English Pop Star ‘Rumer’ Wants to Get Closer to Her Pakistani Roots

Rumer, a British pop star, has been the fastest selling debut in UK and has sold over half a million copies in 2010. Interestingly, she has roots in Pakistan, roots she looks forward to connect to.

Rumer (real name: Sarah Joyce) was born in Islamabad and spent the first decade of her life there. She was only 11 when her mother admitted to her that the father, an engineer for the nearby Tarbela Dam project, who raised her up,  was not her biological father. Her biological father was in fact the family’s cook with whom her mother had a secret affair. Her parents separated the same year and it was so much more than an 11 year old may take which is why her songs have her pain in them.

Soon after, she moved back to London along with her mother and siblings. In 2002, her mother, who was in the advanced stages of her breast cancer, asked Rumer to fulfill her final wish before she dies. She said “I want you to go to Pakistan and find him before I die. I need to leave this planet with my house in order.”

Rumer went all the way to the mountainous areas of North Western Frontier Province in Pakistan with the hope to see her biological father. She checked into a hotel and ordered a cup of tea. As the waiter arrived, she showed him the picture of her father and asked if he knows him. To which he replied “That’s my father. He died three months ago.”

She shared the story in an interview with Guardian

In my head, I have lots of things stored away in boxes. Normally I’m brave – I can go back and look – but I definitely think I’ve put that one in the box and thrown away the key. There I was, visiting what was actually a grieving widow and his children, who were totally fucked, financially, without him. I didn’t say anything to the family, because it was unnecessary and, also, I wasn’t sure of how, culturally, that would be received. When I arrived with gifts and money, they said that Allah had sent me, and I just left it at that.

Rumer loves to connect to her Pakistani roots and takes pride in her eastern heritage. She adds

I’ve always wanted to be Pakistani but I haven’t been able to explore that side of my identity. When I hear the music from Pakistan it’s so good that it makes me ashamed to call myself a musician.