Virginia is for Lovers. You’ve likely seen the slogan if you’ve crossed the border from D.C. to its southernmost neighbor state, which is home to more than 300 installations declaring “LOVE” in larger-than-life lettering. For D.C. singer-songwriter Roba Djalleta, the Virginia-Love association is particularly strong. She titled her latest EP Lover’s Virginia in its honor.

“I was in my first long-term relationship, and he literally lived in Virginia,” says Djalleta. “I was spending a lot of my time there, and writing a lot of these love songs and breakup songs about this person, and I wanted to pay homage to that.”

Released this May, the EP documents the pivot between Djalleta’s teens and 20s, a time in which she also established herself in the D.C. music scene and came out as transgender.

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