At just 17 years old, Ruby Rodgers is already one of Australia's most exciting young artists.
When you're from a big musical family and spend your life on the road and surrounded by musicians, it's so entrenched in your DNA that making music is almost as important as breathing. And Ruby lives and breathes music.
In 2025, Ruby released her debut EP 'Crisis', after starring in 'Future Council', a youth-led documentary directed by Damon Gameau (released in 2024). She delivered a TEDx talk exploring the power of youth voices, using songwriting as a way of making sense of an increasingly complex world, and she has been speaking and performing across Australia and overseas.
Ruby was recently awarded the 2025 Environmental Music Prize People's Choice Award for Hits the Heart, a song inspired by her experience in 'Future Council'. Voted on by listeners across 61 countries, the track cemented Ruby as one of Australia's most compelling emerging voices, pairing intimate songwriting with urgent social commentary.
Her forthcoming sophomore EP titled "sixteen", due November 6 2026, introduces a body of work that explores identity, adolescence and the complexities of growing up through rich, cinematic arrangements and quietly powerful songwriting. Written alongside collaborators Alex Hope, Aubrie Mitchell, Rhys Lewis, Nick Kingswell, Shane Nicholson and Benjamin Rodgers, with production by Benjamin Rodgers, the EP Sixteen explores identity, power, adolescence and the complexities of growing up in an increasingly fractured world. Across its five songs, Ruby places intimate personal experiences alongside broader social and political questions, creating a body of work that feels both deeply individual and strikingly universal.
Drawing influence from artists including Phoebe Bridgers, Radiohead and Ethel Cain, Ruby continues to establish herself as one of Australia's most compelling young songwriters. Never provocative for provocation's sake, her songs are driven by emotional honesty, examining uncomfortable subjects with nuance, vulnerability and remarkable empathy.
Across Sixteen, Ruby charts the uneasy space between innocence and experience, documenting the moment where youthful certainty gives way to a more complicated understanding of the world. Yet despite its weightier themes, the EP ultimately resists cynicism, choosing connection, hope and empathy instead.
Alongside her own artist project, Ruby has become an increasingly sought-after songwriter and topliner, collaborating with artists across Australia and internationally. Most recently, she earned a co-writing credit on Lance Savali's latest single 'Higher' Ft. Rita Ora, further cementing her reputation as one of our most exciting emerging songwriting talents. In early 2026 Ruby featured as a vocalist and cowriter on SWEATBABY's Switch and was announced as Lead Youth Patron of the Next Up Music Awards, working alongside a national Youth Council to help shape Australia's newest music awards platform.
Ruby's live performances are immersive, captivating and emotionally resonant, marking the arrival of a remarkable new voice in Australian music.