with a good story,” says Berhe. A favourite example is To Zion by Hill, about her struggles with an unexpected pregnancy, pressures to get an abortion and arriving at the ultimate decision to keep her baby. “It’s perfect. It has characters, a problem and a solution. It’s written like a short story.”

At this year’s Juno Awards, Berhe won breakthrough artist of the year, and this summer, she’ll tour through Canada. Despite her new pop star status, she maintains that she isn’t too different from the teenager with the viral Vine video. 

She still lives at home in Edmonton, is teaching herself how to play the guitar (“My goal is to learn five songs by the end of the summer”) and wants to get more into Ethiopian music. 

And she still uses social media to connect with fans. On Instagram, she posts videos of her workshopping new songs, selfies with her mom or her covering Drake’s Fake Love in sweatpants in her bedroom.

“My job is a little crazy, but in terms of the way I perceive myself, it’s the same. I’m just like everyone else. We all go through the same things and we can find common ground in certain melodies and lyrics.” 

music@nowtoronto.com | @SamEdwardsTO

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