Like her childhood friend and former girl-group partner Beyoncé Knowles, LeToya Luckett is known professionally only by her first name, easily identifying her as a diva. The similarities don’t end there: LeToya is a multiple award-winning artist and businesswoman who writes and performs her own music, acts in major motion pictures, and runs her own boutiques. But despite her tumultuous past with Destiny’s Child, LeToya is her own woman with her own career, and she is hoping that her new album will show her to be the independent artist she is.

With two movies in the can, a new album on shelves, and a brand-new sound, LeToya knows that “you don’t sleep on opportunity.” She hasn’t been getting much sleep lately, and the payoff is tremendous.

Advocate.com: Lady Love might be the most lesbian-friendly album title of the year!
LeToya [laughs]: Oh. My. Gosh. Hey, if they like it, I love it!

The new album has a different sound than your last album. How would you describe it?
It’s very different from the last one. I’m glad you could notice that. This album was a lot of fun. It’s all about experiences that I’ve gone through in the last couple of years and being free, not being in that box, coming completely out of my shell. When you do the first album, you’re like, “Oh, well, I need to focus on finding my sound,” and all of these different things. Now I feel like, well, I’ve established that ... let’s just have fun. And that’s what it’s about.

It’s fun, but there are also a lot of ups and downs, emotionally speaking…
You actually listened to it. Yay! Yeah, the thing that I love about it is that it’s still got the R&B groove to it, but like with something like [current single] “She Ain’t Got ... ,” it’s different. It’s something that I probably would have been afraid to do on the first album. It’s a lot of fun, it’s edgy. And “Lady Love” as well. That’s how I start my day, with “Lady Love.” [Laughs] It’s just a fun song. It makes you feel pretty and cute and girly.

You just called the song “She Ain’t Got ... ,” which I think is the name title listed on iTunes, but it’s listed on my album as “She Ain’t Got Shit on Me.” So which is it?
That’s what it is. [Laughs] You can’t really say that everywhere.

Well, you can say it here. I’ve been playing that song on repeat. It has the potential to become a big dance anthem, almost as if it were written with gay clubs in mind.
You know what? It’s about having fun, and I knew the kids would love it. I was like, “If anybody’s going to understand this track, it’s the kids.” I did have everyone in mind with that song.

The single “Not Anymore” is about somebody who’s fed up with a bad relationship, and it feels pretty personal. What inspired the song?
Just different situations that I’ve gone through. With being in love, you do have ups and downs throughout the relationship -- you’re happy, you hate him, all of that. And I have been in the situation where I’ve given, I’ve given, I’ve given, and I didn’t feel like I was being appreciated. I had to get up and get out of there. That’s what the song is about, and now I’m single, I’m livin’ life, I’m free, and I’m lovin’ it!