Toni Sancho navigates the light and dark of a break-up on "Survive!"

Hearing “Survive!” immediately calls to mind sun-kissed skies and a spirit of strong-willed survival, both of which make for an intriguing and imminently listenable lead single by the North Greenwich-raised singer.

Shaped by her Trinidadian culture, her rich, distinctive voice channels the spirit of carnival culture with the sort of sonic attention to detail befitting of her label home Spanish Prayers, helmed by Cigarettes After Sex.

Sancho wrote “Survive!” in the first weeks of the pandemic last year, perhaps giving credence to the line, “I say we make it out alive,” but much more so ruminating on a past relationship. It’s the sound of someone discovering their own path in life and making their own decisions in real-time.

Emotional yet bearing a sunny disposition, that “Survive” is Sancho’s first recording is impressive in and of itself. With no choice but to ruminate on a breakup in the peak whereby the world slowed down, she pours her heart in varied textures.

“‘Survive!’ is about recognising when a situation isn’t good for you and having the wisdom to walk away,” shares Sancho. “ I started to understand that I had to let that love die so that I could keep going & that there is joy and hope in choosing yourself even when it feels so painful at first.”