Rumer
@ the Queen Elizabeth Hall
22 November 2024

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Biography

Rumer is the professional name of the British female singer-songwriter, Sarah Joyce (born 1979, Islamabad, Pakistan). Her stage name was inspired by the author Rumer Godden. Rumer's voice has been described by The Guardian as being reminiscent of Karen Carpenter. Supported by leading music industry figures including Burt Bacharach, Jools Holland and Elton John, Rumer was nominated for two Brit awards on 13 January 2011. Rumer was born in 1979 in Pakistan, the youngest of seven children. Her mother's husband was a British engineer on the Tarbela Dam project and the family lived in a self-contained expatriate community near Islamabad. Her mother had a relationship with her cook, who was Pakistani and is Sarah's natural father, although none of her six siblings knew she had a different father and she did not find out until the age of 11, when her parents divorced and the family returned to England. Sarah went to school in Carlisle, which she left at 16 and spent some time studying drama at Dartington College of Arts in Devon before moving to London. She tried her hand in bands and waitressing.

When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer Rumer moved to live in a caravan in the New Forest to be with her and started writing her own songs. Her mother died in 2003 and Sarah had a breakdown. She joined a commune in the south of England for a year before returning to London to pursue her music career