Divine Lightbody

Split in 2 marks an important creative moment for Divine Lightbody, an emerging R&B artist from the Greater Toronto Area who channels storytelling and emotional honesty into her music. Through this debut body of work, she explores a wide spectrum of sounds, blending traditional R&B with singer-songwriter influences, jersey beats and touches of funk. The project reflects an artist embracing the complexity of her thoughts and emotions, refusing to confine her creativity to a single lane.

Created in close collaboration with producer Savvan, Split in 2 unfolds as a dual experience that highlights different facets of Divine Lightbody’s artistry. Across the record, themes of love, heartbreak, intimacy and vulnerability take center stage, while her writing remains raw, reflective and deeply personal. From the familiar emotional tone of tracks like crash and burn to the experimental groove of guilty pleasure, the project showcases both her versatility and her evolving songwriting.

In this exclusive conversation with FemaleRNB, Divine Lightbody opens up about the making of Split in 2, the mindset that shaped its sound and storytelling, the collaborators and influences behind the project, and what she discovered about herself while creating her very first body of work.

For readers discovering you through FemaleRNB, who is Divine Lightbody?

Hailing from the GTA, Divine Lightbody is an emerging R&B artist who channels storytelling into her music, combining her diverse influences to shape a signature soulful sound.

Your new project Split in 2 is out, congratulations! What did it feel like to finally share this project with the world?

It felt amazing. I’ve never released a body of work, and I was so nervous to show everyone the ideas that live in my head. I’m just so happy to see people resonating with the project and I’m happy to write music that people gravitate towards and relate to.

The title Split in 2 suggests a sense of duality or inner division. How does this idea reflect the state of mind you were in while creating the project?

My mind is a scattered one. I have so many thoughts and feelings, and I love a good story. I’ve never been good at being just one thing when it comes to music. I do not like to limit my creativity, it’s unnatural. With the flow state I was in, I found myself reaching for so many different genre blends whether it was traditional R&B, singer-songwriter, jersey beats, or funk. I could not possibly keep my creativity in a box. I wanted to embrace the way I naturally wrote, while working on strengthening my pen and lyricism.

As a whole, this project presents a very immersive universe. How did you approach building the sound and overall atmosphere of the record from start to finish?

A huge part of my sound is my main collaborator Savvan. We have a really strong connection and build these crazy musical universes together. We started writing freely and the ideas just came naturally. We like to experiment, mixing live instruments with more experimental sounds, and blending different genres into R&B.

Can you tell us about the song Night Life and the place it holds within this project for you?

Nightlife is a huge part of the puzzle for me. It was one of the first songs I wrote for the project and I loved it immediately. It really spearheaded the whole Split in 2 idea, since it was such a unique sound for me. I did not have any other songs that sounded like it and was worried about how I would fit this song that I LOVED into my rollout. It allowed me to really show my versatility.

Songs like Crash and Burn and Guilty Pleasure appear on the project. Can you tell us about these two tracks and how they fit into the overall record for you?

Both Crash and Burn and Guilty Pleasure were two songs that came the latest. I needed one song in each disc to round out both sections.

Disc 1 was meant to be songs that feel like my typical lane, and Crash and Burn aligns so much with the kind of songs I love and usually write. Guilty Pleasure was a wild card. I needed something with a strong groove and something that was more experimental to match the vibe of Disc 2.

I experimented more with the writing, being more honest and raw, and it’s the only song with background vocals not done by me. It’s special because the background vocalists are some of my favourite vocalists in the city.

Across the project, there is a strong sense of honesty in the writing and artistic approach. What themes or emotions were most important for you to explore here?

I am most honest in my music. More honest than I would typically be with strangers. I think there’s power in vulnerability and honesty, especially within creativity. People see right through inauthenticity, and I want to speak to people through my music. I want the listener to be able to relate, but it’s also just therapeutic for me.

I think the main themes are relationships, heartbreak, love, and intimacy. It’s about navigating romantic relationships and exploring all parts of that.

If you had to choose one track to represent this project as a whole, which one would it be and why?

I would have to say the title track Split in 2. I write a lot about love and relationships, so it is fitting in terms of writing themes for me. I also think the start of the song reflects Disc 1 of the project (live acoustic guitar, beautiful floaty melodies and harmonies), and then it goes into this very unique world in terms of production which reflects what will happen for the remainder of the project. However, the songs are all so unique in my opinion that just one could not encompass the whole project entirely.

Which female R&B artists have most influenced the way you approach storytelling, emotion, and sound in your music?

My biggest influences are Tori Kelly, Beyoncé and Jazmine Sullivan. They each taught me something different that has contributed to my overall sound.

Tori Kelly taught me to accompany myself and kill it in terms of vocal technique, with clean and smooth vocal agility shaped by early guitar playing.

Beyoncé is a versatile queen who can literally hop on any beat and write a hit song. That is what I want for myself, and I learned soul, passion and agility listening to her music.

Jazmine Sullivan is an agility master and her vocal runs are so smooth and soulful, so I spent a lot of time studying how she was able to create such ear-pleasing runs and sing them confidently.

You’re building a very personal R&B universe. Are there any female R&B artists, past or present, you’d love to collaborate with?

I love the R&B scene right now. It’s lively, it’s versatile and everyone seems to really be staying true to themselves which inspires me to do the same. I’ve been really inspired by Sasha Keable, Kehlani, Tyler Lewis, Jazmine Sullivan and Coco Jones to name a few.

If I could blast to the past, it would have to be Lauryn Hill hands down.

What do you hope listeners take away or feel after spending time with this project?

Other than hopefully a favourite song or two, I hope they take away whatever they need. Comfort, hope for love, peace. I never want to control the listener’s perspective, and I do want them to take each word and find out what it means for them.

I think in a world where everyone’s “relationship hot takes” are all over TikTok, I want people to hear love from the perspective of someone who loves love and feels it deeply.

Now that the project is out, what’s next for you? What does this next chapter look like?

I learned that I am a perfectionist at heart. Honestly, I already knew that, but this project solidified that for me. I learned that I put a lot of pressure on myself to get the best possible song out, rewriting sections and writing over 100 songs just to narrow it down to only 8.

I think that’s what I love about myself in a way too. I know how hard I’m going to work to get where I wanna go, and how much I’m willing to push myself to get there.