Ruby Poole

Blame it on Pop Idol, dial-up internet, and one little girl who refused to sit still. Ruby Poole’s first toy was not a Barbie, but a microphone. Growing up glued to reality TV talent shows and the wild west of early internet fame, she decided pretty early on that music wasn’t just a hobby — it was a calling. Cue a patient mum and dad, heroically chauffeuring their daughter to pub gigs and wedding venues. Those sticky-floored, fairy-lit venues? That’s where Ruby learned to say the things teenagers feel but can never quite spit out. And then — naturally — she started writing them down herself. From the windswept shores of Harwich, Essex small town vibe, but with a big ambition, this 20-year-old singer-songwriter has been quietly making jaws drop. Leading to selling out her debut London show. Raw, cinematic, and built to make you cry in a car park, her ballads have already turned heads at the very top — we’re talking Janet Jackson, Gloria Gaynor & Teddy Swims: As well as support slots this summer with James Arthur. All without having a song out! “I’ve always written from the heart,” she says of her brutally honest debut EP — and honestly? It shows. In an era of recycled samples and production that sounds like a robot having a feelings, “My first EP really is just strings, piano, a bit of bass, and me singing,” she says. Simple. Devastating. Devastatingly simple. “I think, if your music speaks about who you are, that’s all it needs.”