Riit was born Rita Claire Mike-Murphy in 1996 in the hamlet of Panniqtuuq (aka Pangnirtung) in Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost province, to an Irish father and an Inuk mother. She grew up in a musical environment, attending summer camps where she studied throat singing and guitar, and learned accordion while in college. Later she moved to Nunavut’s capital Iqaluit, where she became part of a vibrant scene of young Inuk musicians writing and performing in their native language.
She began to write her own songs, with socially conscious lyrics inspired in part by a traumatic relationship she had endured in her teens. Her 2017 eponymous debut EP was released on Aakuluk Music, a label set up by local folk band the Jerry Cans. It combined acoustic folk-pop melodies with electronic beats and throat singing for a unique sound that brought her immediate attention.
Throughout her debut full-length album, produced by Graham Walsh and recorded in Iqaluit, Nunavut and Toronto, Riit sings about the clarity of forgiveness, the imprint of the past on the present, and personal disconnection. In Inuktitut, Riit’s songs explore family, life and love. Riit also nods to Nunavut’s rich yet underappreciated legacy of songwriters, with covers of Inuititut classics included on the record. On the strength of the 3-song EP, Riit was nominated for Best Radio Single (Indigenous Music Awards) and Indigenous Artist of the Year (Western Canadian Music Awards). Riit is one of the faces of a Nunavut youth movement, a group of remarkable, driven and increasingly high-profile individuals who are creating mainstream waves through art.
She signed to Six Shooter Records, home of Tanya Tagaq (perhaps the most famous Inuk throat singer) and got the chance to perform in Paris, and in London for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. In 2018 she became the host of the Inuktitut-language pre-school children’s TV show Anaana’s Tent. Her 2019 debut album Ataataga (“Father”), produced in Toronto by Graham Walsh, went in a pure electro-pop direction; its combination of warm and icy textures and field recordings with Riit’s sweet voice and otherworldly folk singing was obliquely reminiscent of Bjork.
The monoamine-fueled flush of “Qaumajuapik,” the first song shared from her debut full-length album, expresses how intense attraction messes with your sense of time, where a single blink contains a universe. Heart races, clock stops. Produced by Graham Walsh, the song sweeps in on a buzzy gust before the Tangerine Dream-esque modulations kick in. Teardrop bleeps fall over Riit’s clear voice like a sunshower (the song title means ‘you are shining’).
