Ruth Berhe

Ruth Berhe was born on July 2, 1995, in Edmonton, Alberta. Her parents had emigrated from Ethiopia in the 1980s. An “introvert,” as she describes herself, she worked part-time at a local Reitman clothing store when she was a teen. During that time, she started posting video clips on Vine as it was easy to upload short clips on the platform.

Graduating from Ross Sheppard High School in 2013, she went to MacEwan University for a while, but dropped out to pursue a career in music. When ‘Lost Boy’ was gaining popularity on Vine, her fame in high school also increased and she was recognized as the “Vine Chick.”

Ruth Berhe posted her first video clip on Vine in May 2013. On getting positive response, she continued making short singing Vines with covers of popular songs, which helped her get a good fan following. In November the following year, she posted a Vine in which she sang a line inspired by the television series ‘Once Upon a Time’. The overwhelming response to the clip shocked Ruth as it garnered about 84,000 likes within a week. Encouraged by her followers, she made a full song, which was ‘Lost Boy’. Following its popularity on Vine, she posted it on YouTube in January 2015, and also released it on iTunes in February 2015.

With her popularity increasing on Vine, YouTube, and other social media platforms, she got noticed by the record labels and eventually signed with Columbia Records in July 2015. Her debut EP, ‘The Intro’, was released in November 2015; it consists of four songs including ‘Lost Boy’. In 2016, she performed ‘Lost Boy’ on the morning television show ‘Today’.

In 2016, she started working with Joel Little, a New Zealand producer, on her first full-length album. She had been writing songs for a long time, and therefore, had a number of songs ready before the production of the album started. The album ‘Safe Haven’, co-produced by Joel Little, Mike Elizondo, and Ruth Berhe, was released in May 2017. It earned her positive reviews. The album was certified gold by Music Canada. Two of the songs from ‘The Intro’—‘Lost Boy’ and ‘Superficial Love’—were included in the album as well.

At the 2017 Juno Awards, she bagged the Breakthrough Artist of the Year award. In 2018, she was nominated for three Juno Awards—Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Pop Album of the Year. Her song ‘Shadows’ has been used in the Netflix series ‘Dear White People’, season two.