Ruelle

Ruelle is an expressive pop artist whose stirring and atmospheric ballads, whether framed with only somber piano or more complex productions full of crashing drums and theatrical strings, have been utilized across dozens of dramatic television series and film trailers. The singer/songwriter born Maggie Eckford recorded a couple indie pop albums in the early 2010s before she found her cinematic niche with licensed and purpose-written material alike. She landed her first placements just before releasing Up in Flames (2015), her first EP, with “Until We Go Down” alone heard in Sleepy Hallow, The Shannara Chronicles, and Wynnona Earp, among several other series and reality competition shows. Due in large part to placements on Shadowhunters (“Fire Meets Fate”) and Grey’s Anatomy (“Carry You”), Ruelle was named Tunefind’s Top Artist of 2018. Her subsequent releases include the EPs Earth Glow (2019), Exodus (also 2019), and Somebody Else (2022), and numerous singles such as “Yes We Can” (2023) and “Conquer” (2024). Raised in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Maggie Eckford got her start as an indie pop artist with two albums credited to her birth name: For What It's Worth (2010) and Show and Tell (2012). After the release of the latter, Eckford relocated to Nashville to further her songwriting career. Going back to her love for musicals and movies that shaped her early listening and education, Eckford changed course with emphasis on ballads with dramatic and cinematic qualities. In 2014, her songs “Up in Flames” and “Fear on Fire” were placed in episodes of Reckless and Revenge. Early the following year, she released her debut EP as Ruelle, Up in Flames, featuring both of those songs as well as “War of Hearts” and “Until We Go Down,” a pair that would eventually combine for well over a dozen placements in series such as Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments, Sleepy Hallow, The Shannara Chronicles, Wynonna Earp, and the U.S. and U.K. versions of Love Island. As syncs continued to pile up over the next few years, Ruelle released additional EPs — Madness, Rival, and Emerge — on a yearly basis. Ruelle was number two on Tunefind’s Top Artist list for 2017, and in 2018, she landed at the top thanks to the popularity of “Fire Meets Fate,” another Shadowhunters link, and “Carry You,” which was heard before the end of the year on Grey’s Anatomy, The Resident, Famous in Love, and Charmed. Ruelle responded to her biggest year yet by repacking previously released songs and issuing new recordings throughout 2019. Ode to Shadows, issued on CD, compiled highlights like “War of Hearts” and “Carry You,” as well as “I Get to Love You” (a reality series favorite) and “Monsters” (first placed on Scream: Music from Season One). She also released Earth Glow and Exodus, a pair of EPs highlighted respectively by “Like You Mean It” and “The Fear of Letting Go.” Although Ruelle was less prolific in 2020 and 2021 with a handful of new singles, past recordings — “Carry You” especially — ensured her near ubiquity on the small screen. She released her seventh EP, Somebody Else, in 2022, and over the next two years continued with “Yes We Can,” “How to Save a Life,” and “Conquer,” among other singles. ~ Andy Kellman