Hailing from Ghana, West Africa via the home of country music, Nashville, Tennessee, 22 year old Ruby Amanfu is a slap in the face of complacency, armed with an album's worth of crispy soulful tunes, a merry determination to make the world take notice and a killer smile.

As her debut album proves throughout, Ruby Amanfu has a voice that could melt ice coupled with choruses so seductive, so gloriously simple it's hard to believe no one's come up with them before. It's classic Janet Jackson shot through with the aching heart of Stevie Wonder, an infectious enthusiasm hiding lyrics that betray a world wiseliness way beyond her years.

Indeed, Ruby's youthful accomplishment makes it hard to believe this is a girl who grew up in a house where pop music was forbidden. As a child in a relatively strict, church-going family who had moved from Ghana to Nashville when Ruby was just three, the only music she was exposed to was classical or Christian. ''Even jazz was too edgy for my parents back then,'' she laughs today, ''although they've changed now obviously.''

The young Ruby also sang in the local church, and remembers returning home with her brother and sister to mimic the traditional gospel songs they had to sing there. ''And no one wanted to admit it,'' she smiles, ''But we sounded good!'' Not long after, Ruby made an even more earth-shattering discovery. Pop music. ''A friend gave me my first album, which was Madonna's 'Like A Prayer''', she explains. ''I was 10 years old and I had to hide it under my pillow at night. Eventually my mum found it and crushed it up. It changed my world though. It really did.''

All told, it was an important age. Ruby changed schools to join a more diverse, open-minded high school, started playing the flute and started writing songs - initially ''horrible love songs'' by her own admission. I think when I was about 11, I wrote this really tacky song called 'Be My Valentine' and I made all my friends sing it over the intercom at school for Valentines Day.''