When 17-year-old singer/songwriter Ru: took to the Show Ya Grill stage at this year’s South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, everyone in the building knew that she was something special as soon as her angelic voice resonated through the speakers.
Slated to be a hardcore hip-hop show headlining Scotty ATL and Bun B, she took everyone in attendance and felt her powerhouse sound during her forthcoming unreleased single “It’s All My Fault.” Starting out laidback and mellow, she made everybody in the audience take a pause and marvel at the child prodigy onstage.
By the time Ru: reached the chorus, her show became more and more energetic, and she was rocking the crowd. Walking offstage, she left the audience in goose bumps. “It felt good to be recognized,” Ru: admits. “Since I write a lot of meaningful songs, people from all walks of life can relate to my music.”
And with good reason. The Virginia native was raised in a house full of music. Born Taniya Cockburn to a Trinidadian father and Dominican mother, Ru: grew up to the soca music her father played constantly. A member of a band when she was a little girl, when he was playing music loudly, he was practicing his own music on keyboards, guitars and steel drums around the home.
Papi bought Ru: her first guitar at seven years old and put her in the studio to record two years later. “I was terrified,” she admits. “I was a shy kid, so I was really, really scared.”
Over the next few years, Ru: mastered her guitar and her voice, singing in chorus in middle school and performing at open mics around Richmond as early as 12 years old.
These days, she plays piano along with the guitar and writes all her own music. She also sings in church choir and is a motivational speaker for kids at area schools. She has opened for R&B megastar Monica and further pushed the boundaries of her music when writing heart-tugging testimony “Where Did My Life Go” for motion picture entitled Corrupt.
Ru:’s first release was the mid-tempo, Caribbean-inspired “Want You Gone” in summer 2020. But it was her runaway single “Next Big Thing” last year that really put Ru: on the map.
Now with her next big single “It’s All My Fault” on the way, this talented teen is on her way to superstar status. “My dream is to win a Grammy,” Ru: admits, “because it is so meaningful to so many people.”