Sarah Joyce (born 3 June 1979), better known by her stage name, Rumer, is a Pakistani-born British singer-songwriter. Her stage name was inspired by the author Rumer Godden.
Rumer's voice has been described by The Guardian as being reminiscent of Karen Carpenter. Supported by leading music industry figures including Burt Bacharach, Jools Holland and Elton John, Rumer was nominated for two Brit awards on 13 January 2011. She has performed at several festivals such as Glastonbury Festival.
Rumer was born Sarah Joyce on 3 June 1979 in Islamabad, Pakistan, the youngest of seven children. Her mother's husband was a British engineer working on the Tarbela Dam project and the family lived in a self-contained expatriate community near Islamabad. Sarah's mother had a relationship with her cook, who was Pakistani and is Sarah's natural father. None of Sarah's six siblings knew she had a different father and she did not discover this until the age of 11, when her parents divorced and the family returned to England. Sarah went to school in Carlisle until she was 16, then studied drama at Dartington College of Arts in Devon before moving to London. She tried her hand in bands and waitressing.
When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Sarah moved to live in a caravan in the New Forest to be with her. and started writing songs. Her mother died in 2003 and Sarah had a breakdown. She joined a commune in the south of England for a year, then returned to London to pursue her music career. She later travelled to Pakistan to seek her father, but learnt he had died some months before her visit.