Twenty-year-old Canadian singer Ruth B, short for Berhe, got off to a flying start earlier this year when her single, “Lost Boy,” went viral. She released the track on vine back in 2013 independently and took many by surprise when it reached the top 100 on iTunes.
Berhe was quite popular on the social media site Vine. She released six-second video clips of her singing, which did not even feature her face. It was just her tinkling voice covering one or two lines from a popular song or her own work to her Yamaha keyboard.
One day last December, when she watched an episode of ABC’s “Once Upon A Time,” she was inspired to recorded two lines and a couple of notes for her next video clip that would very quickly change her life. The Peter Pan-themed song caught the attention of Columbia Records and is now getting a major label push.
She strives to follow in the footsteps of artists such as Shawn Mendes and Tori Kelly by leveraging social media fame into a successful pop music career. It took only six seconds for Berhe to go from complete obscurity to Internet celebrity.
“I remember when I first heard Ruth B. on vine and I thought her voice was amazing. ‘Lost Boy’ is constantly showing up on my Vine feed, and I never get tired of it. I haven’t heard her full EP yet, but I’m so looking forward to it now,” says sophomore Sarae Barnett.
Her long-awaited debut EP, “The Intro,” is an acoustic collection of four songs sung in Berhe’s angelic voice that came out on November 27, 2015.
The EP’s first track is “2 Poor Kids,” which is a song about two poor kids growing up in a town that revolves around fame and fortune. In the song, she talks about how love is ruined by money and power and that their love is “unlike no other, no fancy suit and no fancy dress.” Overall, after hearing the song for the first time, I am picking up some Adele vibes from her style of music.
The second track is “Lost Boy,” an adorable yet sad song about friendship and growing up without it. The theme of the song follows the famous children’s story “Peter Pan.” This was also the song that got her noticed on Vine by Columbia Records.
The third song, “Golden,” is about a young woman’s transformation from weak to powerful after going through a tough time. She empowers her listeners with the melodic lyrics of “Burn, burn, burn, they used to yell / You thought I was coal, my friend, I’m gold. Can’t you tell? / ’Cause I’m not weak. I’m not broken. I am bold / And the fire you put me through turned me into gold.” The lines in this song are so poetic and beautiful that I would have to say it’s my favorite.
“Superficial Love,” the fourth and final song, was the only piece Berhe wrote after she signed to Columbia Records. The song is about being someone’s first choice. This track is a wonderful conclusion to the EP, with its simplistic instrumental sounds and Berhe’s melodic voice.
The best way to describe the full EP is raw and passionate. As of now, Berhe said there is a full studio album and a tour in the works for 2016.
How excited are you for Berhe’s new music?