Soft Vocals, Hard Truths

Songbird, Stephanie Johnson is turning real-life love stories into the most honest R&B moments If Valentine’s Day had a plot twist, Stephanie Johnson would be singing it. The Botswana-based R&B/Soul artist has built a quiet but steady radio presence withSerenityandLerato. Now, just days before lovers exchange roses and filtered affection, she’s dropping“I Got a Man”,a song that side-eyes romance and asks the uncomfortable question: what happens when love isn’t clean?

Her debut single,Serenity, is a soft-spoken anthem of hope. “It’s meant to inspire people to keep going and have faith, even when life feels heavy,” she told Time Out. Then cameLerato, featuring Uth ThaMeek — a love-soaked meditation on falling, floating, and feeling too much.

Together, they form the emotional spine of her upcoming EP: a project she describes as “a journey through a spectrum of emotions.” Her third single,I Got a Man, arrives on 5 February,deliberately timed to drop before Valentine’s day. “It’s about being caught between two people, your committed partner and someone else who has a strong, irresistible effect on you. It explores temptation and how desire can make situations complicated,” she explained.

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“I chose to release it just before Valentine’s Day because it taps into a side of love that many people experience but don’t often talk about: the pull of guilty pleasures and the choices that come with them. I wanted to speak on the sneaky link culture we see today. For Johnson, R&B isn’t a trend, it’s a truth serum. “It allows me to tell stories that connect emotionally and spark a range of feelings in listeners.” She believes Botswana’s R&B scene is growing, slowly but sincerely and she’s part of the proof.

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