Ruti isn’t content with building a fanbase – she’s building a community. A songwriter with a unique ability to connect, she paints a picture of her soul with each release. A stunning vocalist, her commitment to honesty is completely unforced. New EP ‘Lungs’ is her finest moment yet, but she’s only just getting started. With Ruti, what she see, is what you get – and she’s determined to make her voice heard.

Ironically, the idea of actually singing came relatively late in her life. The 24-year-old was brought up in Thurrock, with a mother from Essex and a father from Nigeria. Raised around the church, her first love was actually dance. Dutifully heading to lessons from the age of
three, she would soak up tunes from her parents’ stereo system – post-disco like Kool & The Gang and George Benson – before dancing her heart out. “I’ve been dancing a lot longer than I’ve been singing,” she laughs. “But that’s what brought me into music.”

Winning a competition at a holiday camp when she was a child, Ruti knocked the crowd into silence with her acapella version of Adele’s powerhouse ‘Rolling In The Deep’. It was the start of a deep shift in her life – everyone in the room knew the precocious youngster
was special. “When we got home my mum was like, oh maybe we could do more singing stuff?”

Studying music at school, Ruti would write songs in her notebooks, but was terrified to share them. “I’ve always been really nervous about writing,” she admits. “I’d write a little bit.. and then just leave it, throw it away. But when I got to sixth form, they pushed you to
actually write songs – so I had no choice.”

Life took her in different paths. A glimpse of the spotlight’s intense glare pushed Ruti towards the major label system, but deep down she knew something wasn’t right. Later signing to PMR Records, she was given time and space to build something unique to her
from the ground up. “I want to be independent. Deep down, I’ve always known that. I want the people around me to care about what I’m doing.”