Ralph is the grandson of M.R. Adaikalasamy, who was the Head of the Tamil Studies Department at Loyola College and was born in Dubai to Sylvia Francis and Raffel Francis. Ralph began serious piano lessons at the age of three. Ralph's parents would always play Tamil cinema songs on the radio while he was learning European classical piano music, which he grew to enjoy. Ralph and his family relocated to Toronto, Canada, when he was nine years old, where he was instantly exposed to the Tamil music industry.
Sylvia, Ralph's mother, became a well-known media figure in the North American Tamil community, hosting the most important programmes and performers from India. Ralph was enthralled by these shows and his musical idols, and he began playing their songs on the piano. Ralph's talent to play Tamil songs on the piano drew media attention while he was the leader, musical arranger, and keyboardist for the Agni band. Agni rose to international fame during the next two decades, performing sold-out gigs with some of Tamil music's finest names, including Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, Mano, Unnikrishnan, Sujatha, Srinivas, Karthik, Chinmayi, TM Sundararajan, P Susheela, and many others.
In front of AR Rahman, Ralph even wrote and performed a tribute performance with over 100 performers. Ralph has appeared at FETNA (Federation of Tamils in North America) events in Chicago, New Jersey, Baltimore, Toronto, and Connecticut on five occasions. Ralph was 13 years old when he performed for T. M. Sundararajan and P. Susheela at his first FETNA event in Chicago, Illinois, in 2002.
His work has gotten a lot of attention since then because of the unique compositions, innovative melodies, and catchy hooks. Ralph wants to make music that tells the story of a Tamil person from the west who grew up in the world outside of India. Ralph works as a Business Consultant in the United States, and he uses his music to pay honour to his culture, roots, and parents, as well as to show the world that Tamil music has no boundaries, constraints, or difficulties, and that it can be enjoyed by everyone.
Ralph developed and worked on his own compositions every day throughout his distinguished career. His father, Raffel Francis, a Tamil poet, would listen to his music and write lyrics for the songs that moved him. Ralph composed his first single "Don't Go Away" for Shashaa Tirupati and Aditya Rao.