ON THE RISE
A star on the rise, Leah Dibut is the singer-songwriter you’ll be adding to your playlists by the end of this read. Leading with soulful vocals, Leah Dibut draws listeners into her every word in her latest single, “Thank You.” An ode to an acquaintance turned sour, the single reminds us that not every negative encounter has a negative outcome—it’s all in the eye of the beholder.
Blending R&B, pop, and soul, Leah Dibut’s musical stylings are a mixture of genres, life experiences, and an obvious passion for music. Her songs evoke authentic emotion at every trill and turn, bringing listeners into a world wholly her own.
Drawn to music at an early age, Leah Dibut grew up watching YouTube videos of her favorite celebrities and artists for inspiration. At age seven, she asked for a karaoke machine for Christmas—and the rest is history. At 11, Leah began taking vocal and dance lessons to round out her performance skills. She knew then that she was determined to pursue entertainment as a career and has been working toward her goal ever since.
Over the years, Leah has frequented local venues, performing at convention openings, sports arenas, and the Sunfest Festival in Palm Beach County. Leah signed with Mr305 Records in 2023, impressing industry professionals with her vocal prowess and penchant for songwriting. In 2024, she was featured on the cover of the Braman Winter Nationwide magazine. Now in 2025, Leah Dibut is taking the music industry by storm once again as an independent artist, returning to her truest self and digging into her roots for inspiration.
The ever-evolving Leah Dibut is excited to share her new single with listeners. “I’m from Miami and I’m a Latina from Cuba. I have a lot of that in my music as well. Diving into my culture is very important to me,” shares the artist of rediscovering her sound.
Over the years, Leah has consciously worked on evolving her style both through self-awareness and exposure to musical collaborators. “Collaborating with other people can be overwhelming at the beginning,” she shares. “But it’s gotten me to where I’m at. Collaborating is an important aspect as a musician and as a person. We need to collaborate to grow and learn.”
In addition to sharing experiences with fellow artists, Leah has made an effort to accumulate as many life experiences as possible in order to better connect with listeners. “My overall goal is connecting with people. We all go through the same things in life, no matter what they are. We all feel the same things. I like to go to a certain song or lyric in my life to help me go through that situation. I want to be that one song for somebody or multiple song for somebody. I want to touch the hearts I need to touch.”
“Thank You” was inspired by a person who came into Leah Dibut’s life for career purposes and left on bad terms. “It didn’t end on the right foot for either one of us,” explains Leah. “I’m somebody who looks at life as beautiful, no matter what happens or what experiences I go through. Instead of bashing this person for hurting me and not being gentle, I decided to thank them. I grew a thicker skin as a result. It completely turned my mindset.”
Writing “Thank You” helped Leah come to terms with her feelings about the encounter and find mutual understanding with listeners who experienced something similar. “Turning a negative to a positive—that’s what I do,” she adds triumphantly.
To write the single, Leah began crafting the song as she usually does, starting with a song loop (generally guitar or piano), and letting the words come along the way. “When I have a complete beat or instrumental, I tend to curate to that. So, I prefer working with a simple beat, then letting the right words come along. Then the chess pieces come together to form the whole puzzle.”
Laced into “Thank You” is a Bible verse, because Leah wants to share her spirituality and connection to God. “My values and God were on the table while making the decision to sell my soul or choose my values and sanity. I want people to know how important they are to me that they were fighting with my dreams.”
“Thank You” is intense and cinematic to capture the conflict Leah felt. Beginning with dramatic violins, the song builds up along the way, adding drums after a minute and a half. “It’s a completely different song from beginning to end,” adds Leah. “This song shows all those feelings from start to end.”
Staying true to herself no matter what obstacles come in her way, Leah wants to inspire listeners while reminding them that she’s human, too. “We’re living in a whole different era of music and influencers. I want my audience and fans to realize I’m as human as them. We still need to struggle to reach our dreams. Not just you—me, too.”
Make sure to stay connected to Leah Dibut on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
ON THE RISE
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LOS ANGELES — Damion Seraglio Bond and Hannah Leyla are turning up the heat with “Pina in Your Colada,” a playful tropical duet built around flirtation, humor and the kind of chorus that practically demands a room full of people sing along.
Featured as the opening track on Tropical Vacay, “Pina in Your Colada” drops listeners directly into vacation mode. Tiki lights are glowing, steel drums are playing, drinks are flowing and Hannah and Damion are trading lines back and forth like two people who have decided subtlety can wait until after the trip.
That exaggerated approach was intentional.
“I worried that if I hewed too closely to a serious sexual expression, today’s rather Me-Too sensitive folks might misinterpret the point of the song,” songwriter and creator Lloyd Eric Cotsen said. “By keeping it light-hearted and even cheesy over the top, it’s clearly aiming for fun.”
Cotsen envisioned the track as the kind of local favorite heard at a packed tropical bar, where vacationers already know every word and become part of the performance. That idea shaped the song’s crowd vocals and call-and-response structure, including Hannah’s equally confident answers to Damion’s advances.
Creating that chemistry, however, became one of the biggest challenges behind the track.
Cotsen used AI music platform Suno to develop the recording, but directing the male and female vocals proved considerably harder than expected. He ultimately worked through more than 160 versions while trying to get the exchanges right, eventually bringing elements from separate versions to a sound engineer to create the final result.
That persistence helped produce one of the song's defining elements: a performance that feels less like a conventional studio recording and more like stumbling into a beach bar where the entire crowd already knows the chorus.
“Recreating the vibe of a live performance in a bar with a crowd finishing the lines of a song they know and love was something I would have bet Suno couldn’t do,” Cotsen said. “It did it masterfully.”
That atmosphere also made “Pina in Your Colada” a natural opener for Tropical Vacay. Cotsen wanted the album to function almost like a vacation soundtrack, maintaining a tropical atmosphere while moving between comedy, romance and more reflective moments.
“It seemed like the most fun, captured the tropical spirit of the album best,” he said of choosing the song as its first track.
The project continues Cotsen’s genre-hopping approach to songwriting. His work has moved through folk-country, blues, soul, gospel and dance, while Tropical Vacay gives him room to explore Trop Rock and the stories that emerge when people temporarily leave their everyday lives behind.
For Hannah and Damion, that means a relationship that is flirtatious, competitive and occasionally more complicated than the beach-bar antics suggest. Cotsen describes the pair as having a “playfully combative romantic relationship,” with Hannah written as a confident character who can give Damion every bit as much as she gets.
And the fictional duo may eventually move beyond the digital world. Cotsen plans to host a concert with live singers performing selections from his catalog within the next year while continuing work on several additional albums.
For now, “Pina in Your Colada” offers a simpler invitation: turn it up, embrace the ridiculousness and pretend the nearest drink comes with a tiny umbrella.
“Pina in Your Colada” is available now on Spotify as part of Tropical Vacay.
